A Stitch in Time

In her little room,72-year-old Parvati Aundhkar sits facing the window. An old sewing machine and a bronze pair of scissors are her prized tools. Picking up the nearly complete police cap,Aundhkar gives it a finishing touch and places it on the heap of ready caps. She picks another cap and repeats the procedure. Her old wrinkled hands are used to the rough cloth. For Aundhkar,this is her perfect way of living.

For the last 55 years,she has been stitching caps for the police force of Maharashtra. Her room is barely furnished. “I shifted here,to my daughter’s place,only a few months ago,but I don’t want to stay here for long. Which mother stays at her daughter’s place?” she asks innocently. Aundhkar was married at the age of 18 and lived with her husband,Mundadrao Aundhkar,at their family wada in Camp. After her husband passed away,she stayed there alone and worked for M E Makatee and company,Armed Forces Uniform Accessories,M G Road. “We were tenants at that time,but my husband’s family had stayed there for nearly a century. When the house crumbled down,I had to move out. It was easier working from there because the shop was close by,” she says.

When she started stitching these caps,she was only 20 years old. “I would work all day till midnight. At that time,I would make caps,medals and even the Indian flag. The money I earned through this work enabled me to get my four daughters married,” she says proudly,adding,“Which is why I can’t sit idle now. I still work,making caps that are sent all over Maharashtra.”

Several navy blue caps with the characteristic red are scattered around the room; all in different stages of completion. “I get all the raw materials from the shop. On an average,I stitch close to 400 caps in a month.” This income that she generates by stitching caps is now helping her fight another battle.

“I want to stay in that old wada. There are memories there that I can’t let go of. The owners of the property are not repairing it,nor are they letting me stay there. I have now filed a case in the court. All that I earn,I use it to save my house,” she says,hopeful and confident.