Gheekanta to Relief Road: A Repair Trail

A quiet corner of craft: tools for maintaining sewing machines, organised with skill and pride.

A walk in the city of Ahmedabad sounds like such a fun idea. There are 15th and 16th century buildings, narrow streets, courtyards in the pols, and so much more to explore. But what does it mean to do a ‘Repair walk’ in the very same spaces? Could you make sure no one is left behind? I asked a collaborator, trying to lift my voice over the din of traffic, people, and vendors while dodging two and three wheelers, going about their daily work in the streets outside of the Gheekanta Metro Station. I was apprehensive that navigating the distance from the Metro Station to the first Repairer-entrepreneur was proving to be precarious!

The group taking a moment to appreciate the shop names and the fragile charm of the old market.

The Repair walk had to be done during the working hours of the old city. Sometime in the late afternoon to early evening is when we see the rhythm of activity at its peak, that is when one needs to go for a Repair walk. A Repair walk is very different from any other walk in the old city. So for example, there is a heritage walk that takes tourists for a walk at 06:30am to see the beautiful architecture that stands welcoming in those hours as well. Oh! How I wish we could do a Repair walk in the morning! The streets are empty and the air is clear. We have also heard of other walks like, Haunted night trail or Food walks. But Repair walk is a piece of lived experience of people repairing and working in their shops. Of encountering spares and tools shops opened and displaying their stuff, of customer interaction and so on. Participants have an opportunity to interact with repairers as well as learn from observing them. Delve into the idea and it's apparent that a Repair walk is an experience of livelihoods, it’s the brutal turning of the economy that feeds families, that fires aspirations, that entails success and failures in the same space every-day. It needs to be experienced during the business-hours.

Laxmi Leather Arts: our go-to for leather repairs, craftsmanship, and guidance.

Our first stop was a leather-work repairer-entrepreneur who has been in the business for a few generations. He had a leather manufacturing set-up till the nineties. With the onset of plastic and consequent requests to use it, he stopped the manufacturing and moved into the niche market of leather products making bags, folders, occasional shoes and other sundry items. Today he is primarily in the business of leather products and supply of various quality of leather, embossing of leather, stitching with leather and such.The participants of the walk had carried leather items to repair and upcycle. However, working with old leather is something complicated and he advises that any interventions such as stitching, cutting or pasting in these objects could damage it further. The leather was too old and worn off to sustain further work. He was keen to address the group and show his tools with which embossing was done on the products that he sold. He was also forthcoming with his opinion on how leather products today are actually synthetic and the process of making these in factories is so sophisticated that even he who has so many years of experience might be mistaken sometimes.

Even today, leather money bags remain an essential companion for bus conductors in India — a small but enduring tradition, Source: Taken from instagram handle of gautam_vir_prashad

He proudly showed the participants leather bags ordered by the Gujarat Road Transport Corporation for the conductors in the inter-city buses. He had his first orders from GSRTC way back in the 80s. The use of leather bags by bus conductors is a long-standing tradition across India, continuing even today as an everyday occurrence in public bus services. These bags he said, were later modified for use among the petrol pump attendants, he was supplying all across Gujarat state. Today he does work for clients in other states like that of Rajasthan. There are couriers that come in and go with materials and products from his location. He has his shop on the online applications and his clients do what is needed to supply and collect from him.

Participants showed great enthusiasm in learning about the tools, the quality of the products, and the methods behind the leather craft.

He says that the next generation is not really interested in this line of work. He has trained the children of his workers. In fact, a case in point is one of his main workers who was from Kanpur died of illness. He made his way to Kanpur to offer his condolences and apprenticeship to the 10 year old son of the worker. He brought the young boy to Ahmedabad and trained him in this line of work. Today the boy is an expert craftsman and manages the shop for him when he is out.The place he is located has been documented as a cluster for manufacturing of ready-to-wear garments. Dr Keshabnandan Das from the Gujarat Institute of Development Research notes in his article ‘flexibly together’ about this cluster. The area transformed with the emergence of the Raj-Laxmi Market. This is a multi-storey chawl which houses the jeans making industry, the retailers on the ground floor, factories on the first floor, accessories and specializations like zip and bottoms on the upper floors and finally dormitories for workers on the top floor. The sellers of sewing machines, repairers of sewing machines, sellers of raw materials needed for manufacturing of all the garments are all available outside. Our Leather-work guy has his residence workplace at this location. Some of the participants made their way up the steep staircase to get a closer look at the balcony and the rooms upstairs.

 A maze of mobile repairs and accessories — Murtimant Complex can feel intimidating, but it’s full of skill and stories.

The next stop was the mobile repair market at Relief Road. Murtimant complex is the new name for China-market. China-market was the place where all the imported electronics were sold in the days before the arrival of the mobile phone. It is a 6 floor building with multiple courtyards. There are more than 250 shops which sell mobile accessories and almost 60% of them also do mobile repair. The mobile repair market in Ahmedabad sprung up from here. Our mobile repairer has a generous few hundred square feet in this expensive market. He has been in the market for more than 20 years.

As one enters the cooled interiors through the plastic curtains which keep the dust out, one is assailed by the smell of plastic, tape and adhesives. Its evening time and consignments are being made ready to be shipped to other locations. It was stuffy because 9 people were already working and then 10 of us entered. It became suffocating but they are used to the crowds passing through the shop.He is one of the established repair persons in the market. He has a pleasant disposition and calm personality which is so essential in the chaos of the market. He prides himself on keeping all kinds of accessories but unfortunately does not stock on mobile covers. He says there are many in the market who can provide us with those.

Repair isn’t just about fixing things — it’s about bringing smiles back to faces.

Some of the participants interact with him. He prudently suggests not trying to fix an errant volume button of a phone that isn’t completely broken yet. He explains that fixing the button will need the phone screen to be opened. Once opened, the screen is placed back but never quite the same as the original factory fitted one. He advises to run it for a few months or more, even if the volume is controlled by apps. The volume buttons are damaged due to the UV gel used for this type of phone screen with a curved edge. The warranty doesn't fix it, and the company changes the whole system including screen, buttons, sensors. The manufacturing process makes it harder for customers to repair. It's possible to repair it at the company's authorized service station, but she was quoted 12,000/- for the whole thing. At the repair shop, he said he could change the volume buttons but they needed to open the phone to do it. Meanwhile, she has been managing with the in-built accessibility tools to increase and decrease volume. He said as long as it works by this jugaad, she should continue using it, as the gap, if they repair it, might be prone to dust and water.

One of the participants had an issue with his i-phone. One in which there was a faulty charging socket. He has to always keep the pin at an angle to charge it. The phone is hardly a year old. Just needs a bit of cleaning is what he is told. They take it and clean it using a blower and a brush. Now it’s good to go. We were surprised that a bit of dirt was causing the charging socket to misbehave. Another participant carried a phone in which the screen had simply come unstuck. That’s an easy fix for the technician. He simply glues it back on. The screen is working and now it's sealed with glue. A pair of rubber bands hold the screen tight. The participant is told not to remove the rubber bands for 4 hours atleast. And of course, like any proper visit, we were served tiny plastic cups of tea — a small but warm gesture of hospitality.

Captured together, remembered forever — our repair walk moment.

We have been in the market for 2 hours already, the plans for visiting the book binder need to be shelved for today. Though there are many among the participants who would be interested for the third repairer that we had planned to visit today. But the lesson is: the success of a repair walk is not gauged by the number of repairers we visit but the intensity of discussions and interactions that each one generates. For today, we are already spent. A de-brief at the historic New-Irani restaurant nearby is a huge relief. According to a newspaper article freedom fighters would be strategizing here during the days of the Raj. We feel like a group of resistance, albeit this fight is against consumerism. A detailed discussion ensued, with participants critically examining the sustainability of repair — economically, environmentally, and socially. Over chai and muska bun experiences are excitedly exchanged. We are beginning to see a sense of community. We are part of a group exploring the questions this walk has left us with — perhaps this is just the proverbial tip of the ‘Repair iceberg’.

We acknowledge contributions by @ar_ankitadeka and @_hardlk_ and @himadri-urbanist, @purna,repaircafebangalore and the invitation of CEPT University Writing Centre for organizing a talk which led to this walk…

The repairers in the walk are Arunbhai@Gheekanta, Lakshmi Leather Arts: Opp. Rajlaxmi Complex, Gheekanta Road, Ahmedabad; (M):9067310196 and Bharatbhai@Mobile Magic: 101, Murtimant Complex, Relief Road, Ahmedabad. (M):9998882720. Visit Ahmedabad Repair Map by @repaircafe.bengaluru