The tale of a shoemaker

Ikram Gudakuwala is not your ordinary shoe-seller. The adversities that he has been through have made him who he is today. Losing his parents at an early age, his three brothers and he were rendered penniless and had to fend for themselves. The only thing that they had was a roof on their heads.

His father was a tobacco seller for hookahs. The business never really had a great return and the memory of their mother is very hazy. “Our father earned just enough to feed us and himself, he nonchalantly says as he recalls his childhood. His family never had a house to call theirs as they used to live as tenants. Their father had also set up a shop in the same space. After their father passed away, the four brothers had practically nowhere to go. Their meals were taken care of by their cousin sisters but that is the only help they got.

“We started a cycle repair shop as children trying to earn money for bread and rent. We used to repair punctures for Rs. 1 and oil the whole cycle for Rs. 20”, Ikram says. This however did not last long as the four of them shifted to the grocery and goods selling business a couple of months later. When he had the opportunity he immediately bought the house that they were living in as tenants with whatever little he had saved.

Once the Kolsa Galli flat was theirs, the brothers shifted from selling groceries to selling shoes. They would order ready-made, artificial and real leather shoes and sell them at attractive prices. Their shoe shop gained popularity and with time, all their problems were solved. “The shoe business did us good,” he says with a smile.
 Ikram is 67 today and sits in the same place that his father sat, albeit now more successful. The brothers have bought the entire complex solely on the money earned through selling shoes. The four brothers have shops adjacent to each other and all under one name — New Shoe Point. It is only when you talk to them will you know of their troubled pasr; the peaceful and humorous face shows no sign of it however.
 (As told to Gulal Salil)

Originally published on The Golden Sparrow