Sunday, May 24, 2015

It happened like this...

It happened like this....
======================

Mid-seventies....

Shri J.S. Jaspal was the Branch Manager of Gem India Limited, distributing Gem refrigerators (manufactured by Kelvinator India Ltd.) and
Ms. Suraksha Giri was the Branch Manager of Hyderabad Allwyn Limited
manufacturing and selling the famous Allwyn Refrigerators.

A few units would get slightly damaged in transit and minor dent removal and painting was required. Our workshop Kool Kontrols was quite close to these companies and they would give us these units for repairs.

We had our painter Arumugam living just two blocks away. He used to do
a neat job. (Later he became a contractor for Hyderabad Allwyn).

Not a thickly populated Chennai, it was wonderful to watch these guys in action. When a refrigerator required full tinkering and painting (after a few years usage), the painter would first scrap the old painting. Then a coat of primer. Later three coats of white paint. Sometimes blue.

And then almost two to three hours of polishing with pure white cotton waste and polish.....

We even used to get the nearby carpenter to make stands for refrigerators. These too required painting.

The carpenter Dhanapal was a neighbour of the painter. He used to make his own famous "Shivaji" brand of barber chairs....

I asked the carpenter to make a clothes wardrobe and he supplied one for Rs.200.  I am to this day using it!!

Painters and carpenters... where are they now?

(incidentally, "It happened like this is" is a story book authored by
Ms. Suraksha Giri and released in 2014.

http://alumni.xlri.ac.in/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=213:it-happened-like-this-by-suraksha-giri&catid=40:in-the-news&Itemid=111

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