WOMAN MASON OF 40 YEARS EXPERIENCE
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| Thankammu, Thammanthuruthi, A.R.Nagar, Malappuram, |
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53-year-old Thankammu has 2 of her front tooth broken. One was broken when she fell from a church and the other when she fell from a house – both under construction. And at the time of both accidents she wasn’t working as a labourer or a mason’s assistant.
Thankammu
is a professional mason. And a painter. One
who can do any construction work as flawlessly as any man.
In her own words, “Except for climbing trees I have done all
other jobs, whether it is constructing brick masonry, plastering or
painting. And no one has so
far pointed an accusing finger at my workmanship.”
Thankammu,
Thammanthuruthi, A.R.Nagar, Malappuram, entered the construction field
at the age of 13 under the tutelage of Unni Kurup of Achanambalam.
She worked with him for 15 years and later started taking up works
on her own.
Her
first experiment was with her own house.
She did all the works herself.
And that gave her the confidence to carry on.
The
church at Achanambalam, few houses at Tirur, Chemmad, Kolappuram etc are
monuments of her workwomanship. Although men were initially reluctant to work under her,
later their attitude changed and they became helpful.
With
her effort in the construction field she was able to get her 4 younger
sisters married. In the midst
of all this hectic activity she just could not dream of a married life.
“For
sometime I used to feel sad about it”, she says with a broken-tooth
smile.
Courtesy: Suresh Vellimuttam (text), Unni Kottakkal (photo), Sree, Malayala Manorama, September 30, 2001
Contributed by: Administrator
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