Meeting the Mochi

Legend says that god Brahma’s son used to sacrifice cows to the gods, eat a portion of the sacrifice, then restore the offering back to life and drive it into the forest. Then one day he failed to resurrect the cow because his pregnant wife had secretly stolen a portion. This resulted in a curse and she gave birth to the first Mochi.

Another myth is told that Mochiram, the first Mochi, was born from the sweat of a dancing Brahma. Mochiram offended the sage Durvasa who sent a pretty Brahman widow to seduce him. When Mochiram resisted, Durvasa used his miraculous powers to cause her to become pregnant in order to frame Mochiram. The Brahmin widow gave birth to twin sons who are the descendents of the Mochi caste in West Bengal.

Baburav a generous, kind and hardworking man of the mochi. community. The Mochi are cobblers and saddlers. Mochi’s do not consider themselves superior to Chamars. Chamars do the initial preparation of making leather from raw hides, which is a smelly, degrading work, while Mochi’s use the finished leather to make shoes, boots and handbags.

The process of shoe making involves a lot of skills.To my surprise Baburao could make a shoe from scratch ,in a span of  three hours. The use of machinery has reduced this work time and now it can be done within an hour.

But it was sad to note that he was not well equipped with the machinery, which restricted him from making women footwear.

He talked about his glorious days when there were not many designs and change in trends. It was quite easy back then to make use of the same moulds.

He was quite happy and satisfied to work for the airforce ,as they valued his work .But his children do not want to learn this craft from him. He wishes to pass it on to his children but they don’t want to do such a meagre job that wouldn’t help them earn enough. He wants to keep this art alive through his work. . He explained to us the use the three heads of the tool .Each end of the head was for a particular part of the shoe-the front , the back and for smaller sized shoes. Baburao was extremely welcoming and told us to definitely pay him a visit every time we come to Bidar.

- Meera & Saukarni