A Career of Vending in Buses, Spanning 40 Years!
Life offers innumerable job & career options for the willing and the open-minded. Vending in Buses and Bus-stands has been one such blue-collar job that earns a living for many.
Many of us think that such vendors take their jobs for small-time gains, or as temporary occupation. You talk to a couple of them, and you would be surprised to see that many of them have been in the same trade for duration like 30, 40 years!
Mr Shahul Hameed and Mr Raja of Kottayam private bus stand have 40 and 35 years of vending experience, respectively. It has been a dignified “career” for them, to say the least.
Mr Shahul Hameed is perhaps the very first vendor in Kottayam private bus stand, who has always stuck to the same place during his 40 years of selling career. His product range has remained more or less the same – safety pins, combs, small toys, ear buds, peanut candy (kadala mittai), ginger toffee, vayu gulika, paal kaayam (a stomach cleanser with Arab origin), ayamodakam, black pepper concentrate (kurumulaku sathu), small torch lights etc.
Mr Raja from Kumaranalloor, with 35 years of selling experience, sometimes changes his place of business, though Kottayam bus stand is his prime choice.
It is on Tuesdays, when the close-by shrine of St Antony’s conduct weekly prayers that’s attended by huge crowd, that the vendors make their best profits. Business on Tuesdays might fetch them profits up to Rs.600/- whereas it may go as down as Rs.100 on other days.
Formal membership in CITU (trade union) is compulsory for all kinds of trading at Kottayam private bus stand.
The usual business hours of vending in buses is from 9 AM to 5 PM. While Mr Shahul Hameed works on Tuesdays and one or two other days during the week for deteriorated health reasons, Mr Raja manages to work almost every day.
Previously, there used to be 10 to 15 vendors-in-buses at Kottayam private bus stand, which has come down to 3 or 4 now. Many of them have moved to “Lottery” selling, of late.
Though the money that these traders make might be less comparatively, it is through thrifty spending, careful saving and persistent work that they lead honorable lives for themselves and their families. myKottayam.com salutes them for what they are!
