Amid the rows of shops on Guthigar Kelagina Pete in Sullia taluk of Dakshina Kannada district, a workshed will certainly catch your attention.
Hundreds of dusty metals are neatly stacked in one corner and in another corner, a woman is seen with her back bent over, transforming sheets of metals into different tools including billhooks, crowbars and other objects.
Leelavathi is truly an iron lady, for she is at ease in the physically demanding, once a village-centric profession.
“The rhythmic clang of the hammer has been my constant companion for the past 26 years. I grew up with the sound of the hammer hitting the iron,” the blacksmith Leelavathi recollects.
I decided on continuing blacksmithing, an art I had picked up from my father after my husband Appayya Acharya incurred huge losses in his carpentry business, she says.
‘We learn by observing elders’
“The skills are not necessarily passed over in a formal way. We learn the craft by observing elders. After school hours we used to hover around elders. I had spent hours watching my father make tools out of sheets of metal,” she recollects.
By assisting them we were initiated into practical learning of the art, Leelavathi explains.
“The skill I learnt in my childhood, came in handy to help my family tide over the financial crisis,” she adds with a smile.
We started a small unit near our house in 1996. Basic machinery needed for blacksmithing was procured by my husband, she says.
“I also taught him the art of making tools. Initially, I was engaged in repairing sickles, pickaxes, crowbars so on, she adds.
“The billhook made at the shed was sold by my husband at Madappadi, Elimale, Doddathota and other villages. Soon the demand for tools increased and we shifted to the present workshed in Guthigar in 2005. As the number of customers increased, we started to get orders from faraway places like Manchi in Bantwal,” she says with a happiness ringing in her voice.
“My husband passed away in 2014. Though I was devastated, I refused to sit idle as I wanted to give my three girl children a better future,” she adds.
She soon expanded her venture and employed three more skilled labourers to assist her. Within no time she had gained a reputation of being an expert metalsmith in the locality.
As creating tools meant long hours of sitting in front of a furnace, it was extreme drudgery. She had to engage a worker to do a hand-cranked blower.
The installation of a solar-powered blower with a speed controller to help regulate fire effectively three years ago helped me a lot, says.
“Daily, we get work on repairing the tools used in rubber tapping,” adds Leelavathi.
Customers heap praise
Heaping praises on the woman blacksmith, customers said, “We have been visiting the unit for many years to get tools needed for household work. Leelavathi has been able to maintain a stringent quality.”
Even during the Covid-19 induced lockdown, I did not let my customers down as I took raw materials to my house to make tools at home, she recollects.
“My eldest daughter is a postgraduate and my second daughter has just completed her graduation and is working in a garment unit. My youngest daughter is pursuing her studies,” she declares proudly.
Her second daughter, Akshatha, says, “I am proud of my mother who works hard to ensure that our future is bright. Blacksmithing is not an easy job.”