Disappearing Trades: When was the last time the mender of plastic buckets knocked on your door?

menders of plastic buckets who advertise their craft as they cycle or walk down streets are a disappearing tribe, that is if they have not already disappeared from the scene

Plastic buckets with the itsy-bitsiest of cracks are being jettisoned without a second thought. If that comes across as a sweeping statement, it was meant as one. That statement is obviously not entirely truth-aligned, but when was the last time one expected 100 per cent veracity in a hyperbolic utterance? In the classic mould of hyperbolic shockers, this one exaggerates to amplify an observed fact: menders of plastic buckets who advertise their craft as they cycle or walk down streets are a disappearing tribe, that is if they have not already disappeared from the scene. Even in peri-urban areas, one that still holds on to a semblance of a repair-and-reuse culture, these workmen are hardly on the horizon. Here is an exposition of a trade and tradesperson that might signify esoteric wisdom to younger generations but is common, everyday knowledge to those preceding them. These workmen would carry around plastic pieces of different colours to match buckets with gaping hopes or slivers of cracks. They would execute the patchwork with a modest soldering gizmo. The work would be done for a measly compensation, and the trajectory of a bucket headed possibly towards the landfill (if not the street-corner kayalaan-kadai) would be stopped mid-air. Mending of plastic buckets, wherever it may happen, happens in DIY stations at homes. Mend them and reuse them, and if you are looking for plastic pieces for patchwork, you can find them in Broadway at Kasi Chetty Street.