Trying my hand at masonry

Isn't it interesting how matters are viewed differently in different cultures?

Ever since I moved to the UK in the year 2000 I have heard various British friends and colleagues mention how they have been working on this major kitchen refurbishment project at home, or paving the garden, or even building a mini-extension single handedly. People find the time, mostly on weekends, to work on their homes and this could mean that one project might last several weeks or months. It used to fascinate me initially: the concept of people having the time, the inclination and the skill to undertake such major work at home, all alone. Gradually I began to realise that this was quite common. In fact, wallpapering the bedroom or repainting the interior was something most people did at some stage of their life, even if they did not undertake any major work. Ask me to cover one wall with wallpaper, and I am sure I will take days, and the result even then will be far from perfect!

This is probably because I was brought up in a different environment. A combination of the lack of time and skill, and the availability of cheap labour, means that one almost never indulges in such work in India. This is just not what one expects to have to do in one's entire lifetime. In fact some people might actually think it is beneath them to indulge in what is perceived to be menial work : "I've got better things to do...".

Further, with the emphasis on 'academic' learning in schools (I understand things are changing now, though gradually), children grow up without the basic skills required to undertake any such major work. At least I never saw a focus on the development of one's motor skills during my school years (and I studied in six different schools in four different Indian states). Of course there are exceptions, but I believe these are the people who either have a natural ability or a keen interest in this, or those that have studied in certain, rare, schools that actually give importance to these skills. Now since the retail requirement for building material does not exist, the market does not facilitate the availability of any such material for the consumer - nor do any guides exist to help laymen. One thus needs to know exactly what one needs, how much, and where to buy it from, if one is to even try their hand at any building work. As a result people with moderate interest find it nigh on impossible to try their hand at this. Vicious circle?

Well, coming to the point (finally!), my friend Ashish informed me on Sunday that he was working on modifying his garden. Without asking for any greater detail I volunteered to lend a hand (or two - or four, actually, since my nephew and friend - also Ashish, coincidentally - was visiting me from Birmingham and I asked him to come along), assuming I'll be either ripping off trees or bushes, or planting some (not that that is my forte). So we visited Ashish's house yesterday (it was a bank holiday), and ended up trying to lay a small brick wall (all of three bricks high) to support one end of a lawn he was planning to lay. Suffice it to say that the three of us worked for under two hours (that was the limit of the mental and physical effort we could put in, though a India-England cricket one-day match was also a major distraction), and finally succeeded in laying about one-third of the tiny wall - approx. 15 bricks in all! Not bad work, though.

However, I am sure I now know what to do (and how to do it), and on the next Saturday when I go and give Ashish a hand again, I will be able to lay at least 20 bricks in the same time it took me to lay 15 bricks yesterday...and who knows, if its my day, I may even go as high as 25 ;-)

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