With true grit and courage

Clad in a blue abaya coat with black half-cut shoes and a dupatta covering her head, Jameela Adam aka Jameela Khatoon sits across from me. The 60-year-old mechanic has broken stereotypes by working in a male-dominated profession for the last 35 years.

Just across the Lakhpat hotel near Poonabhai Mamaiya Tower in Ranchorline, right beside a footpath is Jameela’s two by two cabin where she earns her living by changing oil and providing other mechanic services.

Jameela began working as a mechanic after watching her husband succumb to death from a two-and-a-half-year cancer battle. Tucking her dupatta behind her ears Jameela begins to tell her story. Soon after Jameela was married, her husband received his ill-fated diagnosis. “I didn’t know that all my dreams of a happy family would shatter just like that,” she says. “There was nothing I could do except support him.”

When after the diagnosis they went to their siblings for some financial help, the couple was turned away and were told that the issue was not their problem but that the newlywed couple would have to deal with it themselves. Since that day she decided that anything that happens in her life is her problem and no one else’s. “When Allah is giving me difficulties and those are my problems, then I will resolve them my way now,” she said.

Bad times, teach good skills

The oil changing and motorbike services cabin belonged to her husband and on the eighth day of her husband’s death, as his former helpers were trying to encroach the business. “I was told by few neighbours that helpers and workers of my husband were taking over the cabin so I stepped out without completing my Iddat and started learning the work as I had myself and a son to feed along with the rent that I needed to pay,” she said.

Before their marriage, Jameela’s husband had adopted a son, whom Jameela accepted as her own afterwards.

Her son was to remain by her side all these years until he too died earlier this year in February. “He was 42-years-old but he contracted a serious disease, which eventually led to him shifting to dialysis treatment and then one morning, as he was taking his final breaths, he looked straight into my eyes through tears and asked why out of all people, it was his time to go,” said Jameela, while tearing up herself.

Jameela, who the market calls ‘Iron lady,’ walks from her two-roomed house which does not even have a concrete ceiling and then prays that the rain does not occur as that would just make matters worse for her. “My house is a 15-minute walk from the cabin but I prefer walking so that I can save Rs50 per side that can be saved for my medicines or can be put towards my grandchildren’s school fees,” she shared, adding that she has four grandchildren and her son’s widow to take care of.

According to Jameela, her son used to be a handsome but naïve and lacked disciplined, which is why he never started any business of his own but helped Jameela at the cabin with bringing oil, taking care of money and other such tasks. “I can fight and even open a few heads just like I open bike screws but my son was not like that, he believed in forgiveness,” she said. “But I know the difficulties I have faced when I was a young 26-year-old and had to learn how to change oil – the type of hooting and other discrimination that I had to face,” she said.

Jameela has invested a lot in her grandchildren and made them educated enough to support themselves today by encouraging them to study to empower them to earn by giving tuition for their fees. “I am not a backwards thinker that my son has died so I should be worried for marriages of his daughters but I encourage them to study and earn for themselves,” she said. Jameela’s eldest granddaughter is becoming an accountant, the second one is studying architectural engineering while one of her grandsons - who is currently earning by working as a rider for a food delivery service - is aiming to gain admission into software engineering this year, she had also encouraged her widowed daughter-in-law to teach at school and take part in social work at a nearby school.

The whole idea of life has changed for her as when she dreamt of married life her husband died and when her financial situation got better, after years of living in a rented house, she finally bought a small two-roomed house. However, soon after she lost her son. “I still remember we were going through a difficult time when my son was under treatment as his dialysis took time, energy and money all from us but no one was there to help us. The day he died I called someone in the morning to lend me Rs2,000 so that I can arrange his funeral,” she said.

“I admitted his body in the morgue and came home ordered a tent to be set up in the street, went to the mosque to announce about his death and ordered food for the funeral as it is a tradition. Even then I was asked why are we doing his funeral so fast we should wait for some time. People will not let you even mourn but keep suggesting things accordingly to their feasibilities,” she said. She also added that there was a time when for as long as two years they didn’t have any mattresses to sleep on and her, along with her grandchildren, had gone through these times with her both in the rain and in the scorching heat.

Multi-talented Iron lady

Jameela has worked hard her for a better part of her life with not just changing oil at the cabin but has also been a hawker, social worker, broker as well as a wholesale dealer. The years of manual work at the cabin has left her hands calloused and consistently infused with oil. At one point, Jameela used to wake up early in the morning and used to pick up a newspaper and distribute them around the area just to earn few hundred before opening her cabin at half past 10 in the morning. “I don’t feel embarrassed in doing anything which can help me earn money to feed my family and meet the expenses of my small house,” she said.

The Iron Lady of Ranchorline Bazar has also been a state agent and broker who helps people in buying, selling and renting out spaces to earn a small commission out of it. She has also worked as a social worker in schools to promote girl’s education and encourage parents to send their daughters to school while she herself has only studied till class two. “I am not as educated as many people around me but I know my rights and I am more intelligent than millions of people who are in the same condition as me. I am not someone who can be fooled now but there were times when I was also fooled by people in the past,” she said, sharing how one of the wholesale dealers defrauded and left her with a debt of Rs 1.7 million rupees which was a big shock for someone like her who hardly had any savings but she didn’t give up and fought her way out of that situation.

Hurdles didn’t stop her

The mechanic who is getting older with each passing day and her son’s death has shattered her is now suffering from severe pain in her legs and was paralysed for nearly nine months a few years ago. “After getting treated by several doctors and surgeons, I went to a hakeem which one of my relatives had told me about and I got better with the help of some exercises and medications that he prescribed. I started walking with the help of a walker and started coming to the shop with the help of that and eventually now I can walk without any walker or stick but still standing, again and again is difficult for me so I change the oil while sitting on my chair,” she said while sitting on a plastic chair unscrewing the oil change section in the motorbike for which she charges Rs250 for a one-time change. The treatment cost her Rs40,000 which she paid in installments while still, her medicines for a week costs Rs1,200 which she tries to stretch out for a month.

Motorbikes need an oil change every month but most people don’t get it changed that frequently which impacts their vehicles. The oil change work gets especially lighter in the winters as motorbikes don’t heat as often in the winters so her her work only flourishes in the summers. “There are several options in the market of oil which starts from Rs120 per bottle which is a copy but I use original which costs Rs400 for a small bottle but [because of that] I have loyal customers as well. There are many [customers] who have been coming to me for the last 10 to 15 years,” she said.

Gangster Amma

Over the years, Jameela has garnered a respect and camaraderie amongst other mechanics and her customers. “They all call me Amma, Khala or Baji. They respect me and they stand behind me today in this market. There were bad days when the market wasn’t this accepting but today it has changed and helped me through thick and thin,” she said. Her daily income varies with days and situations and can go from a mere Rs100 on some days to Rs1,200 on the good ones.

Keeping herself connected to her roots and binding to the ground she doesn’t forget the time she has faced which has led her to what she is today. “I think the hardships which I have faced is the reason why I have come out stronger in life with the courage to fight with men in the market to managing the house as well. I still look at old pictures of my husband, son and myself to encourage myself to go on,” she said.

Jameela not only works in the market but with time has established her aura that is equal parts admiration and equal parts intimidation. She shouts at people for parking wrongly, putting chairs on the roadside or quarreling on the streets. ‘Ab kisi ne awaz nikala toh jabre pe parega’ (now if anyone says a word will get broken jaw), she threatens two men arguing over a parking spot in front of her.

Business matters

With Covid-19 and lockdown making it difficult to earn for such daily wagers, unlike many others in her situation, she has not given up on her work. “There was a time we used to order six drums which are around 1,200 liters a week whereas now we are not even able to sell one drum and have been cut short to 70 to 80 liters,” she said after ordering a week’s oil over a phone call.

Jameela’s ethnicity also reflects her diversity. She belongs to a Katchi Memon family but can speak Marvari, Punjabi, Sindhi, Urdu, Memoni, Katchi and English as well. “All these are the need of work. I talk to everyone in their local language which can connect and help me get more business,” she said.

Jameela is now aiming to open a small shop nearby where she can sell spare parts of motorbike and provide basic mending facilities for motorbikes. “I am saving money for it but am also open for donations too as this is the last hope I have for myself,” she said.

Customer’s family

In the two hours I have been speaking with her, more than five customers have come to her for oil change and each called her either Amma or Khala. One of her oldest customer Adil Habib has been coming to her for the last 16 years. “I do not go to anyone else as she is good at what she does and she is not a fraud. She always uses genuine oil and I have never faced any problems,” he said.

Another customer who resides in Landhi and started coming to her a few years ago said, “I used to see her sitting here while crossing by and one day I came to her for engine service and since that day I have never gone to anyone else,” he said. “I have even asked my brother to try her services.”

Even the shopkeepers who have set up behind her cabin are witnesses of her courage and dedication for her work. “We have not seen her making excuses from work like most of us do. Come rain, strike or lockdown, one can find her here sitting under this orange umbrella on her plastic chair,” said a shopkeeper, who has been selling bun kabab at the edge of the street for the last one decade. Similarly, a tea stall owner across the road praised her bravery to carry herself as strong as to sit between thousands of men in the market which is full of mechanics and still making her ends meet