The pursuit of the most suitable one, the perfect one, made me keep changing jobs my whole life. Though a wise man would advise against it, but who has ever listened to a wise man or his wisdom?

I started my first job as a rug/carpet weaver when I was about 7 years old. It was too hard for me to learn it at first, I had to master the hooked knife. With the hooked knife I often hit my eyes, and it also often stuck there until it was carefully released and brought out.

I had to use the hook to catch, pull and release the warps, and then my index finger would enter with a yarn behind the warp, and then the hook would go from within the knot and catch the yarn and pull it to the face of the rug. After the knot is tied, I had to cut the yarn with a flick of the blade.

The catch, pull and release process would go wrong often, resulting in hitting my eyes. The hooked knife would come with a momentum and hit badly. I was lucky it did not hit my iris.

We had a cruel Ustaa, teacher/boss, he used corporal punishments to teach us lessons. My head was full of bumps from receiving blows with the handle of a comb or beater that was mad of a wood handle and metal spikes, and my foot also received good hits with sticks.

I mastered weaving in three to four years. I could weave, I could use the beater/comb to consolidate the weave. I could understand the map, the design of the whole rug in single knots. I could also be called as Ustaa, or even better I could start my own rug weaving business with the help of my elders.

I left this job and this skill after 5 years. “The dust and yarn particles are too harmful for lungs,” this was told to my family and I never ever went back to it.

To be continued…..