Today’s youngsters have many more job and career opportunities opening up, rather than the usual aspiration to be a doctor, lawyer or engineer. But as they dream about the ways they will make their living, I wonder how people get into far less noticed jobs. Here are two young men I noticed today

The first one, along with another young man of about the same age, was suspended from the terrace of a building, painting the outside walls. It was quite hot in the open sun, and I am sure the entire day was spent this way, with perhaps breaks for lunch or tea.

Hard hat? Safety belt? What are those?

The other young man was even more precariously perched atop a telephone pole (in this age of wireless communication, landlines still exist!” probably repairing a telephone connection for BSNL ‘

How do people get into professions such as these, and how do their careers develop, if at all they do? Do they drift into other activities, or are they content with the jobs they do? Obviously, i could not talk to either of these people about the question that arose in my mind!

So many unusual professions exist in our city, and these people are often invisible to our eyes. Gas cylinder delivery persons; pourakramikas; ayahs in various schools or daycare centres; ironing ladies or men, gardeners in apartment buildings, scrap merchants, hairdressers, flower and vegetable sellers…so the list goes.