From the snow-coated Himalayan ranges to the gracious Indian Ocean, every aspect of India startles everyone. India is a vibrant country and her strength lies in her diversity. This diversity invites numerous wonderous traits to the colorful land of India. The beauty of diversity also contributes to the Indian economy. The diverse cultures and beliefs are the biggest employers in India. Indian streets are enriched with rare and astounding jobs. You will find a well-suited software engineer in almost all countries in the world. But if you are seeking something unusual then India is your destination.
In India, amidst the hassle of corporate employees you will see a man mystically training a snake to groove. Amidst the pollution of automobiles, you will see a man pulling a hand cart for eco-friendly public transportation. Amidst the silence of the street, you will see a woman trading utensils for cloths. In India, amidst the monotony of usual, you will see wonders of the unusual.
Cultural Roots of Unusual Jobs
These unusual jobs are fascinating. It is intriguing to learn how a certain belief would give birth to a job opportunity? And how traditional rituals bring livelihood to numerous households? It is a beautiful experience to read through the lives of such people toiling in the traditional line.
While your job may need you to sit in an air-conditioned office and collect your paycheque at the month-end, these demands a person to go door to door asking if they want anything sharpened just to earn his daily low wages. The word unusual brings along the word hard work. None of these jobs can be done without a lot of hard work.
Though its almost impossible to record all the jobs that you will consider very odd, we have listed the most known unusual job opportunities in India that would astound you.
Sapera – The Snake Charmers
While walking through the roads of India if you find a snake grooving to the tunes of a man then don’t be surprised, it’s a well-known job in India. The snake charmers are in the business for a very long time. This job has a very special bond with religion. It’s the religious belief of Indians that led to the birth of this carrier opportunity. Hindus worship snakes as Vasuki, the king of serpents settled around the neck of Lord Shiva. Snake charmers are the people who allow the believers to meet and worship the powerful snakes.
Usually, the snake charmers are found sitting roadside playing his been to wake the snake and lure him to groove. But the main revenue of snake charmers come from the festival known as Nag Panchami. It is the festival of snakes, where people worship them and offer them milk to protect their family.
This festival is celebrated with joy and devotion in the Northern states of India. On the day of Nag Panchami, the snake charmers wander from street to street playing his Been (special flute) to announce his presence. On hearing the arrival of sapera the devoted people invite him to their houses to bless their family with the presence of the chaste snake. The job of snake charmers is not very profitable but its religious value helps it to flourish in the land of believers, India.
Nat – The Circus Brought to Indian Roads
You are walking amidst the honking noises of the cars and the crowded market of India and suddenly you found yourself amazed. You cannot believe that a little girl in the age of playing with dolls is working to earn her livelihood. Her tiny feet are trapping that thin rope for a firm grip while her hands are busy balancing a stick. Yes, she is walking on a thin rope holding a long stick because it is her job. This unusual job brings amazement as well as tears.
This kind of balancing performances is very common in India. These people are called Nat and wander from place to place performing small tricks. The little girls are employed to risk their lives in order to make a little amount of money. These wonder girls entertain the public for collecting money and supporting their families. The balancing performance is amusing as well as painful. The girls have to suffer a lot for completing their job yet they stand on the roadside on a thin rope above the ground level with a firm grip and determination.
The lack of patrons has forced them to quickly perform during Red light at roads. Mostly children are found to be performing in hopes of people giving them money easily.
The Exchange Hawker
The exchange women shouting through streets has helped the barter system to survive in today’s money-driven world. Not every job is done for cash, some aim at collecting clothes. In India once a month you will hear the loud sharp voice of a woman announcing “kapde dedo bartan lelo.” which means she will accept old cloths in the exchange of new utensils. Without any involvement of cash, this trade goes on smoothly in every household.
The exchange lady leaves her house with a pile of utensils balanced over her head and an empty bag for cloths hanging down her shoulder. Then she starts her job and keeps walking through streets announcing the pleasant offer she has to make in the loudest possible manner. People are also interested in this intriguing barter system so they go and meet her with the old cloths available in their house. After a little bargaining, they settle on the exchange item and the woman continues her walk. By the evening the head load lessens and the shoulder pile increases.
After the successful collection of cloths, they sort them and sell them to the middlemen in exchange for cash. This job fuels the cloth recycling industry and the second-hand cloth markets. This practice is enriched with the colours of benefits such as freeing your house from the old rag, supporting the mentally strong but financial weak women, contributing to the cloth recycling and providing stock to the second-hand cloth markets.
Baraat Band- Important Feature of Indian Weddings
Everyone books a band for their wedding but in India the band is different. In an Indian wedding, the baraat bands are booked. In the Hindu religion, the groom comes to meet the bride and make her his wife. The arrival of the groom is marked by a lively procession known as baraat. Baraat is a joyful ritual in which the groom riding a mare is accompanied by his grooving relatives and friends.
Imagine a well-adorned groom just like a King. Riding on a mare surrounded with numerous people dancing in joy on the beats of the baraat band. Along with the music the band comes with lights and decorations. The whole baraat is bordered with the dazzling lights held by numerous people forming two glowing parallel lines. It is an exhilarating experience to participate in the joyful baraat. And the people who add the music and lights of joy are the baraat band people. Instead of drums used in the usual band, this unusual vocation uses dhol and shehnai.
No Hindu wedding is complete without the shaadi ki shehnai. The Baraat band is a prominent job opportunity in India whose revenue is remarkable. The baraat band consists of the musicians and instrumentalists and the labourers carrying the lights that add beauty to the joyful occasion. Indian weddings are known for their cheerful ambience and the breeze of joy that influences everyone present. And the baraat band contributes to the sound and lights of cheer while the groom is on his journey to win the heart of his bride.
Rickshawala- The Eco-friendly Public Transporter
With the growth of the automobile industry, air pollution is also increasing. But this Indian job is taking care of the eco-friendly public transportation. Rickshawala is the strong people who pull hand carts in order to drop people to their destination. The cycle rickshaw is very popular in India and this job is only found in the Indian subcontinent. For most of the country, public transportation implies taxis, buses, or metros but in India, rickshaw takes care of all. If you have to travel within the city then a rickshaw can work wonders for you.
Everyone enjoys a ride in the costly open cars, so just imagine the cheap ride in the open rickshaw while the cold breeze kisses your cheeks. Those seats of rickshaws are a comfortable bed for many Indian kids. The rickshawalas are of great help to the Indian housewives who don’t know how to ride or drive. They can reach their destination at minimal cost while enjoying the weather.
The life of a passenger seems easy, but the life of rickshawalas is certainly not. Those are poor laborers who with the strength of their will power pull the carts while people are adding weight to it. Rickshawalas can be easily found roads of India waiting for a new passenger to help them out and earn their livelihood.
The Rickshawala culture is not prominent in most of the metropolitan cities but you will see numerous of them in the small cities. All you have to do is go to them and ask if they could drop you to the required location then as an essential ingredient bargain with them and then after rejecting two-three Rickshaws hops on the fourth one and enjoy the weather while you reach your destination.
Roadside Dentist
A roadside dentist can be seen at almost every 40 steps in the small cities. This job is for the poor and by the poor. The roadside dentists are surely don’t possess a license but they claim to provide all the essential services to the people who can not afford to visit a fancy dentist clinic. There is no certification for this profession but a lot of people avail of their services.
They sit on the roadside with smartly organized teeth sets and box of tools. Usually, the roadside dentist is above 40 so they use a loudspeaker to lure people to their open clinic. Alike them other people claiming to possess the knowledge of Ayurveda can be found on the roads of India. They hear your problems and provide you with the ayurvedic medicines claiming that they would heal your issue. This is not a certified medical practice but this is surely an unusual job found only in India.
Pithoos
Pithoos are the people that will help you climb and reach the religious destination. This unusual vocation is found in the religious mountains of India. In India, most of the renowned temples are located on the heights of hills and mountains. It is believed that if you truly want to please the lord then you have to climb your way to the sacred temples. The Chardham yatra in India is the most sacred journey in Hindu religion including 4 holy stoppages. And this yatra includes climbing on treacherous mountains and hills.
The Climbing Helper To Devotees
Many elderly people set off on this journey of Chardham to please the Lord and move a step forward for attaining moksha. But it is difficult for some people to climb on their own and thus the pithoos came into play. Pithoos are the mountain boys who help devoted people to climb and reach the temples. Pithoos help in numerous manners.
Some of them carry a basket on their back in which you can easily fit and enjoy the experience of a mountain climb while sitting and relaxing. An interesting service is back support in which the pithoos offer to provide support to your back so that you can easily climb the mountains. Some pithoos offer to carry your luggage while you can easily climb without any burden and then there are a group of four pithoos carrying a cart of their shoulder so the elderly can easily climb and reach the temple while sitting on the cart.
The most adventurous service is horse riding. Pithoos will run with the horse and guide it through the steep turns of the hills. You will peacefully sit on his back and enjoy the wonders of nature or a spiritual place. The pithoos offer all kinds of services that will help you to climb to your religious destination. You can avail of their services while coming back as well. The job of pithoo is chaste and provides services to the needy people. The beauty of this job is that though the temples are renowned Hindu destinations most of the pithoos follow Islam. Despite their religion, they are devoted to the services of temples. This line of employment portrays the beautiful color of secular India.
Dharwala- The Tool Sharpening Person
If you live in India then you can’t deny witnessing a dharwala walking in front of your house and loudly announcing his services. Dharwala is the sharpener. He heals the blunt edges of the sharp tools to recover their utility. With all his tools packed in a bag, he leaves with his bicycle. He chooses the target consumers and sets off for their neighborhood. On his arrival, he comes down from the bicycle and starts dragging it around. With the tools perched on the seat, he starts announcing his arrival and informing people that now they don’t have to deal with the blunt tools because he is here to heal them.
Often, they knock each door to ensure if their service is required in any house. The role of the consumer is very simple here. All you have to do is collect all the tools whose blades were sharp in some age but now they have turned blunt. Now hand over the tools to the Dharwala and wait till they bring back the tool to life again. Dharwalas are the self-qualified doctors of tools. They perform a set of treatments on the tools and boom! the tools are sharp again and ready to be used as the new ones.
Their services are very reasonable and Indian households prefer to avail of these services. Though in today’s industry dominant world the frequency of dharawala’s arrival is reduced, the Indians collect the old tools and await their arrival to heal the tools. Earlier this was a full-time job but now people practice it as a part-time job. Maybe once a full-time dharwala is not both a rickshawala as well as the dharwala.
Fortune Teller- The Talking Parrot
Yes, you heard it right. The list of unusual jobs is getting weirder and more surprising with each element. There is a job for a parrot as well. Though the parrot keeps in mind the unemployment rate and hires a person to convey his messages to human beings. Superstition in India has opened the door for many job opportunities. One of these is the fortune teller that assists a parrot to unleash the fortune of people.
This job is purely built on superstitious beliefs. This supports the family of the fortune teller but it is not scientifically proved that he provides any reliable service to the public. Yet the experience is worth a short. To witness a parrot, choose a card revealing your fortune does not sound boring. Believing in it or not is your choice but experiencing it once is not a bad decision.
It is fascinating to see how a parrot can look into your life and help you out with your problems. You will easily find a fortune teller sitting on the roadside with the cards neatly organised and a parrot’s cage sitting beside him. As soon as you will show interest in his services, he will release the parrot who was waiting inside to choose the card of your fortune. Then the parrot will walk through the laid cards and point to one of them using its little red beak. The role of parrot is over and it will return to his house, the cage. Now the fortune teller will translate the message and reveal your fortune. The services of fortune teller are not too expensive yet not too cheap. This is an intriguing job that could be only witnessed in India.
Employing The Marginalized People
Every corner of India is wonderous and waiting to astound you. There are many small and significant job opportunities in India that can be termed as unusual. India is not a country filled with black and white colour. India takes pride in its colourful culture. The diverse jobs, the diverse languages, and the diverse culture are all the gift of the rich Indian history.
India has witnessed many colourful reigns including the Rajputs and the Mughals. All the kingdoms have contributed to the development of India including the British rule. These unusual jobs have not popped up out of anywhere. The beautiful history of India has carved these astonishing jobs to preserve the traditions of India. All these jobs might be unusual for any alien but Indians, these are a part of their culture.
Many of the unusual jobs have sprouted from the religious beliefs and others are the product of misery and helplessness. These jobs support many families and give hope to live with many people. These jobs might be termed as unusual because most of them require extraordinary efforts.
Pulling a rickshaw on a sunny afternoon would exhaust you, but the rickshawala never gives up because a single rest could cost him a meal. A pithoo could not refuse a pilgrim because his children are waiting at home with an empty stomach. The unusual jobs and startling carriers are not everyone’s cup of tea. The labor class of India is an expertise in pulling off such jobs that you cannot find beyond the territory of India.
Conclusion
India is the land of astonishment and these jobs are just a small segment of the surprising wonders of India. It is fascinating to read and learn about these jobs. But it is even more exciting to witness them. They won’t look unusual when they will be a part of your life and you will depend on them. If you will celebrate Nagpanchami every year then the sapera will not be a wonder for you anymore. On request, he can allow you to hold the snake as well. Don’t be afraid the sapera knows is an unusual job very well and the snake is poison-free.
The vibrant land of India is enriched with such things whose beauty will touch your soul and uniqueness will surprise your mind. A peek inside the unusual world of India is an exhilarating journey and can go on for a lifetime. The wonders of India are uncountable and just as these unusual jobs, they will keep startling you.