Tale of perseverance during the Covid-19 pandemic

Our Correspondent
Kohima, Aug. 25 (EMN): Ever since schools were shut down due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Keneisalie Charles Rutsa, a 12-year-old student of Christ King Higher Secondary School, Kohima, has been learning how to make plastic baskets.

It was in the month of April, that Rutsa, a Class 7 student, started making baskets. He has already finished eight of them so far.

In a tete-a-tete with Eastern Mirror, Rutsa informed that he had gifted four of his basket bags to others already and have sold two, while two others are kept for home purpose. He added that he is getting ready with another as a gift for his cousin’s birthday. However, he stopped making them for some time due to his ongoing online examination.

While many students and neighbours have started to learn the art of making basket for other reasons, Rutsa learn to make them with a purpose. For Rutsa, he wanted to pay his school fees with the income incurred from selling his wares. Rutsa stated that both of his basket bags were sold for about INR 800 each.

For smaller size baskets, he said that it takes two to three days to make one, while for bigger ones, it takes three to four days.

His tutor Vizokhonuo Rutsa, a 29-year-old school teacher from Kohima village, expressed happiness at Rutsa for his endurance to pay his school fees with the money he earns from making the basket bags.

It has come a surprise for Vizokhonuo Rutsa as her neighbours have started coming to learn the art of making baskets.

“Why should I hide my talents? I wanted to share my talents to all of them”, she said. She was of the opinion that even if their education is not able to get them a job, they can still sell them and earn their pocket money.

Currently, she is training over 15 people - both young and old ranging from five to six hours on a daily basis. Last year, she was able to train around 14 people.

It was her senior who taught her to make the basket bags when she was undergoing training at District Institute for Education and Training, Chiechama, in 2015. After that, she learned to make several designs by watching tutorials on YouTube.

Currently, she is in the process of learning new designs. ‘Once the exam is over, I will learn them and teach the students’, she added.

On technical points, she said that one need to be very careful while selecting the materials as they come in different sizes, shapes and metres.

Speaking of challenges, she said that backache, headache and nausea are common as they spend hours making them on daily basis. She advised that one should take breaks and work whenever they get free time.