Photo Credits: Muhammad Ali Musa
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Also note the ‘fixture’ used to carry the 19 bricks:
At almost 6 lbs a brick. 19 bricks should weigh 114 lbs. That is not too much of a weight to carry on your shoulder, if the loading is distributed properly. notice the harder flatter part of the support, which spreads the load more uniformly over the back and shoulders. Also note two flexible zones.
I however think, more than the legs, its the neck which appears to be in more stress. Imagine 42 lbs of weights on teh back of your head trying to pin your chin to your chest.
Very hard labor. Unsafe work conditions. Low pay. But at least someone is employed. The contractor could have installed a rudimentary lift and increased productivity, but at the cost of ‘rozi’ for several poor workers.
a complex chicken or egg type economic issue: whether wider use of machines vs labor, for instance in this case would have increase employment opportunity for the masses!
Also, one of the hiring criterion which the construction contractor would have used was the number of bricks one can haul in one ‘phera’
I am changing the topic but this photo also reminds me of an ‘IRONIC’ joke.
On a building construction site, all laborers were carrying 4-bricks each to upper floors. One laborer was carrying only 2-bricks at a time. When the supervisor asked him why was he not carrying 4-bricks like others, he replied:
“sahab-ji woh sab to kaam-chor hain. pheray bacha rahay haiN”
(Sir, all others are lazy. They don’t want to do extra trips up and down)
:)
I am sure the subject of photo above is not one of those ‘trip-saver’ types. As Nabeel and I wrote above, 19 is the most number of bricks we’ve ever seen being carried by a person.
Nabeel this is also the highest number of bricks that I’ve ever seen being carried by a single person. This was indeed one of the reasons that I chose to post this photo here.
There is some symbolism here in the bowed down neck of the laborer under heavy load as well as the longer part of stairs that he still has to climb.
Another reason is the photographic quality of this photo as well as genius of photographer M Ali Musa.
The diagonal of stairs with steps make a sort of geometrical design in the backgground of imperfectly made brick wall. Notice how there are a few gaps in the wall which are probably a result of mistri’s miscalculation.
This is the max amount I’ve seen