Sullia: Meet Mary the Mason, and Good One at That!

Pics: Gangadhar Kallapalli
Daijiworld Media Network – Sullia (PS/SB)
 

Sullia, March 15: Women are today all pervasive when it comes to donning roles as professionals and skilled to match that of men too. Yet one ceases to be surprised to see a Woman engaged in work that demands more physical strength and is good at that too!

Though women labourers work at the construction sites, they usually do the job of assisting the men doing the work that aids actual construction that is mostly carried out by men. Women mostly are not engaged in constructing the wall, installation of tiles and plastering works.

But here's a woman in Sullia, who works as a mason from past 24 years. Mary, who is basically from Thiruvanelvi of Tamilnadu learnt plastering work at her very early age. She opted to this work with all the zeal by looking at her father Suppayya as he was also a mason. She came from Tamilnadu 18 years ago when skilled local labourers were scarce in number during the construction work of Gutthigaru church. She continued to stay here. She is very proficient now in constructing various trendy buildings.

She has constructed several numbers of buildings in places like Bolubailu, Thodikana, Madappady, Jayanagar, Sullia, Madikeri and Kerala among others. There are many working under her as assistants. She also manages their work schedule, by gaining new contracts, a testimony to her management skills.

When asked how she manages to work so hard, she says with a chuckle that plastering work is more of skill than hardwork. Moreover, it also keeps her mind active. Calculation should be accurate enough, she says and adds modern constructions are added attractions mainly because of skills of masons.

She is busy all the time as there is good demand for mason work in the locality. In some places she has constructed buildings as a contractor too. Thus hardwork seems to be her mantra, which was further substantiated as her caller tune 'Araluva Hoovugale Aalisiri', the song from Kannada movie, My Autograph too stresses on the importance of hard and sincere work. 

Mary known for soft demeanour stays at Shanthi Nagar, outskirt of Sullia town and able to converse in Kannada, Malayalam and Tamil has experience that is on par with any qualified engineer.