Disappearing Professions

I grew up reading stories of lakaRhara. Often the stories would begin with,” aik ghareeb lakaRhara rozana jungle se lakarii kat kar lata aur use bech kar kisii tarah apna pariwaar chalataa.” The man’s profile would invariably of an emaciated person, hard working, honest, gullible yet with some earthy wisdom who would eventually triumph. When my daughter, some ten years back while passing through Kanpur, yelled incredulously,” suu’ar, suu’ar”( pig) I was quite surprised. Living in a mega town had deprived her of such a common sight that a live pig seemed to her an animal coming straight out of zoo.

However, saperaa is still around at least in literature and in villages and small towns while lakaR-hara has completely disappeared. Wonder if he found place in poetry also as in prose!