LUCKNOW: For Ramchet, July 26 was a day of a divine intervention which changed his fortunes forever. The cobbler in Sultanpur, who has a small kiosk just outside the district court, had a VVIP guest in Rahul Gandhi, the Congress MP from neighbouring Raebareli.Not only Gandhi spent half an hour with Ramchet but also learnt how to mend shoes. Now, Ramchet is inundated by calls to sell off those footwear which had the touch of the Congress MP at a price quoted by him. “I will not sell them even for a crore rupees. I will get them framed and keep them in front of my eyes as long as I live,” says Ramchet. “As if God himself had descended on my shop,” says Ramchet, still in awe of that moment when Rahul Gandhi visited him and sought to learn the skill of his trade by mending a few slippers and shoes. Ramchet, who has been mending shoes for the last 40 years, has suddenly attained a celebrity status and is basking in its glory.On last Friday, Gandhi was in Sultanpur where he appeared in MP-MLA court in connection with a defamation case linked to his alleged remarks over Union Home Minister Amit Shah. After the proceedings, while enroute to Delhi via the Purvanchal Expressway, Gandhi’s convoy stopped at Vidhayak Nagar crossing — gifting a life-long memory to Ramchet to cherish.Initially, as the convoy of Gandhi stopped in front of his shop, Ramchet, in his late 60s, ignored it thinking it to be of some affluent person or a politician who might have come to the district court.“I realised that it was Rahulji himself when he asked me to show how I mended the shoes. Within no time, he picked up one slipper and asked me to teach him how to stitch it. I showed him and then offered him a cold drink, which he accepted and shared it with me,” says Ramchet. The cobbler shares that Rahul Gandhi also enquired about his earnings. “I told him how difficult it is for me to make ends meet in paltry Rs 100-200 a day.I earn Rs 5,000-Rs 6,000 a month. I asked him for help.”Rahul Gandhi left the kiosk with a promise to help the man. The next day, Ramchet received an electric machine to stitch shoes – a gift from Rahul Gandhi. Now, Ramchet is facing another challenge. He is getting offers to sell off the slipper and shoe that Gandhi had mended at a price of his choice which may be Rs 1 lakh or even beyond.Ramchet is not ready. He says adding that it was his priceless possession which can’t be weighed in terms of money. “Whether it is thousand or lakhs, even if someone gives me one crore rupees, I will not sell it,” says Ramchet.He even sent two pairs of shoes for Gandhi when his team visited him to hand over the machine. “I had asked his team the size of his shoes in advance when it got in touch with me. I prepared two pairs of pure leather shoes and sent them,” he shares.
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