The Grasscutter

On December 7th, 2006, at 8.37am, the whirring blades of a grasscutting machine woke me up from my slumber. It was time to get up,anyway, so I opened the bedroom windows and looked down.

The grasscutter, whom I later found out was Ilham Jefri (34), was meticulously at his trade, plying his machine from left to right, trimming the grass. He painstakingly ensured that every blade of grass even an inch higher than the accepted height, was bladed down. Unlike some other cutters I have observed, who keep advancing, never stepping back, Ilham walked back to look at his work, and advanced forward only if he felt satisfied everything was trimmed neatly. It is not often that workers are so painstaking about their job.

In fact, last month, a couple of other residents living in units fronting the green lung, remarked that the trimmed lawns around Tiara this time seemed to be especially well done. I asked Jamsari (our Security Officer and Building Executive) whether there had been a change of grasscutter, since this cutter did a neater job - to be told that a new grasscutter had indeed been assigned the task last month.

It took Ilham twelve full minutes to trim the stretch the length of my unit - that was how painstaking he was about doing a good job.

Ilham hails from Sumatra and has been a grasscutter for the last 10 years. He can’t remember how many blades he would have broken before mastering his trade - "maybe 150," he guessed. But it certainly was a sizeable number before he became adept at it.

Married to Safrida, they have 3 children, Norliza (l0), Arriffin (5) and Santi (3 months) and live in Kampung Kayu Ara in Damansara Utama, Petaling Jaya. He works a full day, and on his off day, he sometimes cuts grass for homes in Damansara Jaya for extra money.

Since his task is manual, he eats a lot of rice with fish daily. Lunch is packed for him by his sister-in-law, since Safrida works part time as a domestic helper and cleaner.

Thank you, Ilham, for a job well done.