Young women duo rev up a four-decade-old family garage in Kottayam

Squatting on the floor inside a garage on the roadside, 25-year-old Amritha deftly tightens screws within the engine assembly of a Royal Enfield Bullet. On the other side of the hefty machine, balanced on a small wooden platform,29-year-old Shruthimol is carefully examining another component.

The two young women appear almost dwarfed by the massive motorcycle they are working on.Yet, the duo go about their task with a quiet confidence born out of years of experience. For over three years now, their days have been spent amid engines, tools and the familiar scent of grease and lubricants.

Amritha and Shruthimol are the daughters-in-law of Sivadasan, a veteran motorcycle mechanic who has been running the garage ‘Ringoos Auto Works’ at Ponknnum town in Kottayamfor more than four decades. The garage now functions as a close knit enterprise, with all five service engineers belonging to Sivadasan’s own family.

After marriage

When his sons, Harish and Girish, grew older, they joined their father in the trade. After their marriages, their wives too stepped into the workshop, learning the craft and eventually becoming mechanics themselves.

Every morning at 9 a.m., the two women take their positions inside the garage. In many cases, it is they who first inspect the motorcycles brought in by customers and decide what repairs or servicing are required. “The work can get hectic, sometimes stretching late into the night, even till 3 a.m. the next day. But this has become our passion, our profession and our life. We enjoy doing it together,” says Amritha.

With motorcycle repair still remains a field overwhelmingly dominated by men, customers were often surprised to see women working confidently on powerful machines. But curiosity soon gave way to admiration.

Today, regular customers walk in with complete trust in their skills. On an average day, the garage rolls out four serviced motorcycles.

Both Amritha and Shruthimol are graduates and their interest in motorcycles grew only after marriage. “Being the daughter of an autorickshaw driver, I had some basic idea about vehicles from a young age. I knew how to top up oil and understood some basic engine mechanics. But during the pandemic period, when the workshop remained closed to the public, I began observing these machines closely. Gradually I started doing small repairs and learning more,” recalls Amritha.

Today, she handles most mechanical work in the garage, including fine tuning engines, installing spare parts and repairing components. For now, however, the physically demanding engine overhaul work is handled by the men in the family.

‘Physically strenuous’

“Working on the engine of an Enfield Bullet can be physically strenuous. But we have started learning that too, with the support of our husbands,” she adds.

Soon after joining the workshop as an apprentice, Amritha gave birth to her son, Sai Madhav. During her pregnancy she shifted to managing the front office work. “After my post pregnancy period, I returned to mechanical work,” she says.

Both Amritha and Shruthimol live with their husbands in a house located right next to the workshop. Apart from their work at the garage, they have also become members of motorcycle riding clubs. “Running a garage means being available when customers need you. Since we live right next to the workshop, we can respond quickly whenever someone comes in with a problem. That, perhaps, is our success mantra,” the women mechanics say.