initially the migrant labourer community in kerala were synonymous with construction workers hotel employees and security staff but then continuing in the same field especially when you have other talents can become boring after a pointnot surprisingly the enterprising ones among the migrants have been slowly making inroads into a wide variety of professions some of which are even associated with traditional kerala culture we now have fishermen coconut tree climbers and even paddy field workers speaking assamese or bengali and doing a better job of it too than malayalismost of these workers have little education with class 10 being the maximum qualification for the majority but they are quick learners and can master any job if given an opportunity admit their employers adding they are also easy to work withcoconut climbermaafi kool had never climbed a coconut tree in his life before coming to kerala like his mates he started off with traditional jobs and it was an interest in karate which led him to try a hand at climbing one once he recognised his talent there was no looking back especially when he found out that there is a huge dearth of climbers in keralaa speciality of mafi who comes from murshidabad west bengal is that he can climb any tree without security gear be it coconut trees areca palms or mango trees its the best way to climb a tree says mafi he is short in stature and so when he arrives at houses to climb the trees people are a bit apprehensive at first however when mafi demonstrates his climbing skills their jaws drop the new machinery introduced to climb coconut trees has brought down my work a bit so far i have never had any accidents i plan to continue with my career as a coconut tree climber he says handlergroomer at pet hospitalveterinarian dr soorej employed malayalis as staff at his newlyopened pet hospital in kochi for three years the job involved holding dogs and cats during medical procedures cleaning the table and also bathing and grooming the pets but things didnt work well as the workers constantly complained about the smell of animals and at having to clean the wastethey were always irritated and didnt really like what they were doing recalls dr soorej the vet then tried employing migrant labourers and hasnt looked back since the job the migrants do is the same but the difference is that they all like dogs unlike malayalis they are not afraid of them neither are they averse to handling or cleaning them they are easy to train and hardworking too he sayswe spoke to ravi chandra a smart 25yearold who was busy giving a pug a bath i like animals and so agreed when a friend offered me this job i havent done any formal training but i watched lots of videos on how to bathe and groom dogs how to cut their nails and more and learnt everything thoroughly says ravi who comes from