Cycling to balance - Visiting Maksut Berisa, a cycling enthusiast, a serviceman, and an NGO activist

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Tuesday, 25 August 2020 18:58

In the household of the Berisa family, there is a famous bicycle service of Uncle Maksut. Maki, as most customers and friends call him, has been repairing, restoring bicycles for more than three decades and is the only Roma in Podgorica who has decided to dedicate himself to this craft. 

A paradise for cycling lovers

People from all over the city and the country come to him in search of a cure for their two-wheeler. The workshop is often crowded because there are many who are looking for the right one. All cycling enthusiasts will know what I'm talking about. The hardest thing is to please yourself. It should not be too low, too high, or elegant when we drive around the city, but should be strong enough to tame overgrown paths. Maksut has a model for everyone.

As soon as he opened the gates of the two-wheeler empire, visitors arrived.

- Uncle Maki, inflate my tire, one boy hurriedly asks, while another says, Mine is totally destroyed. It has to be patched.

The master immediately embarks on a mission with an apology that we have to pause the conversation.

Then we started rewinding the thirty-year-old memory tape. Maksut did not tie the memory of a long cycling through life into a knot, moreover, he honestly shared every picture with us.

- I have been a cyclist since I was 16 years old. I was constantly riding bicycles, motorcycles, I was a member of the Auto-Moto Association of Montenegro.

The hobby grew into a business. And while working in government agencies, the NGO sector, I always came back to my passion. That’s where I feel safe, it’s my way of relaxing. In the same way a fisherman only thinks about catching something, so my thoughts fly straight towards the bike. I know I make a fair living from my fingers. I repaired bicycles for friends, neighbors and others. The business has developed, has become a serious job. I learned the craft from my late uncle – he talks about his passion, strong as an oath. Maybe that's where the inspiration for the name of the workshop Bikes for Life came from. He also shows us a family picture.

- At that time there were no bike paths, there were fewer vehicles and more bicycles that were a means of transportation. Today, almost every household has a car and a bicycle is there as a means of recreation. Lately, I’ve been noticing that more and more people are going to work by bike. Even those who don't need it, who can afford a taxi every day. Today a bicycle is a fashion detail in a way. That is why there are beautiful models for ladies in my workshop - he explains the function of a bicycle then and now.

My enthusiasm for the workshop does not subside, Maki has an identical repair table as my late grandfather. Hundreds of screws, envelopes, strange beads ... They look like pearls to me. I suspect that this magical corner hides many secrets. Imagine how many stories two-wheelers would tell us if they could speak, and I'm sure Maki knows their language.

What are the most common repairs?

- These are mostly similar failures, they are more severe if there is a fall from the bike, so the wheel is distorted. I usually change brakes, tires, center wheels...

Is there room for creativity?

- I love restoration. I have regular customers who sell me an old bike that I completely remodel, polish, paint, clean the wheels, change the tires and then sell.

Is it possible to make a living from this craft?

- Business goes the best from March to September, as soon as nice weather arrives, customers arrive as well.

Maki tells us about how the pandemic affects business.

- I am satisfied. There was more work because people were taking bicycles out of garages, basements... I wasn't thinking there would be a boom - a trend in cycling.

Maksut passes the skills on to his family.

- My son Edin also repairs bicycles, he helps me.

Living in the old Yugoslavia

Uncle Maki, tell us about the other engagements, the jobs you did. You have a vast experience. It seems to me as if you live by Einstein's: Life is like riding a bicycle: to keep your balance, you have to keep moving.

- It’s not hard for me to remember my beginnings. As a young man, I was a scholarship holder of the company Industry Impex, which had a monopoly on trade, tourism and catering in the former Yugoslavia. My late father also worked there. He was an archivist and one of the favorite workers. At that time, we were the only literate family from the Roma community. There were eight of us, five sisters and three brothers. I was a high school junior when they gave me a scholarship. I am a technologist by profession. All of my family moved abroad around ’88-’89. I enrolled at the Faculty of Maritime Studies, but in the meantime, following the advice of one of the employees of Industry Impex, I got a job there. I was a courier, then an economist, then a commercialist. I spent 11 years in that company, until 2001. During the ex-Yu, everything was fine. One could live on a salary. I was the only one of the eight children to stay in Podgorica, although everyone persuaded me to move to Germany. After two years, all representative offices of our company in Split, Zagreb, Belgrade, Novi Sad, Skopje... have closed down. Business in Montenegro was poor as well, many of us were declared redundant. I went to Germany, but came back a year later. I worked as an operative in the Secretariat of the Interior.

NGO sector

Combing through your past also brings us to the non-governmental sector, your huge contribution to the Roma community that we must not forget. 

I have been in the NGO sector since 2001. There were fewer educated Roma then. My Roma community has always appreciated me for my education and at the suggestion of a friend I formed my NGO Čovjek Rom with a few guys - because the word Roma means man. We had our first project with Juventas. There were few foreign donors then, so we were financed through the Municipality, the Red Cross, and later the OSCE. We functioned for about ten years, then I went to Germany. When I returned, I had cooperation with the Fund for Minorities. I participated in the formation of the first national Roma Council in 2008. I was there until 2013.

You even were into journalism.

- I worked for 10 months at the Center for Investigative Journalism and for Vijesti. It was a nice experience, I got praise for my articles, but after the project was over I lost my job again.

Konik is a multiethnic environment

Tell me, what is the biggest problem in creating prejudice against Roma?

There have always been. They called us derogatory names. The majority community thinks that the Roma are inactive, dirty, that they only know how to rummage through containers. Nobody likes that kind of life. All Roma would like to live in better conditions. They don't live like this in Italy, Belgium, Germany. They are provided with housing, they have good social benefits from which they can afford education. Today, the situation in Montenegro is worse. In Germany, no one condemns you for your skin color. There you can only be a man and a non-man, a good or a bad neighbor.

I am the only Roma in this part of the settlement who lives here and who was born here. My father has been here since 1947. Konik is a multiethnic environment. Podgorica should be proud because no one here condemns anyone for their nationalities. Roma, Serbs, Montenegrins live there, there are Italians, people of all nationalities...

Educate children

Do you have any advice for parents, how to raise children, what to guide them to?

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