Jai Mahalaxmi Khokhawala

Our business is in the Khokhawala Building, right near the Mahendi Kuva Char Rasta in the Shahpur area of Ahmedabad. The name says it all; we spend our days with khokhas, which are basically cardboard boxes. The building is an old one, and it’s filled from floor to ceiling with flattened boxes and sheets of cardboard. Shahpur is a very busy part of Ahmedabad, so there’s always noise from the street coming through the windows. We spend a lot of time folding, stapling, and stacking these boxes so they are ready for people to use for packing their own goods. It’s a simple trade, but there’s a lot of physical effort in moving the stacks around. The 380004 postcode area is where we have always been. You can smell the recycled paper and the adhesive when you walk in. Sometimes the stacks get so high you have to be careful walking between them. We don't have a website or any fancy marketing; people just know to come to Mahendi Kuva if they need boxes for shipping or storage. We work with our hands mostly, and our fingers usually have a few small nicks from the cardboard edges. It’s a constant cycle of getting material in and sending boxes out. We’ve been here long enough that the local shopkeepers all know us by name and we know what kind of boxes they usually need without them asking twice.