Mariya Steel Tech

Working in Peenya 2nd Stage means you’re always surrounded by the sound of machinery and the smell of hot metal. Our workshop at number 68 is no different. It’s a large open space with high ceilings, but it still feels small because of all the steel beams and welding equipment we have stored everywhere. We spend most of the day in heavy gloves and masks, cutting through plates or joining things together. There are sparks flying in the corners and the floor is always covered in metal shavings that we sweep up at the end of the shift. We don’t have a proper office; there’s just a small wooden desk near the entrance where we keep the blueprints and the phone. It’s usually too loud to talk normally, so we end up shouting over the grinders. The sunlight comes in through the big shutter doors, and when they’re closed, it gets quite stuffy inside. We’ve got a couple of heavy-duty fans, but they mostly just move the warm air around. People come in with sketches on scraps of paper, and we figure out how to make it out of steel. It’s honest, physical work that leaves your hands dirty and your back tired. There’s nothing polished about the way we do things; we just focus on the metal and getting the pieces right.