New Life Gilding

New Life Gilding is over at No. 207 on Jain Temple Road in the Shivaji Nagar area. It’s right there near Oph Road too, which is a busy intersection. The shop is more of a workshop than anything else. We have our benches and all the tools we need for the gilding work. It’s not a fancy place with carpets or anything like that. The floors are concrete and there's usually a bit of a mess from whatever project we are currently working on. Shivaji Nagar is a crowded place, and being so close to the Jain Temple means there are always people around. We can hear the bells and the chanting sometimes when it’s quiet in the shop. The work itself takes a lot of patience and steady hands. We spend hours sitting in the same spot, focusing on the small details of the items people bring us. Some days it gets quite dusty, so we have to clean our work surfaces constantly. We don't have a big staff, just a few of us who know how to handle the materials. We open up early to get a head start before the heat of the day kicks in. By the afternoon, the street outside is a sea of people and vehicles. We just stay inside and keep working until it’s time to head home. It’s practical work and we’ve been at this address for a long time now. It’s just our daily life.