Brand Steel

Our place is in Chandaneswar village, just a short walk from the railway station. Being near the station is helpful because of the transport. We deal with steel, which means things are heavy and loud most of the time. The workshop is out here in the Post Office area of Bhograi. It's a simple setup. We have the cutters and the welding machines and plenty of raw metal stacked up in the corner. It gets pretty hot during the summer months, but we just keep the big doors open to catch the breeze from the fields. Most of the people working here are from the village itself. We've known each other since we were kids. We don't have any big signs or bright lights. Just the name on the gate and the sound of metal being moved around. Sometimes the train whistle reminds us what time it is. We start early in the morning before the sun gets too high. By evening, we're usually packing up and heading home. It's honest work. We don't use any fancy management words. We just take the steel, do what needs to be done, and make sure it’s ready for whoever ordered it. If someone stops by, we usually have a chair and some water ready for them while they wait. It’s just how things are done here in our part of Balasore. We don't complicate things more than they need to be.