Mariappan Shankar Foto Album

We’re located down on South Boag Road in T.Nagar, at number 15-B. T.Nagar is always a bit of a scramble, especially during the shopping seasons. Mariappan Shankar Foto Album is where we spend our days. It’s a place filled with the smell of paper and glue. We make albums, so we have stacks of different materials lying around everywhere. It’s a bit of a physical job, putting things together and making sure the pages are straight. My hands are usually a bit sticky by lunchtime. We don't have a fancy storefront. Most people come to us because they know the quality of the albums we put together. We’ve got a couple of big cutting machines that make a lot of noise, but we’re used to it. The space isn't perfectly clean, because when you work with paper and binding, there’s always scraps on the floor. We try to sweep up at the end of the day, but it’s a losing battle. It’s just a small team of us working here. We know South Boag Road well, and we’ve seen the neighborhood change a lot over the years. Even with all the new shops opening up, we just keep doing our thing, making albums one by one. It’s simple work, but it keeps us busy and we like the result of it. We just focus on the task in front of us.