Sudhakar Mahadevan

Our small office is tucked away on Krishnasamy Avenue in Mylapore. If you are familiar with this part of Chennai, you know how the streets have that specific old feel to them. We are at number 16/32. It’s a quiet enough spot compared to the main roads nearby, though you still hear the temple bells sometimes. The office isn't anything fancy. It’s mostly just a few desks, some old cupboards filled with files, and a lot of sketches. We’ve been here for a good while, and the neighborhood has changed around us quite a bit. Usually, the day starts with opening up the windows to let some air in, though it gets humid pretty fast. We spend a lot of time sitting here, working through designs or chatting about how to fix a particular problem on a site. Sometimes clients come by and we sit around the small wooden table we have in the corner. We don't really do the whole corporate thing with uniforms or big signs. It’s just us. Lunch is often something brought from home or a quick bite from a nearby mess. We like being in Mylapore because everything is close by, even if the traffic is a nightmare in the evenings. The building is a bit old, so the stairs creak a little when you come up, but it has character. We just keep our heads down and do the work. It’s a simple routine that seems to work for everyone involved here.