Gagan Steels

Our place is on T.H. Road in Tondiarpet. Gagan Steels is basically a big warehouse full of metal rods, sheets, and pipes. It's a very industrial part of town, so there's always a lot of trucks and noise from the traffic. We spend our time loading and unloading steel. The metal is cold and heavy, and you have to be careful with your hands. We wear gloves most of the time. The floor is concrete and it’s seen a lot of wear over the years. We have scales to weigh everything because that's how steel is sold. Sometimes customers come in looking for a specific thickness of a pipe or a certain grade of steel. We go into the stacks and find what they need. It can be a bit dark inside the warehouse, even with the big lights on. We don't have a lot of fancy furniture in the office area. It’s just a place to keep the ledgers and handle the payments. The air smells like iron and grease. We get a lot of workers from nearby construction sites coming in. We just focus on getting the right amount of steel out to them so they can get back to their jobs. Sometimes the dust from the road blows in and covers the steel, so we have to wipe things down. We have a small kettle for making tea in the afternoons. It’s a good break from the heavy lifting. We just keep going.