Babu Engineering Foundry

The heat is the first thing you notice when you walk into our place at No. 287 Pappampatty Road. We are right opposite Barathipuram, so there’s a lot of traffic passing by the gates. Working in a foundry isn't for everyone because of the smoke and the heavy lifting. The floor is mostly sand and dark dirt, which is just part of the process. We spend our days melting metal and pouring it into molds. It’s heavy work that leaves you feeling it in your back by the end of the day. We have a big open area where we keep the finished castings before they get picked up. There is a small room where we keep our lunch boxes and change our shirts. It’s usually covered in dust no matter how much we sweep. We don’t have air conditioning, so we drink a lot of water and stay in the shade when we can. The noise from the furnaces is constant, like a low roar in the background. We don't do much marketing or worry about how the place looks from the outside. People come to us because they know we’ve been at this spot for a long time. We just focus on the metal and making sure the molds are right. It’s a tough way to make a living, but it’s what we know how to do. The days go by fast when you’re busy with the fire and the iron.