Acrylics (india)

Our shop is in Paharganj, over at Chuna Mandi, 3002/2. If you know the area, you know it's a maze of narrow streets and old buildings. We work with acrylic sheets. We cut them, bend them, and make things out of them for whoever walks in. The smell of cutting plastic is something you get used to after a week of working here. There are scraps of colorful acrylic all over the floor by the end of the day. We have a couple of machines that take up most of the space. It’s loud when they’re running. Customers come in with sketches on scraps of paper, and we try to figure out how to make it work. We don't have a showroom. You just see the workshop and the sheets leaning against the walls. The tea here is always strong and keeps us going. Sometimes we have to move stuff out to the street just to have room to work on a big piece. It’s a bit chaotic, but we know where everything is. People come to us because we’ve been in Paharganj for a long time. We don't do fancy brochures or anything. We just show people what we finished yesterday. It’s a gritty, hands-on job. We’re usually covered in a bit of dust by five o'clock. We close the shutters when the sun goes down and start again the next morning. It is a simple life.