A. J. Cans Pvt. Ltd.

Our place is at Plot No. 129 in the CIE Gandhinagar area of Hyderabad. It’s an industrial cooperative estate, so there are a lot of neighbors doing similar kinds of work. We make metal cans, and if you ever come by, the first thing you’ll notice is the constant banging and clanging of the metal sheets being pressed. It’s a noisy environment, but we’ve all gotten used to it over the years. We wear our earplugs and just get on with the shifts. The floor is always covered in those little circular metal scraps from the cutters. We try to sweep up at the end of the day, but it’s a never-ending job. The Hyderabad heat can be pretty intense in the middle of the warehouse, so we try to do the heaviest work early in the morning. We have a small storage area where we stack the finished cans before they get loaded onto the lorries. It’s a practical setup without any bells or whistles. We’ve had the same sign out front for ages and it’s a bit faded now, but everyone knows where we are. We don't spend time on fancy presentations; we just focus on making sure the cans are sealed right and the orders are ready when we said they would be. It’s a straightforward business and we like it that way. Most of us have lived in the city all our lives.