Handmade Paper & Board Industries

Over on Gramodyog Road in Sanganer, things stay pretty busy at Handmade Paper & Board Industries. This area is known for paper, so we fit right in with the rest of the workshops. Our floors are usually wet from the vats where we mix the pulp, and there’s always stacks of boards drying out in the sun when the weather is clear. We’ve got a small crew of guys who have been with us for years. They know the rhythm of the work better than anyone. We don't use much heavy machinery here; it’s mostly just hands and old-fashioned frames. The dust from the raw materials gets everywhere, and we’re constantly sweeping, but it never really stays clean for long. That’s just the nature of making paper by hand. During the monsoon season, everything slows down because the humidity keeps the sheets from drying properly. We just wait it out and do what we can indoors. It’s not a corporate setup at all. We eat lunch together in the back and talk about the local news. The road outside is always dusty with trucks passing by, but inside we just focus on the texture of the paper we’re pressing. It’s a lot of repetitive movement, but there is something nice about seeing a finished stack of boards at the end of a long Tuesday afternoon. We just do our work and go home.