Ramlal Horse Elephant Contractor

This is Ramlal Horse Elephant Contractor over on Hawa Mahal Road. We’ve been handling animals for a long time now. It’s a different kind of business than a regular shop. Most of the work happens outside, at weddings or big processions near the palace. We keep the horses and elephants ready and looked after. It’s a lot of work feeding them and making sure they are calm when the loud drums start playing. Hawa Mahal Road is always full of tourists and traffic, so there is always something going on outside our gate. My father started this business, and now we just keep it going. We don’t have a fancy office with chairs and desks. It’s more about the animals and being where the events are. Sometimes people call us last minute for a baraat and we have to scramble to get everything ready. The elephants take a lot of space and a lot of patience. You can't really rush them. We have a few guys who have been working with us for years; they know the animals better than anyone else does. It’s not a quiet life by any means. There’s always hay to move or leather equipment to check and oil. We stay busy during the wedding season, then it gets a bit slower. But there’s always something to do around here. We are right there on the main road, easy to spot if you are looking. That's the way it's been for us.