Sakthi Tarpaulin Company

Up here in Alakyampalam Pariyaram, things move a bit slower than in the big cities. Sakthi Tarpaulin Company is basically a place where we work with heavy-duty fabrics. If you walk inside, you’ll hear the sound of the industrial sewing machines running. It’s a constant rhythmic noise. We handle a lot of those big blue and orange sheets you see covering trucks or protecting hay in the fields. The smell of the material is quite strong, kind of like plastic and wax mixed together. We spend a lot of time measuring out long sections of fabric on the floor. It takes a bit of space to spread everything out. The staff here are mostly people from the local area who know how to stitch a straight line through thick material. It’s tough on the hands, but it’s what we do. When the monsoon season is coming, we get really busy. Everyone wants to make sure their roofs or their goods stay dry. We don't do much advertising; people just know we’re here in Pariyaram when they need something covered. There are piles of offcuts in the corners and rolls of thread stacked on the shelves. It’s a practical workspace, not a place for sitting around. We make sure the seams are tight and the eyelets are hammered in properly. It’s just regular work that helps people keep their stuff safe from the weather.