Cmarc Pharmaceutical Research Centre

If you walk down Dover Terrace, you’ll find us at 16/2 J. It’s a quiet residential lane, really, not the kind of place where you’d expect a research center. Most people walk right past the gate without realizing what we do inside. The building has that classic Kolkata feel, with the high ceilings and the way the light hits the floor in the afternoons. Inside, it’s mostly just the sound of glass clicking and people talking in low voices. We aren't a huge team. It’s just a handful of us who’ve been together for a long time. Sometimes the lab feels a bit cramped when we have a lot of samples coming in, but we manage. The street outside is usually lined with parked cars, and the neighbors know us by name. It’s not like those big clinical labs that look like hospitals. We have a small kitchen in the back where we make coffee, and the smell of it often mixes with the chemical scents from the work area. Sometimes the fans squeak a bit when they’ve been running all day. We spend a lot of time looking at papers and screens, making sure every detail is recorded correctly. It's slow work, and it requires a lot of patience. When the monsoon hits, the rain drums so loudly on the roof that we have to speak up to hear each other.