East I Shipping Agency

Room No 9 in the Strand Room building is where we spend our days. We are right there at 36 Strand Road, not far from the Calcutta GPO. It’s a historic part of the city, and the building definitely shows its age. The ceilings are high and the plaster is peeling in some corners, but it has a certain character you don't find in the new glass buildings. We deal with all the typical shipping agency stuff—lots of forms, stamps, and coordinating with the river authorities. Since we are on the first floor, we get all the noise from the street, the trams, and the horns. It can be hard to hear on the phone sometimes. We have a few old wooden cabinets that are overflowing with records from years ago. The tea man comes around twice a day, and that’s usually when we take a break from the computers to stretch our legs. It’s a small team here. We mostly just focus on getting the clearances done so the ships can move on their way. The traffic around the GPO is a nightmare in the evenings, so we try to wrap things up before it gets too bad. It’s just a plain, honest workspace where we do our bit, even when the humidity makes the paper curl and the pens leak. We've been doing this for long enough that it's just second nature now.