India Printing Works

At 195, B.B. Chatterjee Road, the sound of the printing presses is the first thing you notice. This is India Printing Works, and we have been at this address since before the road got as busy as it is today. There is always the smell of fresh ink and paper in the air, which I have grown to like over the years. We are usually covered in some kind of stain by the end of the shift. It is a messy job, but seeing the finished pages come off the rollers is always a good feeling. We do not have a receptionist or a lobby. You just walk straight onto the shop floor and find one of us. We have old metal cabinets filled with plates and proofs from jobs we did years ago. Sometimes the power goes out and the whole place goes silent, which is the only time we really get a break to sit and talk. We do not use a lot of fancy words to describe what we do. We just take the paper, set the ink, and print what is needed. The floor is stained with every color you can imagine, and the windows are usually a bit grimy from the street soot. It is a hard way to make a living but it is what we do. We have stayed here because the neighborhood knows us and we know the machines.