S. B. M. Engineering Works

We have been running this engineering shop on R. N. Das Road in Dhakuria for a good while. It is a small space, 41F/1, and it is usually packed with lathes and old tools. Most of our days are spent fixing parts or machining something new for a customer who brought in a broken piece from a factory. Kolkata gets very humid, so the shop can feel a bit cramped when we have a few people working at once. We do not have a receptionist or anyone to answer the phones. You just walk in and talk to whoever is not busy with a machine. We handle a lot of small repair jobs that the bigger shops will not even touch. It is precise work, but it is also very dirty. Our aprons are always covered in oil and metal shavings. We do not have a website or a marketing person to help us. Most of our customers have been coming to us for ten or twenty years. They know we will get the job done eventually, even if it takes a bit of time to get the measurements exactly right. Sometimes we sit outside on the steps for a tea when the machines are cooling down. The street is always busy with people heading toward the station. We have seen the neighborhood change a lot, but our shop stays pretty much the same. Just hammers, lathes, and the smell of cut metal. It is a steady life and we work hard.