Shree Ganesh Shellac Factory

If you’re looking for us, you have to head up to the fourth floor of the building at 13 B.B. Ganguly Street. Room 404 is right at the end of the hallway. It’s a bit of a climb if the lift isn't working, which happens more often than we’d like. Downstairs, the street is always a chaos of people and carts, but up here, it’s just us and the shellac. This room has seen a lot of seasons. The floor is stained from years of working with the materials, and you can always smell that distinct scent of resin in the air. We keep the windows open to catch whatever breeze comes off the rooftops, though mostly it just lets in the city noise. We spend our days sorting through batches and making sure everything looks right before it goes into the sacks. It’s not a fast process, and we don’t try to make it one. My uncle used to say that you can’t rush shellac, and we still follow that way of thinking. There’s a small desk in the corner where we keep the ledger, and it’s covered in rings from tea cups. We aren't trying to be the biggest factory in Kolkata; we just want to do our work and go home. Sometimes the lights flicker when the rain starts, but we just keep going until the day is done. It’s just a regular old workspace.