The J. Bhur & Co.

Aurobindo Sarani is a busy place, and we have been at number 189 for a long time. It’s an old building, the kind where the walls are thick but the windows still rattle when the big trams or heavy trucks go past outside. My grandfather was the one who got this place started, and not much has changed since then, really. We still use the same heavy wooden desks, and the floor has those old tiles that have worn down in the spots where people stand the most. The name The J. Bhur & Co. is painted on a board outside that’s seen better days, the paint is peeling a bit at the edges. Every morning, I open up the big shutters and wait for the city to wake up properly. There is a small tea stall just a few doors down where we get our first cup of the day. It’s a lot of paperwork and talking to people who walk in off the street. We don’t have a website or anything like that. People just know where we are because we've always been here. It’s cramped inside because of all the stuff we’ve collected over forty years. Sometimes I think about cleaning it all out, but then I wouldn't know where anything is. It’s just how we work here. The fan on the ceiling makes a clicking sound, but you stop hearing it after an hour. It’s just part of the atmosphere of the office.