Ansari Thela Works

We spend our days building and fixing wooden and iron carts near the old Mohan Takies Road. It is a messy kind of job with a lot of welding and sawing going on from morning until evening. The shop always has bits of metal and wood shavings lying around the floor. People from all over Keshavpura come to us when their wheels get stuck or the frame of their thela starts to bend. We started doing this work a long time ago. It is not easy work, especially when the sun is beating down on the street and we are trying to hammer things into place. We focus on making sure the carts are sturdy enough to handle the weight of vegetables or whatever else the street vendors are selling. Sometimes we have five or six carts lined up outside waiting for repairs. It makes the sidewalk a bit narrow for people walking by. We don't have a big sign or any bright lights. Most people just know us by word of mouth in this neighborhood. My hands are usually stained with oil or paint, and the sound of the grinder is something we hear all day long. It is just honest manual labor. We take our lunch breaks sitting on the wooden planks of a half-finished cart. When the sun goes down, we pack up the tools and lock the gate, ready to do the same thing again the next morning.