St. Josephs Workshop

St. Josephs Workshop is right there in Hoige Bazar, very close to the railway gate in Bolar. You can hear the trains going by all day, which you just get used to after a while. It’s an old part of Mangalore, and the workshop fits right in. We do a lot of metal work and mechanical stuff. It’s noisy and there are sparks flying sometimes when someone is welding. The floor is usually covered in scrap metal and sawdust, depending on what project is going on that week. We don't really bother with making the place look pretty for visitors. It’s a workshop, not a mall. Most of the people who come to us have been coming for years or their fathers used to bring work here. We just handle whatever comes through the gate. Sometimes it’s a small fix, other times it’s a big job that takes a week. We’ve got a couple of guys who have been here forever and they know exactly where every tool is, even if it looks like a mess to anyone else. It gets hot under the roof in the summer, but we just drink a lot of water and keep at it. We don't have a website or anything like that. People just know where the railway gate is and they find us. It’s honest work and we just try to do right by the people in Bolar. We’ve been here a long time and hope to stay.