Aakruti Glass

Out here at Ramgopal Industrial Estate in Mulund West, it’s mostly about the sound of glass being moved. Units 126 and 127 are where we spend our lives. It’s a heavy job, let me tell you. You have to be careful every single second or something is going to break. The floor is always covered in a bit of fine dust, no matter how much we sweep it up. We’ve got the big cutting tables and the racks where everything is stacked up. It’s a bit cramped sometimes when a new shipment comes in, and we have to shuffle things around just to find a place to stand. The guys here have been handling glass for years, so they don’t even think about it anymore, but it’s still tough work on the arms. We get a lot of people coming by asking for specific sizes, and half the time they aren't even sure what they need, so we have to measure it out for them. It’s not a glamorous place. It’s an industrial unit with old walls and fans that squeak. But it’s ours. We drink our tea near the entrance where there’s a bit of a breeze. When the sun starts to set over the estate, we start cleaning up the scraps and getting ready for the next morning. It’s a simple routine, and we don’t really change much because it works for us every single day.