Amrut M Vernekar

My name is Amrut M Vernekar and my office is in the Fort area of Mumbai. Specifically, I am on the 4th floor of the Jeevan Jyot building at 18/20 Fort W-Iv. This part of the city is full of old architecture and narrow streets that are always packed with people and vendors. My office is up several flights of stairs, and by the time I get to the top, I’m usually a bit out of breath. The building is quite old, and it has that specific smell of aged paper and stone that you only find in south Mumbai. I’ve been here for years, and my desk is positioned so I can see a bit of the sky between the taller buildings outside. It’s a small space, filled with books and files that I’ve collected over my career. I don't have a big team or a lot of high-tech equipment, just a phone and my files. The pace of work here is steady, and I see a lot of regular faces who have been coming to this building for as long as I have. Sometimes the power goes out for a few minutes, or the monsoon rain leaks a little near the window, but we just put a bucket down and keep going. Fort is a place with a lot of history, and I feel like this office is a small part of that old-world way of doing things.