Dalal Printers

You have to climb up to the 3rd floor of the Gandhi Building to find us. We are at 542, right on S V P Grant Road near the Mahakali Road crossing. The stairs are a bit steep and the elevator is temperamental, but it’s just part of being here. The smell of ink hits you as soon as you open the door to the shop. We have these old printing presses that take up a lot of space and make a rhythmic clacking sound when they are running at full speed. There are piles of cardstock and paper scraps all over the floor, and we try to sweep them up at the end of each shift. Grant Road is a loud place, so there is always the sound of horns and shouting coming up from the street. It gets pretty warm in here because of the machinery, so we keep the windows open as much as possible to catch a breeze. Most of our day at Dalal Printers is spent mixing colors and feeding paper into the machines. Our clothes usually have a few spots of ink on them by lunchtime. We use a lot of heavy metal plates and rollers that need constant cleaning. It’s a messy job, but there is something about seeing the finished sheets come out the other end. We don’t have a fancy lobby. People just walk straight into the workspace where we are working.