Leather Valley

You can find Leather Valley right across from the Ashok Silk Mill Compound in Kala Killa. Being in Dharavi means there is always energy around us. We are pretty close to the Sector 16 Metro Station too, which makes it easy to get here. The workspace is where we spend most of our lives. It’s crowded with scraps of leather and heavy thread. We don’t have a big sign out front, just the name above the door. Most of our days are spent cutting and stitching. It’s manual work and it’s tiring, but we’ve been doing it for a long time. The noise from the metro station mixes with the sounds of our tools. We don't mind it much. Sometimes we have to move boxes around just to find a place to sit. It’s not the most organized shop in the world, but we know where everything is. The guys working here are local. We talk about the weather or the cricket scores while we work. The leather comes in big batches and we have to inspect every bit of it. It’s a lot of staring at textures and colors. We aren't trying to be anything we aren't. This is just a place where leather gets turned into things people use. That’s enough for us. It keeps us busy and the neighborhood is familiar.