Dhoble & Co.

We are located at 547 in the Mahatma Phule Market near Marine Lines. If you know the area, you know it’s the old Crawford Market, which is basically the heart of trading in Mumbai. Our shop is old, with high ceilings and heavy wooden doors that have been there for decades. It’s always crowded and noisy outside with loaders and buyers shouting. Inside, it smells like old paper and whatever goods are being moved that day. We have a tiny mezzanine floor where we keep the old ledgers. My father used to sit at the same desk where I sit now. We don't use fancy computers for everything; we still like to write things down in our big red books sometimes. It’s a very traditional way of doing business. We know all the other shopkeepers around us, and we often share news or a meal. It’s not the cleanest place in the world, and the monsoon season can be a real struggle with the dampness, but we wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. We don’t have a website or a social media page. People just know us because we’ve been here forever. If you want to talk to us, you just come to the market and find the stall number. It’s straightforward and honest work without any of the modern fluff people seem to like these days. We just keep the business going as it always has.