Gilly Sheet Metal Works

Down at 8 Mhatre Wadi in Ratnadeep Colony, you can usually hear us before you see us. Gilly Sheet Metal Works is located in Shasti Nagar, right opposite where the old Bhaichand Textile Mill used to be. It’s a bit of an older part of town with a lot of history. Working with sheet metal is loud and dusty work, so our shop is never exactly clean. There are scraps of metal and tools lying around on the workbenches most of the time. We have been in this colony for quite a while now. The neighbors are used to the sound of cutting and hammering. It’s a practical setup, not a showroom. We have our machines and our materials stacked up along the walls. When the sun hits the metal, it gets pretty warm in there, so we keep the doors open to catch whatever breeze comes through Mhatre Wadi. It’s a hands-on life. We don't spend much time in front of computers because the real work happens on the shop floor. People drop by with sketches or just an idea of what they need made out of metal. We look it over, give them a straight answer, and get to work. It’s honest labor in a part of Mumbai that still feels like a community. Opposite the mill, things have changed over the years, but we just keep doing our metalwork day by day. We have some heavy gloves and safety gear hanging by the entrance for whenever we start the machines.