Poonam Bag Works

We spend most of our days here at Shop No. 40 on Sonawala Cross Road. It is quite easy to find if you are near the Axis Bank in Goregaon East. The shop is small and usually filled with bags of all kinds. Some are school bags with broken zippers and others are big travel suitcases that have seen better days. We have been here for a while now, just working on whatever comes through the door. Sometimes the sewing machines get really loud and we have to shout over them to hear each other. There is always a lot of thread on the floor. People bring us their favorite bags that they don’t want to throw away. We try to fix the handles or stitch up the holes so they can keep using them for a few more years. It is not fancy work, but it keeps us busy from morning till evening. The street outside is always crowded with traffic, so it gets quite dusty inside. We just keep a rag handy to wipe down the counters. We don't have a big team, just a few of us who know how to handle the heavy needles. Sometimes we run out of a specific color of fabric and have to wait for the next delivery. That is just how things go. We keep the doors open for the breeze, even though it doesn't help much in the summer.