Inland

The Loura Building is one of those old Mumbai spots. We are at 13/21, right on the first Dhobi Talao lane. It’s very close to Metro Cinema. The area is always packed with people walking to the station or catching a movie. Our office is up some stairs that are a bit narrow. It smells like the city here—exhaust, street food, and old bricks. We do Inland things, which means a lot of coordination and paperwork. It can get very humid in the monsoon, and the walls get a bit damp. We have some old wooden cabinets that hold all our records. It’s not a modern glass office. We use local transport to get around most of the time. The noise from the street never really stops, so you just get used to it. We have a small window that looks out onto the lane, but there isn't much of a view. We drink our tea from the place around the corner. The tea here is stronger than what you get in the suburbs. Sometimes the phone lines act up, but we get by. We aren't a big corporation with thousands of employees. It’s just a few of us making sure things move from one place to another. You learn how to navigate the crowds after a few weeks of working here. It’s a real part of the old city. The ceiling fan clicks on every rotation but it keeps us cool.