Kokane S Kohinoor Technical Institute

The institute is tucked away in Panchsheel Chawl No. 1 here in Mumbai. It isn't a fancy place with glass walls, but it gets the job done for the guys who come here. We’ve been around for a while now, and you can usually find us busy with some machine or other. The streets outside stay noisy with the usual Mumbai chaos, but inside, everyone is mostly focused on their hands. People come from all over the neighborhood to learn a trade because they want a better job. We have some old desks and the fans make a bit of a racket when it gets hot in the afternoons. It’s a lot of hard work, really. Sometimes the power goes out and we just sit and talk until it comes back on. That’s just how it is here. We don't have a big marketing team or anything like that. It is just a small spot where people come to pick up some skills. You walk past the shops and the tea stalls to find us. It’s not hard to spot once you know the lane. Most of the staff live nearby, so we know everyone’s face. It feels more like a community than a school most days. We spend a lot of time cleaning up grease and dust, but that's part of the learning. It’s a practical place for practical people.