M. Ismail & Co.

Our workshop is Gala No 3 in the Babban Compound. It’s located in Yadav Nagar, which is a busy area near Sakinaka in Andheri East. To find us, you usually have to look for the Khan Medical Store on Khairani Road and then head into the compound. It’s a typical Mumbai gala—small, functional, and very busy. The walls are lined with tools and there is always some project spread out on the central table. We aren't a big company with a HR department or a marketing budget. It’s just us doing our daily work. The compound is full of other small businesses, so there is a constant background noise of hammering and metal clicking. It’s a bit crowded, especially when we have a lot of raw materials delivered. We have to be very organized to make sure we have room to move. The traffic on Khairani Road is notoriously bad, so we try to get our deliveries out early in the morning. We drink a lot of cutting chai from the local vendor who comes by twice a day. The lighting inside isn't the best, so we have some bright tube lights over the work benches. It’s a simple life. We’ve been in this gala for a long time and we know all the other shop owners in the Babban Compound. We focus on the work at hand and don't worry about sounding corporate or polished.