Mahendra Leather Works

Mahendra Leather Works is located in Room No 226/6/10, right in the heart of Dharavi. We are in the Laxmi Naraya area, just opposite the Indira Qureshi Nagar Lane. If you know Dharavi, you know how these lanes are—narrow and always full of activity. We’ve been working with leather here for a long time. It’s what this area is known for, after all. The shop is small and smells like raw hide and polish, which is something you just get used to. We do everything by hand mostly. Cutting, stitching, and finishing leather goods takes time and patience. It’s a lot of manual labor, and our hands are usually stained by the end of the day. We don’t have a fancy storefront. People find us because they know the quality of the work we do. We take orders from locals and sometimes from people further away who heard about us. The noise from the street is constant, with bikes and people moving past the lane all day long. We just sit at our benches and focus on the pieces we are making. It’s hard work, especially in the heat, but it’s what we know how to do. There’s no big corporate strategy here. We just make leather items and try to earn a decent living like everyone else in the neighborhood.