R Harilal & Company

You can find us up on the 22nd floor of the Panchratna Building. If you know the Opera House area near Charni Road, you know it’s always packed with people and traffic. It’s a bit of a climb if the elevators are busy, but once you get up here, it’s a bit quieter than the street below. We’ve been operating from this same spot for quite some time now. Dealing with the day-to-day business involves a lot of phone calls and paperwork. It’s a classic Mumbai office setup. We aren't big on flashy decorations. Most of the desks are covered in ledgers and files. People come in and out all day, mostly regulars who have been working with us for years. The view from this high up is something else, though we usually have our heads down working. Being in the heart of the diamond district means things move fast around here. We just try to stay on top of the tasks at hand. It’s a family-style environment where everyone knows their job. We don’t really do big meetings; we just talk across the room. It’s how things have always been done here. Sometimes the tea lady comes by, and that’s when we take our main break. It’s a simple way to run things, but it works for us. We just keep our heads down and handle the daily load as it comes in. There is always someone checking a document or looking for a file.