Rukhsar Bags

You have to look for Ladka Patil Chawl on Dharavi Road to find us. Rukhsar Bags is in Office No. 6. It’s not the easiest place to find if you aren’t from around here. The chawl is always full of life, kids running around and people moving goods. Inside our space, it’s mostly the sound of the sewing machines. We have stacks of fabric and rolls of thread everywhere. This is basically where we cut and stitch all day. The light isn't the best, so we have these bright lamps over the workstations. It gets cramped when we have a big order of school bags or travel kits to finish. We keep the finished bags in plastic wraps so they stay clean before they go out. The air smells a bit like new fabric and machine oil. Working in Dharavi means everything moves fast and space is tight. We don’t have a big sign or a lobby. People just knock on the door or walk right in to talk about what kind of bag they want made. Most of the time, we’re hunched over the tables, measuring twice before we cut into the material. It’s a lot of repetitive work, but it feels good when you see a whole stack of completed bags ready for the market. We just do what we do, one stitch at a time, trying to keep up with the orders coming in.