The Furniture

Andheri is always crowded, especially around the Mittal Estate area. We are tucked away in unit 6/15 and have been here for years. The road outside, Andheri Kurla Road, is basically a permanent traffic jam, so we hear car horns all day long. We do furniture work here. It stays dusty most of the time because of all the sanding and cutting we do. We have wood stacks in every corner and the smell of polish is always pretty strong. It is a small space, but we manage to fit all the tools and the workbenches inside. My father started this years ago when the estate looked very different. Now there are so many offices around us. We mostly build things like tables and chairs, basically things people actually need for their homes. Sometimes we do small repairs if a neighbor brings in a broken chair leg. It is not a showroom at all; it is a real workshop. You have to step over wood scraps just to get to the back office. We have a few guys who have worked here for over a decade. They know their way around a saw better than anyone. Lunch is usually brought from home and we eat it right on the worktables. It is a bit noisy with the metro construction nearby, but we have gotten used to it. If you are looking for us, look for the big blue door at unit 6/15.