Uttam Metal (India)

We’ve been set up at 10/1 Bhandari Street for quite some time now. It’s right in the 1st Kumbharwada Lane, which is a place known for metal and hard work. The lanes here are very narrow and you have to be careful not to get bumped by a handcart or a delivery bike. Our shop is simple and filled with all kinds of metal pieces. It smells like iron and old grease in here, but we’re used to it after all these years. We spend the day weighing things out and talking to customers who come in looking for specific items. It’s a lot of manual labor and our hands are usually dirty by the time we go home. Bhandari Street is a busy place and there’s always someone shouting or a horn honking nearby. We don't have a big office, just the shop floor and a small corner where we keep the books and the phone. We eat our lunch right here among the metal stacks most days. It’s a traditional way of doing business and we like it that way. We aren't interested in being some big corporate firm. We just want to do our work and look after the people who buy from us. The Kumbharwada area has its own history and we’re just a small part of it. It’s a tough environment but we’ve been doing this long enough that it’s just normal life.