Rag Trade India

Our place is in Noida, over in Sector 22, at H-I66. The rag trade is exactly what it sounds like—we deal with fabrics and clothing. It’s a noisy, busy part of the city, and our office is usually full of samples, cut pieces, and bolts of cloth. There’s always a faint smell of textiles in the air. We’ve been in this sector for a long time, and we’ve seen shops come and go, but we’ve managed to stick around. It’s not a clean, white-walled studio. It’s a working space where things get messy and people are always rushing to meet a deadline. We spend a lot of time negotiating with suppliers and checking the quality of the materials coming in. Sometimes a batch isn't right and we have to send it back, which is always a headache. We don't have a big marketing team; most of our business comes from people we’ve known for years. The building is just a standard Noida structure, nothing special to look at from the outside. But inside, there’s a lot of activity. We work long hours when a big order is due, and the chai man knows exactly when to show up. It’s a tough business sometimes, but it’s what we know how to do. We don't make any big promises, we just try to get the fabric out to the people who need it without making too many mistakes.