Master Color

Master Color is tucked away at 1484 Chandni Chowk, and if you know this part of Delhi, you know how cramped and loud it gets. We are right near the old Moti Cinema, which isn't what it used to be, but it’s a good landmark for people trying to find us. The shop is filled with cans of paint stacked up to the ceiling. It smells like thinner and wet plaster in here most of the time. I’ve been working here so long I don't even notice the smell anymore. We spend our days mixing colors for people who are fixing up their old houses in the lanes nearby. Sometimes a customer brings in a piece of cloth or a faded photo and asks if we can match the blue or the red exactly. We try our best with the old mixing machine we have. It’s a bit temperamental and makes a loud grinding noise, but it gets the job done. The sidewalk outside is always crowded, so we have to move the ladders and the big drums inside every evening before we lock the shutters. It’s a lot of heavy lifting. My back usually aches by five o'clock. We don't have a website or anything like that. If people want paint, they just walk in or call the landline that’s been sitting on the same wooden desk for twenty years. It’s a busy, messy, colorful way to spend the day.