Sonia Engg. Works (P) Ltd.

Our place is Gi-3 over in the Azadpur part of the G.T. Karnal Road Industrial Area. It’s an engineering shop, so don't expect it to be clean. There is a lot of machinery and oil around. We’ve been operating as a private limited company for a while, but it still feels like a small family shop most days. We do a lot of turning and milling. Some of the lathes we use are older than the guys operating them, but they still cut straight. People bring us drawings and we try to make sense of them. Sometimes the measurements are a bit off, so we have to talk it through. It's a lot of metal shavings on the floor by the end of the day. We usually have a radio playing somewhere in the back to keep the mood okay. Azadpur is always congested, so getting deliveries in takes longer than it should. We don't have a website or anything like that. If people want work done, they just come to the gate. We’ve got a small office room where we keep the paperwork, but nobody likes sitting in there for long. It’s better to be out where the machines are. We keep things moving. It isn't always easy, and sometimes a machine breaks down and ruins the whole afternoon. We just fix it and keep going until the job is done.