Akash Decorators

Out here at Ghorpadi in the New Timber Yard Layout on Mysore Road 71, our warehouse is usually a big mess of colors. We have hundreds of folded metal chairs stacked against the walls and long rolls of bright fabric tucked into the corners. Most of our life is spent loading and unloading trucks with bamboo poles, wooden stages, and heavy rolls of carpet. It’s a seasonal kind of business, so during the wedding months, we hardly get any sleep at all and work through the night. We are always rushing from one ground to another, trying to get the tents up before the sun gets too high or the event starts. The fabric sometimes gets torn or stained, so we spend the quiet afternoons sitting on the warehouse floor with needles and thread, fixing things up. Our hands are calloused from pulling rough ropes and carrying heavy planks of wood all day. When we aren't at a site, we are back here in the layout, hosing down the plastic chairs or checking the lights to see if any bulbs have blown out. It’s a lot of physical labor and sweating under the hot sun, but it’s what we’ve been doing for many years. We don't have a fancy office to show people photos; they usually just see us working on-site with our tools and ladders. We just focus on getting the stage built and the curtains hung straight.