Raj Plastic

Our factory is located in the Mahavir Industrial Estate, right behind where Kasam Bering is situated on National Highway 8b. Being so close to the highway means there is a constant sound of trucks passing by at all hours. Inside the unit, it is a different kind of noise—mostly the hum of the plastic molding machines and the cooling fans. We work with various types of plastics, melting them down and shaping them into different parts. The air inside can get pretty warm because of the heaters on the machines, so we keep the big doors open as much as we can. We are not a high-end design firm; we just make practical plastic items that people use. There are stacks of raw plastic granules in bags piled up in the corner, and finished crates ready to be loaded onto trucks. We usually have a few machines running at once, which requires us to keep a close eye on the temperature and the pressure. Sometimes a machine jams and we have to spend an hour or two with a wrench getting it sorted out. It is greasy work, and our hands are rarely clean by the end of the shift. We eat our lunch in the small shade outside when we get a break. The estate is full of other small workshops like ours, so there is a sense of everyone just doing their own thing to get by.