Chaliawala Kishore Ratila

Down here at 11/1286-87 in Surat, things are a bit different than the newer parts of town. We are right in Nagarsheth No Vando at Kriative Corner. It’s an old area, lots of history in these walls, and you can feel it when you walk through the narrow lanes. Opposite us is Juni Viththal Wadi. It gets really crowded during festival times. Chaliawala Kishore Ratila has been around for a long time. We aren’t some big corporation with a hundred employees. It’s just us here, working in this corner of the city. The building has its quirks, like the way the door sticks in the monsoon. We don't mind. We deal with all sorts of people every day. Some are in a hurry, others want to sit and talk for an hour. We try to be patient. Surat is a busy city, but in this vando, things feel a little more connected to how they used to be. You won’t find any shiny glass walls here. Just old-fashioned work and a lot of familiar faces. Sometimes the power goes out and we just sit outside until it comes back. It’s just the way life is in this part of Surat. We do what we do, and we’ve been doing it long enough that we don’t really know any other way to spend our time. This place is just part of who we are now, for better or worse.