Riteshkumar Balwantrai Bodawala

Our place is located in the Bodawala Estate, which is part of the Gotalawadi area in Surat. The specific address is 15/439, Paiky. It’s a little bit tucked away near the Godia Pir Dargah, so you have to look closely for the turn. It’s a very busy part of town, especially being in Katargam. We’ve been a part of this estate for many years now. It’s a family-run thing, which is why my own name is on the business. We don't have a lot of employees, just a few people we have known and trusted for a long time. The office space is quite small and usually filled to the brim with papers, ledgers, and various samples. We spend a good portion of our time talking to traders and other people from the local market. Surat is a city that is always moving fast, and we just try our best to keep up with everything. It gets really loud outside with all the scooters, rickshaws, and trucks passing by the gate. We don't have any fancy air conditioning systems, just a couple of big ceiling fans that move the warm air around. It’s a very practical and basic workspace for us. We drink quite a lot of tea throughout the day to keep going. People often just drop by without calling us first, which is perfectly fine. We just pull up another chair for them and talk about business.