SIAME

Our office is tucked away in the Laxmi Nagar housing society over in Thane West. It’s actually in the A-403 block, so you have to walk past the main gate and head up. It’s a quiet enough area on Pokhran Road No. 1, though the traffic outside can get a bit loud during the rush hour in the evenings. We’ve been operating SIAME from this spot for a while now. It feels more like a home office than those big glass buildings you see in the city. There’s a tea stall just around the corner where we usually grab a quick break when things get stressful. Dealing with the co-operative housing society rules means we keep things low-key. We don't have a big flashing sign or anything like that. People usually find us through word of mouth or by asking the security guard at the Vartak Nagar entrance. It’s mostly just us handling the day-to-day tasks on our desks, surrounded by files and the usual office clutter. The space is a bit tight, especially when we have a lot of paperwork piled up, but it works for what we need to do. Sometimes the lift in the building is slow, so we end up taking the stairs. It’s just a regular place where a few of us show up every day to get the work finished. We know our neighbors and they know us, which makes it feel like we belong in this part of Thane.