Muthulakshmi Steel

At Muthulakshmi Steel, we keep things pretty basic. Our shop is located at 65, Kovilpathu in Kalakkad. It’s a quiet area, and most of our customers are folks from right here in the village or the surrounding farms. We deal in various steel products that people need for building sheds or fixing up their houses. The steel is heavy and it sits in big stacks in our yard. Moving it around is hard work, especially when the sun is beating down on us in the afternoon. We don't have an air-conditioned office; we just have a small desk near the entrance where we keep our logbooks and a few chairs for visitors. My brother and I run the place with a couple of helpers from the neighborhood. We’ve known most of our clients since they were kids, so it feels more like a community spot. It’s the kind of place where you stop for a chat before you even talk about what you need to buy. We don’t bother with advertisements or big sales pitches. People know what we have and they know the price is fair. Sometimes we run out of a certain size of rod or sheet, and we have to wait for the truck to come from the city, but everyone is patient. We just take it day by day and try to keep enough stock. It’s a steady life and we like the rhythm of it.