T. K. Garments

Out here at 9 Devangapuram, things move at their own pace. T. K. Garments is basically a place where we spend most of our waking hours surrounded by the hum of sewing machines. It’s not a quiet street, there is always someone passing by or a dog barking at a bicycle. We have a few big tables where we spread out the cloth to cut it. My back usually aches by the end of the day from leaning over those tables, but that’s just part of the job. We keep the doors open most of the time to let a breeze in, even if it brings a bit of dust from the road. You can see the thread bits all over the floor by the afternoon, no matter how many times we try to sweep. We make all sorts of clothes here, mostly simple stuff that people need for their daily lives. We don't have a fancy showroom with glass windows. It is more of a workshop where people can come in and see us actually working. Sometimes a customer brings us a drawing or an old shirt they want us to copy, and we do our best with it. We have a small radio that stays on in the background, mostly playing old songs that help the time go by. It’s just a plain, honest workspace where we try to stay busy and keep the machines running through the week until the work is finished.