Mariappan Engineering Works

You’ll find Mariappan Engineering Works at 161 Ettayapuram Road in Tuticorin, over in the Meenakshipuram area. It’s a busy road with a lot of trucks passing by. Our workshop has been here for a long time. We have old lathes and drills that have been running since I can remember. The air always has that smell of cut metal and oil. It’s not a place where you’d want to wear your best clothes. We spend the whole day fixing parts and making new ones when the old ones can't be saved. It’s mostly just us and the sound of the machines. We don't do a lot of talking while the work is going on because it’s too loud anyway. People from all over the area bring their broken stuff to us because they know we’ve seen it all before. We don't have a polished showroom or a catalogue. If you have a problem, you bring the part in and we look at it. Sometimes it takes a while to get it just right, but we don't rush things if they aren't ready. The tea break is the best part of the afternoon when we can sit outside for a minute away from the noise and the heat. Then it's back to the bench until the sun goes down and we can finally lock up for the night. That's a typical day for us here, just keeping things running.