Ashok Engineers

Writing about the morning routine, the sound of the gate sliding open at Plot No. 323-a. The GIDC Industrial Estate is a loud place, especially in the mornings when everyone starts their machines. We’ve been at this spot for a good while now. You can see the stains on the floor from years of oil and metal work. It’s not a fancy place, just some walls and a roof that leaks a bit when it rains hard in July. Most of the guys here have been working together for years, so we don't really have to say much to get the job done. Sometimes the tea stall man comes by around eleven, and that’s when we take a break. The air smells like old grease and cooled steel. Ashok started this place without much, and it shows in the way things are built—solid but a bit messy around the edges. We keep the scrap piled up in the corner until the truck comes to take it away once a month. It gets hot in the afternoons, especially when the fans just push the warm air around. We don't have a big sign out front, just the name painted on the pillar. If you walk past the main road, you can hear the lathes humming. It’s just how we do things here every day without making a big fuss about it.