As Engineering Works

Over at Patel Nagar, we run As Engineering Works. It’s a small place, mostly just a workshop where we take in repair jobs and some small-scale fabrication. If you walk inside, you’ll probably see someone hunched over a lathe or welding something in the corner. We don’t have a big sign or a fancy entrance, just the usual metal shutters. Most people in the neighborhood know us as the place to go when a machine part breaks or they need something custom-made from steel. It gets pretty greasy in here, and my hands are almost never clean, no matter how much soap I use. We started this shop because there was a need for quick repairs without having to go all the way to the big industrial estates. Sometimes the work is slow, and we just spend the afternoon cleaning the tools or organizing the scrap pile. Other times, we have so much to do that we’re still working long after the sun goes down. We don’t use any complicated software to run the business; it’s all kept in a few ledgers and on scraps of paper. It’s a simple way of doing things, but it works for us. We’ve had some of the same machines for twenty years, and they still run better than the new ones if you treat them right. We’re just local people doing our bit for the town, one weld at a time.