Dusty nylon attaché case slung across his shoulder, the twenty-five-year old commutes from Vile Parle to South Mumbai on a daily basis. On most days, he’s accompanied by his brother and business partner, but today, he’s on his own. Navalbhai is drawing up designs for a potential client, while we catch up with Rekharam during lunch hour at the home of one of his clients. The duo run a small woodwork business, that’s complete with official title and letterhead: “JN Furniture,” Rekharam tells us, peeping into our notepad to see that we spell it correctly. “Sutar,” he says, when we ask for a family name. That’s what they do, that’s who they are — sutar — carpenters, right through the generations.

u00a0Zarina Ahmed in her kitchen at Colaba. Pic/Shadab Khan