If we were to think of childhood and safety in a unified thought, steel vaults and almirahs would stick out among the many smells and sights. The eidetic images of the metal are oddly pleasant. This writer ponders their collective sway as beyond the limits of the household; steel defined a class of people, an aspiration for secure nuclear families. But the alloy follows a journey interwoven with the history of a free nation. 

A group of students — pursuing a certificate course in archive management — were piqued to look closer into the evolution of steel during the 1950s and ’60s. The course offered by Godrej Archives, in association with Ramnarain Ruia Autonomous College, Matunga, prompted these young researchers to scan old magazines that feature ads on steel products and machinery. The alloy has slowly and surely transitioned, and its growth comes alive in a display called Steel Saga at the Godrej and Boyce campus in Vikhroli.