Chandni Chowk is the heart of old Delhi. Its lanes and katras hold thousands of shops and wholesale houses, many in buildings over a hundred years old. No delivery vehicle reaches most of them. The work here is shop counters, display glass and shopfronts, and every job is planned around how the glass gets through the lanes.
Glass that must travel by hand cart
In most of Chandni Chowk, a van cannot get near the shop. It stops where the road allows, and the glass goes the rest of the way on a hand cart or by hand.
That puts a hard limit on panel size. Each piece must fit on a cart, clear the lane and pass through the shop door.
We walk the route when we measure. Then every panel is sized to reach the shop in one piece.
Counters and display cases
Much of the glass work here is inside the shop. Counters, display cases and shelves, especially in jewellery, sarees and wholesale shops.
Display glass takes daily handling and must look clean. We fit toughened glass with polished edges, so there are no sharp corners on a counter that customers lean on.
For jewellery counters, laminated glass adds security.
Working in a hundred-year-old building
Many shops here are in buildings over a century old. Walls lean, floors slope and nothing is square.
So we measure every opening and counter carefully, at several points. A panel cut to one measurement would not fit an old, uneven space.
We also start very early, before the lanes fill with shoppers and handcarts.
