priyankajain

Four years ago I was supposed to do a project on “Glass” for my course requirements.

It talks about how I found a glass shop, what I observed about a glass shop, the owner, a virtual picture of his shop accompanied by a few photographs [I used an old Yashica camera with a black and white roll. Will upload the pictures within this week.]

The Search

The search for a glass shop started with real madness. You don’t know where you would find one and then you never needed to visit one! Being new to Mumbai, I was enjoying exploring my surroundings here

After walking in and around the Lion Gate, Colaba, the lanes near Reserve Bank of India, then finally found one in Bora bazaar. [South Mumbai, its called town in local parlance]

The Aura Around

I went to Bora bazaar area thrice, first I sat at the tea shop (a small kitli joint) opposite the glass shop and kept observing peoplewho were working inside and those who were visiting the shop.

Just outside the 25X12 shop, there was a wooden lorry, which has two side hangers; [you can see them in the Picture 1.]

Bora bazaar area is very busy in the day time and the rush is slightly low during lunch hours I couldn’t get an uninterrupted view of the shop from the place I was sitting so after an hour I decided to walk to the shop and get the inside view.

The Glass Shop
The entire shop had a wooden floor; this lessens the possibility ofbreaking the glass if it falls. As I entered the glass shop on theright hand side facing the side where the sun rises, was the owner’scounter.

According to Vaastu, he said it was auspicious to sit on that side.There were huge posters of various Jain Gods and Godesses and the “Navkar Mahamantra” [http://www.jainnet.com/navkar.html] inscribed on a poster behind him.

On the table there was a wooden case with ten shelves, which had different types of glass. These samples are shown to the customer, carpenter, construction engineer, housewives etc. He enlightened me that even though there are no established brands in the glass market yet some local names like Modiguard, Balsurya, Asianglasses are preferred by customers who come personally to choose glass.

Otherwise mostly the carpenter takes any glass that fits his budget and helps him get maximum profit. Not only this, the carpenters and these glass owners have an understanding, if thecarpenter buys from a shop, the owner gives him commission.This is because most people are not bothered what type or quality of glass they are buying.

Rates of these glasses depend on their thickness and size. The goods are delivered at the person’s place atno additional cost.

While I was standing there, a weary looking carpenter came in. he was perspiring and top buttons of his shirt were unbuttoned and he was looking damn tired. I wondered what he had come there for.

Sensing that he could be a customer, I brought my questions to a halt for a while and diverted my attention to the details of the shop and to their conversation.

That guy said 3.5mm mein batao. The owner showed him a few samples of glass kept on his table. The person selected, bargained for almost half the rate he was told and within minutes a deal worth lakhs was over ! [who says lakhon ki deal fancy board rooms mein blazer pehne log hi kartein hai?]

After the customer left, I told the owner, that everything seems very unorganised to which he agreed and went on to say that for small shops like ours this is the best way it works. “My family has been in the business for three generations now.”

I looked at him and smiled. He did not return the smile.

The glass shop owners I found were very business kinds and would not be very sweet or courteous to you, may be because they are used to talking to carpenters and the like.

There’s one more hitch to buying glass directly: the customer mostly do not have a clue of the market rates and the types of glasses available. “We tell them higher prices, then give them discounts and when they buy and leave, they feel glad of having got a good bargain.

[More so in the case of ladies, he said and smiled for the firsttime]

Pic 4
On the opposite side of the counter there was a huge wooden table like thing, which is used for cutting glass.

Behind it on the wall there are Posters and pin-ups of a few glass manufacturers. Have a look at the pic. A little further in the shop,there is a little space with huge wooden partitions to store glassesof different sizes.

Pic 5
Many a times, while cutting glass these people get injured. The owner himself had three stitches in this year alone. Wonder if there can be something they can use to safeguard their hands.

No snaps please! Till I was asking questions the owner was very co-operative. The moment I asked him if I could click some snaps, he asked me to leave.

I tried to reason, showed him my college IDcard, but nothing would convince him, nor the fact that I was astudent and needed his help, neither that I belonged to his religion.(I felt a damn fool to be harping on this fact, because never did I resort to this for anything before.)

However, I saw myself at his shop again the next day (see how persistent I am) this day he was in a better mood but still stuck about not taking snaps, However, he told me to come the next day assuring nothing about taking the snaps. [in my mind I was cursing him, does this bugger think, my professor would give me all the time in the world to complete the project?]

However I had no choice so I decided to come again.

The next day when I reached his shop around afternoon, he was not around, hence I took the liberty of asking his men to model, and pose with glasses, while I was capturing them in the camera I had borrowed from college for over three days now.

I thought things were going fine, so I ventured to the other room in the shop where they cut huge pieces of glass. Just as I was about to shoot, the owner entered. Instead of being calm, I got damn scared and I told him I have only taken the lorry snap and he started shouting, using abusive language I tried to answer, he would not listen and he was standing so near to me, that I could almost feel the anger, I reminded him that he asked me to come today and bla bla,

Ideas

While sitting near a window covered with blinds, that were kept to shun the sun out, I thought why not have manually tainted /electronically tainted glass.

Think about this, if its possible to turn a knob or adjust a switch and have your window tint to complete black or any other darker shade to block the sunlight while still allowing you to see out of the window.

Imagine never to have to pull the blinds, just to adjust the shades,or having a remote control to darken the glass or lighten the glassas per our needs, or probably a self tinting glass, like a room temperature controlled air conditioner.