Moradabad Brass Works

Moradabad is Peetal Nagri — the brass city. The clang of the thathera’s hammer is the sound I grew up inside.

I do the engraving — the nakkashi — cutting fine patterns into brass by hand before it is oxidised and polished. A single tray can hold ten thousand chisel marks.

Machines stamp brass now, flat and lifeless. Hand-engraving catches the light differently as you turn it. That difference is my whole life’s work.