I am a factory kid.

My father spent his whole life manufacturing medical devices. So for me, summer vacations meant spending hours in the factory. I would be genuinely excited to go in, to walk between the materials, to watch things get made. I still remember the first time I saw PUF expand, foam growing out of almost nothing, and being completely fascinated. For my summer projects I would collect bits of different materials off the floor. Watching machinery bend and cut and mould things felt like magic to me. It still does.

This week, a week before VizChitra, I did something a little adventurous. I flew to Pune. Not for a holiday, but because I got the chance to be inside a factory again.

A standee at Forbes Marshall introducing the session: Gurman Bhatia, Revisual Labs, a workshop on storytelling through data visualisation, June 26.

Forbes Marshall was celebrating Industrial Design Day, and they were kind enough to have me over. I ran a short, two hour introductory data visualisation training for the team.

A corridor in the Forbes Marshall R&D building, set up for Industrial Design Day with product display boards along the pillars and tall white-draped tables. The corridor, set up for Industrial Design Day.

We went through the way I think about all of it. The three modes I keep returning to, Explore, Explain and Examine. How to think about who you are actually talking to. How to write with data, and how to encode it well. What makes a chart good, and what makes one fall flat. The quiet work that words do, and the work that visuals do. It is a lot to fit into two hours, but they were a sharp, curious room.

A large screen in the workshop reads "What makes a story memorable?", surrounded by handwritten notes like Hero, Villain, Twist, Climax, Nostalgia. Two hours on telling stories with data.

The feedback I got was that it was fun and engaging 👏, which is honestly the nicest thing you can hear when you teach. I had carried a few Revisual stickers, postcards and tip sheets along. They almost disappeared from the room, and that small thing made me very happy.

The full training room at Forbes Marshall, rows of people seated under a hexagonal acoustic ceiling, smiling at the camera. A sharp, curious room.

And the honest truth is they taught me more than I taught them. So much of our world in design and tech is consumed by AI right now. Those of us who sit in front of a screen all day talk about little else. What held me on that floor was something else entirely. How a steam trap works. How condensate is pulled out of a boiler. How an engineer coaxes a little more efficiency out of a system that already runs well. It is tangible, and it works at real scale.

Gurman with three members of the Forbes Marshall team, standing in front of their Steam Axia machines on the factory floor. With the Forbes Marshall team, in front of their Steam Axia machines.

I walked out of that room energised. Passion is infectious, and being around people who love what they do is one of the best things you can do for yourself.

I had a blast. Lovely people, lovely vibes. I learnt a lot and came back inspired. Honestly, it felt like Disneyland. For a few hours I was the young kid again, thrilled to be in the factory.

Thank you, Forbes Marshall, for having me.