Manikanta Rice Mill

Our rice mill is located out in Karjavelly, which is in the Bejjur mandal. It is a big building where the sound of the hullers never really stops during the busy harvest season. You can smell the grain from all the way down the main road. Farmers from all around the area bring their paddy here on tractors and bullock carts every day. We spend our days weighing the heavy bags and making sure the moisture is right for the machines. It is a very dusty job, and we all wear cloths over our faces to keep the husk out of our lungs when we are working. The machinery we use is old but it works well enough if you take care of it and oil it. My father bought the first machine years ago, and we have just kept things going. We have a small office where we sit and talk to the farmers about the prices and the weather. Sometimes the electricity cuts out and we just have to sit and wait, drinking tea until the power comes back on. It is a slow life in some ways, but it gets very busy in the winter. We see the seasons change through the types of grain that come through the door. We are not a huge operation, just a local mill serving the village. The floor is always slippery with rice bran, and we have to be careful where we walk.