Saurashtra Bricks

Our brick kiln is located in Uvarsad Gam, not too far from Adalaj, just off the Sarkhej Gandhinagar Highway. It’s a good spot because the highway is right there, but we’re far enough back that it feels a bit more like the countryside. We’ve been making and selling bricks here for a long time. It’s a very old-fashioned kind of business, mostly involving dirt, water, and fire. There’s always smoke from the kiln and piles of red bricks as far as you can see. It’s hard, physical work, and we’re usually covered in red dust from head to toe. We don’t have an office with air conditioning; we’re mostly just out in the open air. People come to us when they’re building a new house or a wall and need a few thousand bricks. We count them out, load up the tractors or trucks, and send them on their way. We don’t do any fancy marketing or have a logo on our shirts. Most of our customers are locals from the nearby villages or builders who have been buying from us for years. The weather affects us a lot—if it rains too much, we have to stop for a bit. But otherwise, we’re here every day making sure the fire stays lit and the bricks are ready. It’s a basic life, but it’s what we know how to do.