Indian Bureau Of Mines, Ministry Of Mines, Govt Of India

Jodhpur is a hot place, especially when you are working out of an office like A-317 in Shastri Nagar. This is the Indian Bureau of Mines, under the Ministry of Mines. It sounds very official, and it is, but inside it’s just a lot of us working through files and maps. Being part of the government means things follow a certain path. We spend a lot of time looking at mining data and making sure the rules are being followed. Shastri Nagar is a decent area, quite central, so we get a lot of visitors from the different mining sites around Rajasthan. The walls are lined with old cabinets and there’s always the smell of paper and ink. It gets quite busy during the reporting season. We aren't trying to be anything flashy. Our job is just to keep track of what’s coming out of the ground and making sure it’s done the way the Govt of India wants. Sometimes the computers are slow, or the heat makes everyone a bit tired, but the work gets done. If you walk past A-317, you’ll see the government plates and the usual hustle. It’s a steady kind of life here. We’ve been in this Jodhpur spot for a long time, helping manage the mineral wealth of the country without making a big fuss about it. Just daily work, one file at a time, until the day is over and we head home.