Jasnath Bricks

Down here on the Jodhpur Road By Pass Circle, things stay pretty active. We are located in the Balotra area, and the heat in this part of Rajasthan is no joke. You can see the dust devils dancing across the bypass road on windy days. Our site is right near the circle, so we see a lot of people passing through toward Jodhpur or back into the main tehsil. The work here is mostly about moving earth and watching the kilns. We spend the morning checking the stacks and making sure the loading is done right. It is a dry place, so we are always looking for a bit of shade to stand in for a minute. The bricks are piled high, and we use old tarps to cover them when the rare rain comes. We do not bother with big signs or flashy lights. Everyone in Balotra knows where the bypass circle is. My hands are usually rough from handling the bricks all day, and the boots do not stay clean for more than five minutes. We keep a ledger on a wooden table that wobbles a bit. It is just us and the bricks out here. Sometimes the transport trucks take a while to arrive, so we sit and talk about the local news. It is a plain business, run by people who do not mind getting their hands dirty every single day.