Jb Fly Ash Bricks

Down in Indpahi Village, near the Baripada Post Office, is where we make our fly ash bricks. It’s a bit out of the main town, in the Baripada Tehsil area of Mayurbhanj. We decided to use fly ash because it’s what was available and it works well for building. The process is different from the old red bricks. We use machines to press them into shape. It’s a lot of grey powder and cement. The yard is usually covered in a fine dust, no matter how much we sweep. We started this because we saw a lot of construction happening around the district. My cousins help me run the place. We have a couple of old trucks for moving the bricks to the sites. Sometimes the machines break down and we have to spend the whole day fixing them with greasy hands. It’s frustrating, but that’s part of the trade. The village is quiet, which I like. You can hear the birds when the machines are off. We have a small office where we keep the records in big notebooks. It's not digital or anything like that. We prefer writing things down. Local contractors come by to check the quality. We just show them the stacks in the yard. It’s a basic operation. We work when there's demand and rest when it's slow. That's the way it goes here in Mayurbhanj. It keeps the family fed and the wheels turning.