Sona 1 Brick Field

Sona 1 Brick Field is located in College Para, right in the Basirhat area of North 24 Parganas. It’s a busy spot, especially with the college students passing by all the time. We have a fairly large field where we lay out the mud to dry. The process is pretty much the same as it was twenty years ago. We depend a lot on the sun, so when the clouds come out, everyone gets a bit nervous. Our workers are mostly from the local villages and they’ve been doing this since they were young. There is always a lot of shouting and noise when the trucks are being loaded, but it’s a good kind of energy. We keep a small hut at the entrance where we take down orders and talk to customers. It’s usually dusty and smells like smoke from the kiln, but we’ve stopped noticing that. The water from the nearby channels helps with the mixing, though sometimes it gets too muddy during the high tide or heavy rains. We don't have a website or any of that stuff. If people need bricks, they just come down to College Para and talk to us directly. We’ve built a lot of relationships over the years just by being here every day. It’s hard, physical labor, and by the end of the day, everyone is exhausted. But seeing the stacks of finished bricks ready to go makes it feel like we accomplished something.