Jayaram Flour Mills

It gets quite loud here in Ashok Nagar once the machines start running in the morning. Being on 2nd Panjarapole Lane at number 696, we are tucked away a bit. Most of the time, the air is full of that fine white dust from the grain we grind. We spend a lot of our day lifting heavy sacks and making sure the grinders are set right. People bring their own grain mostly. We watch the stones turn and wait for the flour to come out warm. It’s a simple setup we’ve got. There’s a wooden bench outside where people sit and talk while they wait. We don’t have any fancy signs or big displays to show off. The walls are a bit grey from years of work. Sometimes the power goes out and we just have to wait it out. It’s a lot of physical work, especially when the big deliveries arrive. We know most of the neighbors by name. They’ve been coming to 696 for years. The floor is always a bit slippery with flour, so we have to sweep it constantly or someone might fall. It’s not a quiet place to work, but you get used to the hum of the motors. We keep a ledger on the small desk by the door to keep track of things. My hands are usually covered in flour by noon. It’s just a regular mill in a regular lane, doing what we do.