Five Star Dehydration Pvt. Ltd.

The building for Five Star Dehydration Pvt. Ltd. sits right on Rampara Road. If you walk by, you can usually smell whatever we are drying that day, whether it’s onions or something else. It’s a strong scent that sticks to your clothes. The machines we use for the dehydration process are pretty loud, so we have to shout over them sometimes. It’s a big open space with lots of trays and racks everywhere. We spend a lot of our time making sure the temperature is right because if it’s too hot or too cold, the whole batch can get ruined. The floor is always a bit damp from washing the vegetables before they go into the dryers. We have a small crew and most of us have been here for a long time. Rampara Road gets dusty in the summer, which means we have to be extra careful about keeping everything covered. When the monsoon hits, the sound of the rain on the metal roof is so loud you can’t hear anything else. We don’t have fancy uniforms or a lobby for visitors. Most of the time we are just in our boots and aprons getting the work done. It’s a simple operation, really. We take the raw stuff, dry it out, and pack it into big bags. It’s honest work and it keeps us busy from sunrise to sunset.