Jai Mata Di Besan Mill

Our mill is right at Darima Mod in Ambikapur. If you come by, you’ll see the Jai Mata Di Besan Mill sign and probably smell the ground chana in the air long before you get to the door. We spend our days turning chickpeas into besan. It’s a loud process. The grinding stones and the electric motors make a constant thumping sound that we’ve all gotten used to over the years. Everything in here is covered in a light yellow powder. It’s on our clothes, the windows, and the ledges. We don’t mind it much. It’s just the nature of the work we do. People from the village and the town come here to get their flour fresh instead of buying the packets in the store. We don't have a fancy storefront. It’s just the mill and the place where we weigh the bags on the floor. The scales are old and a bit rusty but they work fine for what we need. Sometimes the farmers bring their own crops for us to grind, and we have to keep those bags separate from our own stock so nobody gets confused. It’s a lot of keeping track of who owns what. Darima Mod is a busy junction, so there's always something happening outside the door with the traffic. We stay busy from morning till evening, especially during the festival seasons when everyone is making sweets. We just do our work and hope the machines don't give us too much trouble today. It’s a good, honest living.