Jain Rice World

Jain Rice World is over at Minto Road Press Road 20. When you walk in, the first thing you notice is the heavy scent of raw grain that stays in your clothes. We have big jute bags filled with different kinds of rice lined up all along the floor. Basmati, sona masuri, and broken rice—we keep a bit of everything for the customers. The floor is usually covered in a fine layer of dust from the sacks being moved around every day. It’s a bit of a workout lugging those fifty-kilo bags from the truck into the shop when the shipment arrives. Minto Road is a busy area with a lot of traffic passing by, so there’s always a bit of dust in the air. We’ve got a small wooden desk in the corner where we keep the ledger and a calculator that’s missing a button. Most of our customers are locals who buy in bulk for the month. We use an old-fashioned scale for some things, though we have a digital one now too. Sometimes the birds fly in through the open front and try to peck at the grains on the floor. We have to shoo them out pretty often during the afternoon. It’s a simple business, really. We buy the rice, we weigh it, and we sell it to the people who need it for their meals. There’s no fancy packaging or bright lights here.