Paappu Masala

You can find us at No:H2-44 in Poonga Nagar, which is part of the Rajagopalapuram area. We’ve been making Paappu Masala here for some time now. It’s a simple setup, nothing too fancy to look at from the outside. Inside, we have our grinders and the scales for weighing everything out. The smell of roasted spices is always hanging in the air around Poonga Nagar. Some days it’s coriander, other days it’s heavy on the cumin. We get the raw spices from the market and then spend the day cleaning them. It’s a slow process if you want to do it right. We have a small group of workers who have been with us for a while. We all know the routine by heart. There is a lot of bag tying and labeling involved once the masala is ground. We don't have a big marketing department or anything. We just put the stuff in the packets and stack them up. The room gets a bit hot because of the machines, so we keep the fans going at full speed. Sometimes the bags tear and we have to clean up the spill, which is a bit of a mess. Rajagopalapuram is a quiet enough place, and we just fit in with the other small businesses around here. We work until the sun goes down and then we clean the floors for the next day. It's honest work.