Gurukiruba Rice Mandi

We are based in Thondamuthur, very close to the Vedapatti Psg School. You can usually smell the grain when you get close to our gate. The mandi is a big open space where we keep all the sacks piled up high. It’s heavy work, moving those bags around all day, but we are used to it by now. We get the rice from different places and then people come by to buy what they need for their homes or shops. The floor is always a bit dusty from the husks, no matter how much we sweep it. We start early in the morning before the school kids start walking past. It’s good to get the heavy lifting done before it gets too hot in the afternoon. We have a small scale for weighing everything out and a desk where we keep the notes. My uncle used to run things here, and now it’s mostly me and a couple of helpers. We don't have a website or anything fancy. People just know where we are because of the sign out front and the stacks of bags. Sometimes the rain makes things difficult because we have to move everything inside quickly to keep it dry. But mostly, it’s just the same routine every week. We talk to the farmers, talk to the customers, and keep the rice moving out the door as fast as it comes in.