Manoj Masala

My name is Manoj and I started this spice shop here in Raju Nagar because I didn't want to move to the big city for work. It is located at 3/84 in the Chinnampalayam area. If you walk down our street, you can usually smell the turmeric or the dried chillies before you even see the sign. We have been here for a while now. It started as just me and one small machine in a tiny room, but now we have a few more people helping out with the grinding and packing. Most of the folks around here know us because we’ve been at this spot for years. The shop isn't fancy at all. We just have some old wooden shelves and a few big metal tins where we keep everything. Every morning we sweep the front and get the machines ready. Sometimes the power goes out and we have to wait, but that is just how things go around here. People come by for their weekly supply of masalas and we have a chat while they wait. My family helps too, especially when it gets busy during the festival season. We don't do anything very complicated, just cleaning the seeds and grinding them until they are right. It gets very dusty inside, and we all end up sneezing by noon. That's just part of the job when you deal with spices every single day of the week.