Ruchi Masala Factory

Down here in Khanna Nagar, inside the Khapuria Industrial Estate, the air usually smells like whatever we are grinding that day. We have been running Ruchi Masala Factory in Cuttack for a good while now. It’s a noisy place with the machines running most of the day. We spend a lot of time cleaning the seeds and making sure the dryers are working right. It’s physical work. You get used to the dust and the heat after a few hours. We get the raw materials in big bags and then it’s just a process of sorting and milling. The industrial estate is always full of trucks and people moving things around. We fit right in with the rest of the shops and factories here. It isn’t a clean, quiet office job. We are hands-on with everything. My clothes usually have a bit of turmeric or chili powder on them by the time I head home. We keep things moving, making sure the packets are filled and sealed properly. Some days the machines act up and we have to spend the morning fixing them instead of producing anything. That’s just part of the life here in Khapuria. We don’t spend much time on the computer, mostly we are on the floor checking the grinders. It’s a basic operation but it’s what we know how to do. Cuttack can get really humid, so we try to keep the storage area as dry as possible. We just get on with the job.