Chakshu Masala

Our family runs Chakshu Masala out of our home at House No. 82 in Lalpura. We are located right near the Jain Mandir in Etawah, so we are pretty easy to find if you are familiar with the neighborhood. We spend most of our waking hours grinding and mixing all sorts of different spices. It gets really loud in the house sometimes, and the air is always thick with the scent of red chillies and coriander. Some days the dust makes everyone in the house sneeze, but we have all gotten used to it by now. We don't have a big factory or any of those fancy modern machines. We just use what we have to get the job done right. People from all over the neighborhood stop by the house often to see what we are working on. We like to keep things simple and honest here. My hands are usually stained yellow from the turmeric, and it is very hard to wash that off at the end of the day. We buy the raw materials from the market, clean them by hand, and then start the grinding process. It is hard work and it takes a lot of patience to get the blends to taste right. We don't believe in taking shortcuts. Living and working in the same place means we are always around. The house is quite old but it works for what we need. We just try to put in an honest day of work.