Ashoka Rice & General Mills

Our mill is located on Jakhal Road, which is a busy stretch for anyone hauling goods. It’s a dusty place, to be honest. You can’t really help it when you’re processing so much rice every day. We’ve got a few big sheds and some older machinery that we’ve learned to fix ourselves over the years. The sound of the milling can be quite loud, so we’ve all gotten used to shouting a bit to be heard. We don’t have a marketing department or anyone to write fancy letters. We just focus on the task at hand. There’s a lot of logistics involved, like making sure the trucks have enough space to turn around in the yard. Sometimes things get backed up, especially when everyone brings their crop in at the same time. We just take it one load at a time. The workers here are a tight-knit group. We eat our meals together and complain about the heat when it gets bad in the summer. It’s not the kind of job where you wear a suit. You’re lucky if you can keep your shirt clean for an hour. We’ve been here for years, and the road has changed more than we have. We just keep doing what we know how to do. Even when the power cuts out and we have to wait, we just sit on the bags and talk.