Santimata Rice Mill

Santimata Rice Mill is located at Khadina More in Chinsurah. We are very easy to find because we are right near the Punjab National Bank branch. If you stand outside the bank, you can usually hear the hum of our machinery working away. The mill is a busy place, especially after the harvest when the trucks come in loaded with heavy sacks. There is a fine layer of rice dust over almost everything in the main shed, no matter how much we sweep. It’s a loud environment, so we mostly talk to each other using hand signals when the engines are running. I spend most of my day checking the quality of the grain or making sure the bags are stitched up properly before they go out. Chinsurah is a good town for this kind of business because we are close to the fields and the main transport routes. We have a few workers who have been with us since we opened, and we’re like a small family. We take our lunch breaks together under the shade of the big tree out front when the weather is nice. The office is just a small wooden room with a fan and some old chairs for when customers come to settle their accounts. It’s not the cleanest job in the world, but there is something satisfying about seeing the raw grain turn into clean white rice. The cats like to hang around because of the grain, but we try to keep them out.