Ashwall Masala Powder

Our place is right on Thekady Road in Kumily. If you walk past, you can usually smell the chili and turmeric long before you see the door. We spend most of our time grinding spices into powder. It's a dusty job, and by the end of the shift, our clothes are all stained orange or red. We use the old grinding machines which make a lot of noise, so it’s hard to talk when they are running. The shop isn't very big, and we have bags of raw spices stacked up in the back room. Kumily is a place where a lot of people come for the hills and the greenery, and sometimes they stop by to see what we are making. We don't have a big marketing plan or anything. We just make the powders and put them into simple bags. My family has been doing this for a while. Sometimes the humidity makes the powder clump up, so we have to be careful with how we store things. It rains a lot here, which is nice, but it keeps us busy making sure everything stays dry. We don't use any chemicals, just the seeds and pods. It’s a hard way to earn a living because the spice dust gets in your throat, but we are used to it now. We just keep the door open and wait for the locals to come for their weekly supplies.