Ranjan Rice Mills

Out here in Village Randhawa, things move at their own pace, mostly depending on the season and how the crops are doing. We are situated near Post Dasuya in District Shahpur, which is a place where most people know each other by their first names. Our mill isn't anything spectacular to look at, just a sturdy building with machines that have been running for quite some time now. Every morning, we open up the gates and start the engines, and the whole place begins to vibrate with that familiar low hum. There is always a layer of fine dust on everything, no matter how much we sweep the floors, but that is just part of working with rice. Farmers from the surrounding fields bring their harvest in on tractor-trailers, and we spend our hours unloading, processing, and bagging. Sometimes the machinery acts up or a belt snaps, and we have to spend half the afternoon covered in grease trying to get things moving again. It is hard work and the days are long, especially when the harvest is in full swing and the trucks are lined up outside. We don't have a fancy office or a big team, just a few of us making sure the grain gets handled right. Most of the time, we are just sitting on plastic chairs during breaks, drinking tea and watching the traffic go by on the village road. It is a simple life centered on the seasonal cycles of the land.