Jai Saraswati Brick Kiln

Our place is over at House Number 234 in Ward 65, out in Barnai. It is a bit of a drive, but you can’t miss the tall chimney of the kiln once you get close. We spend our days making bricks, which is hot and dusty work. There is always a fire going somewhere, and the smell of burning coal is just part of the air here. We work with the earth, literally. Mixing the mud and setting it in the molds takes a lot of hands. My own fingernails are almost always stained with red dust. We pile the finished bricks in high stacks across the yard. It looks like a little city of clay sometimes. People from the surrounding villages come by with their tractors or small trucks to load up for their building projects. We don't have a fancy front desk. You usually just find one of us walking around the yard or sitting in the shade for a quick break. The weather really dictates our schedule. If it rains too much, we have to stop and cover everything up. It’s hard work, and your back feels it by the end of the week, but seeing those bricks go out to build someone’s home feels okay. We have been in Barnai for a long time, and we just keep doing what we know how to do.