Sri Lakshmi Satyanarayana Raw & Boiled Rice Mill

Our mill is tucked away in Penuguduru, over in Karapa Mandal. It’s a big old building at 2-3-605 and you can hear the machines humming from a distance away. We do both raw and boiled rice here, so there is always a different kind of smell in the air depending on what we are running that day. The boilers get the place really hot, especially in the summer months. We spend a lot of time checking the moisture in the grains and making sure the husks are coming off clean. It’s a messy job and we all go home covered in a layer of fine white powder. The local farmers bring their tractors in through the side gate and it can get pretty cramped when three or four show up at once. We don't have a fancy office, just a small corner with a table and a few chairs where we sit to settle the bills. Sometimes the conveyor belt gets stuck and we have to spend half an hour poking at it with a stick to get it moving again. It’s just how things go. We’ve been part of the village life here for quite a while, just doing our part in the food chain without making much of a fuss about it. The bags are stacked high up to the rafters, and we have to be careful when moving them so they don't tip. It’s hard work, but it’s steady.