Hanuman Ricc & Oill Mill

The village is quiet except for when the school starts. Sankar Dev Shishu Niketan is right there in Village Barangabari. The kids walk past our gate every morning. We deal with rice and we also press oil here at this mill. You can smell the mustard seeds being crushed from a long way off. It is a strong smell that stays on your clothes all day. The mill is in at post Barangabari near Guwahati and most people around here know us because we have been in this spot for years. We get a lot of local farmers who bring their harvest on bullock carts or small trucks. When the rain comes, the road gets a bit muddy and things slow down quite a bit. Inside the mill, we have the oil expellers and the rice hullers going at the same time. It makes a lot of noise. We don't really bother with much decoration. It is just a practical space with concrete floors and high ceilings to keep it a bit cooler. Sometimes the school children peek in to see the machines working. We just tell them to keep back for safety. Working with oil is messy business so there are always patches on the floor that we have to clean. It is hard work but it is what we do. We usually close up when it starts getting dark because the village gets very still then.