Jaikumar Hariram

If you walk through the New Anaj Mandi in Tarori, you’ll eventually run into us at Jaikumar Hariram. The market is always a chaotic place, full of shouting and the sound of bells and engines. We’ve been part of this scene for a long time. Our space is filled with piles of sacks and the ledger books are usually sitting on an old wooden bench. We don’t go for anything flashy. It’s all about the grain here. We spend our mornings talking to the sellers and checking the quality of what’s coming in from the fields. It’s a lot of standing around and then sudden bursts of heavy lifting. The floor is usually covered in a bit of spillover from the bags. We know most of the people who come through the Mandi by their first names. Sometimes the weather turns bad and we have to scramble to cover everything with plastic sheets. It’s a stressful few minutes when that happens. Lunch is usually something quick from a nearby stall, eaten while sitting on a stack of bags. We don't have a website or a marketing department. We just have our reputation in the market and the work we do every day. It’s a noisy, dusty, busy life in Tarori, but it’s our life. We keep the scales balanced and the records straight, and that’s enough for us to stay busy.