Rathna Giri Villas Rice Flour & Oil Mill

If you come down to 2nd Main Road in Pettavaithalai, you’ll hear the noise of our mill before you see it. We are at number 622. This is Rathna Giri Villas Rice Flour & Oil Mill. The smell of ground rice and pressed oil is always in the air here, which I suppose we’ve gotten used to over the years. It’s a very loud place when the machines are running, so we usually have to shout to hear each other. There is always a fine layer of white flour dust on everything, no matter how much we clean. We spend our days pouring grain into the hoppers and watching the oil come out of the press. It’s messy work and our clothes are usually stained by the end of a shift. Pettavaithalai is a small place, so we know most of the people who bring their grain to us to be ground. We don't have a website or any fancy advertisements. People just know that we are here on the main road. The machinery is old but we take good care of it and fix it ourselves when it breaks down. It’s a hard way to make a living with all the heat and the noise, but it’s what we know how to do. We just focus on getting the flour fine and the oil clear. We hope to keep the wheels turning for a long time yet because this mill is a part of who we are and what we do.