Maa Saradamayee Spice Mill

The morning starts with opening the heavy shutters on Plot No.P-42. The dust from the red chillies usually makes us sneeze before the coffee even kicks in. This Raipur-Garia road gets really busy around 10 AM, and you can hear the horns honking all day long. It’s a family thing mostly, passed down without much fuss. We don’t have fancy stuff here, just the grinders and the big jute bags. People come in from the main road for their monthly stock, and we just fill them up right there. Sometimes the power goes out in the afternoon, and we just sit outside on the plastic chairs waiting for it to come back. It’s not a big factory or anything polished. Just a small mill where we get the job done. The walls are stained dark from years of grinding turmeric and coriander. It’s hard work, standing on the concrete all day, but this is what we know. We’ve been at this spot for some time now. You can usually smell the sharp scent of spices before you even see the sign. My hands are always stained a bit yellow from the turmeric, no matter how much I wash them. We just try to keep the machines running and handle the orders as they come in. There isn't much more to it than that. If you walk down the road, you'll see the sacks piled up near the door.