Sri Pangajam Hollow Blocks

We are out on Shop No.19 Kottamdu along the Poonnmalle Periapalyam Road. This is where we make and sell hollow blocks for building houses and walls. It’s a dusty place because of the cement and sand. We have a big yard where the blocks sit to dry in the sun. You can see them lined up in long rows. We use a machine to mix the stuff and press it into shapes. It’s heavy work. My clothes are always grey from the dust. Trucks come in and out to pick up loads. Sometimes we deliver them if we have the driver available. The road outside is busy with lorries. We’ve been here for a while. It’s not a pretty shop. It’s just a yard with a small office shed. We deal with contractors and people building their own small homes. We talk about the price of cement and how the rain affects the drying time. If it rains, we can't do much work. We just wait for the sun to come back out. It’s a straightforward business. We make the blocks, we sell them, and we start again the next day. People around here know us for being reliable in our own way. We don't say much, we just load the trucks and check the counts. Sometimes the machine breaks down and we spend the afternoon covered in grease fixing it. That’s just part of life on the road. We get the job done eventually.