Bansal Rice Mills

You can find Bansal Rice Mills out on Pipli Road in Babain. This part of the district is mostly about agriculture, so we are right where the action is. The mill is a big place because rice takes up a lot of room. When the harvest season starts, the whole area around Pipli Road gets incredibly busy with tractors and trucks full of paddy. It’s a noisy and dusty environment, but that is just the nature of rice milling. We spend a lot of time checking the machinery and making sure the grain is moving through the system properly. The air always smells a bit like toasted husks. We aren't fancy people; most of us wear old clothes because you’re going to get covered in dust anyway by the end of the shift. Babain is a small place, so everyone knows everyone else. We don't really have an office with air conditioning or anything like that. Most of our day is spent on the mill floor or standing by the gate checking the loads coming in. It’s hard work and the hours get very long during the peak months, sometimes we are here until late at night under the big lights. It’s a family-run kind of vibe even if we don't say it out loud. We just focus on the rice and making sure the bags are filled and ready to go out to the markets. It’s a simple life but it keeps us busy.