Mahadev Rice Mills

If you’re heading down Pehowa Road, you’ll see us near Fouzi Kanda in Village Devigarh. It’s a quiet enough area until the harvest hits. Then, Mahadev Rice Mills becomes a very busy place. We spend a lot of time just managing the flow of trucks coming off the road. It’s mostly outdoor work, under the sun or the shed roofs. We don’t have any fancy offices. Most of our business happens right there in the yard. We check the grain, we run the machines, and we bag it up. It’s a lot of repetitive motion. You get into a rhythm with the guys. One person loads, one person sews the bags, one person stacks. We talk about the weather a lot because it’s the one thing we can’t control. If a storm comes, we’re all running to get the rice under cover. It’s a bit of a gamble every year. We’ve had good years and lean years. That’s just life in a village mill. The equipment needs constant attention, oiling the chains and clearing the screens. We do it all ourselves. It's a plain way to make a living, but it feels right being out here in Devigarh. We just keep our heads down and do the work. It’s tiring but at least we are working for ourselves and doing something useful.