Malligha Asafoetida Company

If you come down to Masthapatti, you’ll find us at 89/22. Malligha Asafoetida Company is the name we use. We are near the Andarkottaram P.O. It’s a bit of a walk from the main transport links, but it’s a good spot for what we do. The smell is the first thing you notice when you get close. Asafoetida has a very strong scent, as anyone who uses it knows. We’ve grown used to it, but visitors always mention it. We spend our days processing and packing. It’s a very manual process here. We sit on the stools and make sure everything is weighed out correctly. The floors are stone and they stay cool, which is nice in the summer. We don’t have any big automated machines; it’s mostly just hands and simple tools. The building itself is plain, just some brick and mortar that’s seen better days. We get the raw materials in large chunks and have to break them down. It’s sticky, messy work, and your clothes end up smelling like the product for days. Most of the people working here live nearby in Masthapatti, so it feels like a small neighborhood thing. We don’t go in for big advertising or anything like that. The orders come in, we pack them up, and we send them out. It’s been the same way for years, and we don’t see a reason to change it.