Raj Oil Mills

Our place, Raj Oil Mills, has been sitting on Military Road in Marol for quite a while now. If you’ve ever walked down this part of Andheri (E), you probably know the area gets pretty busy with all the trucks and people moving around. The building itself isn't anything fancy to look at, just a practical space where we get the work done every day. It gets loud inside when the machines are running, and there is always that thick, heavy smell of seeds being crushed that just stays on your clothes for hours. Sometimes we think about painting the walls, but then another shipment comes in and we just get back to it. Most of us here have lived nearby for years, so we just walk or take a rickshaw to the gates. It’s a hot job, especially during the summer months when the ventilation isn't doing much, but we have our routines. We start early before the sun gets too high, checking the filters and making sure the drums are clean. It’s not the kind of work you see in magazines, but it’s what we do. People from around Marol stop by to talk, or sometimes they just want to see if we have a fresh batch ready. We don't spend much time on computers or making things look pretty. We just focus on the oil and the containers. It's a simple life here in this corner of Andheri, mostly just hard work and the same old machines humming along.