Ram Raccha Flour Mill

Our place is in Narsin Ben Bai Chawl on Chakala Road. It is a tight fit in this part of Andheri East, but we make it work. Every morning starts with moving sacks around to make space for the customers. The noise of the grinder is constant from about eight in the morning until we shut the shutters at night. We get all kinds of people coming in from the nearby houses. Some stay and chat while the grain turns into flour, others are in a big hurry to get home. It’s a lot of manual labor, pouring the grain into the hopper and making sure the texture is right. The heat from the machines makes the small room quite warm, especially in the summer months. We don’t really do any advertising or anything like that. People just know where we are because we have been here for such a long time. Sometimes the equipment acts up and we have to spend an hour with a wrench getting it back in order. It is just part of the daily grind, literally. We keep our scales checked so the weights are fair. Dealing with different types of grains means we have to adjust the stones often. It is a simple life here in the chawl. We know most of the families around here by name now. It is just about getting the work done day after day and dealing with the usual crowds.