Rajendra Dal Mill

We’ve been here in Uttam Nagar, at Vijay Vihar S-92, for a long time. The mill is loud and there's always a bit of dust in the air from the pulses. It is just how it is when you're cleaning and splitting dal all day. We start early, usually before the sun is really up, to get the machines going. My father used to do this before me. Now it’s my turn to look after the bags coming in and the finished dal going out to the local shops. It’s heavy work, moving those big sacks around. Sometimes the machines act up or the power cuts out, which is frustrating, but we manage. People from the neighborhood come by for their monthly supply. They know where we are. We don't have a big fancy office or anything like that. Just the mill floor and a small space to sit. There is always a smell of raw lentils and earth around here. It gets very busy during certain months when the harvest comes in. We mostly just focus on getting the work done right so the dal is clean. It’s a simple life. We drink a lot of tea while we wait for the trucks. Some days are long, but this is what we know. The floor is always covered in a fine powder, and your clothes get dirty by noon. That's just part of running a dal mill in a place like this. You just get used to the noise of the grinders and the constant movement of the workers.