R. K. Marbles

R. K. Marbles is tucked away in Datan Bazar. We’re near the police station in Datan, which is part of the Paschim Midnapur district. It is a bit of a drive to get out here, but we have plenty of space for all the stone slabs we keep. The yard is mostly full of marble and granite pieces that we’ve brought in. It’s a heavy job, and we don't have many machines, so a lot of it is just us moving things by hand or with small rollers. The weather here can be really tough, especially in the summer when the sun beats down on the stone. It gets so hot you can't even touch the slabs without gloves. We don't have a big office or a place for people to sit down and have tea. Most of the time, we’re just standing out in the yard with the customers, looking at the patterns in the stone. Every piece is a bit different, and that’s what makes it interesting, I guess. We get people from all the nearby villages coming in to find something for their new kitchens or floors. We aren't trying to be the biggest marble dealers around; we just want to sell what we have and keep the business going. It’s a lot of dust and hard work, but we’ve been here long enough that it just feels normal now. We just do our work and go home at the end of the day.