Sarup Chand Rice Mill

Sarup Chand Rice Mill is situated on Patiala Road in Samana. This road is always busy with people traveling between the bigger towns, so we get a lot of eyes on us as people pass by. The mill is an old-fashioned setup. We have been here for a long time, and the building shows its age in the cracks in the pavement and the faded sign over the door. Inside, though, it is all business. The rhythm of the mill is something you get in your bones after a few years. The sound of the grain hitting the metal chutes is like rain on a tin roof. We spend the better part of the day checking the quality and making sure the bags are weighed correctly. It is repetitive work, but there is a certain satisfaction in seeing the piles of grain turn into neat stacks of bags ready for the market. We have a small bench outside where we take our breaks and watch the traffic go by on Patiala Road. The heat in the summer can be tough inside the sheds, so we drink a lot of water and keep the big fans running. We are not trying to be anything we are not. We are just a local mill in Samana, doing the same work our fathers did. It is a predictable life, tied to the seasons and the land.