Jaiswal Masala Mill

We are located down Din Bandhu Lane in the Upper Bazar area, right near Mitra Market. If you walk past, you can usually smell the turmeric and chili long before you see the mill itself. It is a busy spot and the air is always thick with the scent of different spices being ground up. My family has been doing this here for years. The machines make a lot of noise throughout the afternoon, and sometimes we have to shout just to hear each other over the grinding. People from the neighborhood come by with their bags, and we just get to work. It is dusty and the floor is always stained with different colors, but that is just how it is in a masala mill. We open early in the morning when the market is still a bit quiet, but by noon, the whole lane is crowded with carts and people moving stuff around. Sometimes the electricity goes out and we just sit outside and wait for it to come back. There is no fancy office here, just the machines and the sacks of raw spices piled up against the walls. We spend most of the day weighing things out and making sure the powder is fine enough. It is hard work on the lungs and the eyes because of the spice dust, but we are used to it by now. The tea stall nearby brings us chai twice a day, which helps us keep going through the heat.