Shukla Bricks Field

Shukla Bricks Field is out near the Sedariya area, not too far from the post office in Sahpau. We are tucked away in the Tehsil Sadabad part of Hathras district. If you head towards Post Mehrara, you can't miss the tall chimneys and the rows of bricks drying out in the sun. My family has been in the brick business for a long time, and this field is where we spend most of our lives. It’s a big open space, and when the wind blows, you can smell the earth and the smoke from the kilns. We have a lot of workers who live nearby and help us with the molding and the stacking. It’s seasonal work, so we are very busy for half the year and then things quiet down when the monsoons arrive. We don’t really do any marketing; people in the district know the Shukla name and they just come to the field when they need a load of bricks for a project. The office is just a small room where we keep the registers and a couple of wooden benches. We drink a lot of chai and talk to the farmers and the builders who stop by. It’s a lot of physical labor and keeping an eye on the weather, but it’s what we know. We aren't trying to be the biggest, just trying to keep the fire going and the bricks moving out to the buyers.