Baba Bricks

Out in the village of Kusmasur, life moves a bit slower than in the city. Our brickyard is located here, under the Patharchapuri post office in the Birbhum district. It is a rural spot where the fields stretch out for a long way. Baba Bricks is basically an extension of the land itself. We spend our days working with the mud and the fire. The kiln is the heart of the place. When it is lit, you can see the thin trail of smoke against the sky from the main road. The workers come from nearby parts of Chandrapur and they know the routine well. It is a lot of bending and lifting. We don’t have expensive machinery. Most of the work is done by hand, from mixing the clay to stacking the finished blocks. The weather in Birbhum is quite extreme. In the summer, the ground cracks and the heat is almost unbearable near the fires. In the monsoon, we have to stop most of the operations because the rain turns everything into a swamp. We have a small hut where we sit and drink tea while waiting for the tractors to arrive. It is a quiet existence. We don't do much in the way of advertising. People find us because we’ve been here for years. The red soil of Birbhum is good for what we do. We just keep our heads down and keep the tally.