India Brick Field

You can find us out in Jagdishpur, not too far from the Kamla Nehru Institute. The area here in the Dhanpatganj Block is mostly open fields, which gives us plenty of room for the bricks to sit out. It gets quite busy during the season when the weather stays dry. If it rains, everything slows down and we just wait it out. The ground gets real muddy then. We have a lot of people working here, mostly just local folks who know how to handle the clay. It’s hard work on the back, bending over all day, but nobody complains much. We see the students from the institute passing by sometimes on their way to classes. They look a lot cleaner than we do at the end of the shift. The kiln stays hot and there’s always smoke drifting somewhere. We don't have a flashy sign or a big website. Most of what happens here is just manual labor and keeping track of the counts. The stacks go up high and then they get loaded onto the tractors to go out to the building sites. It’s a bit of a trek to get out here, but it's where the space is. We just keep our heads down and do what needs doing. The sun goes down, we cover the piles if it looks like clouds are coming, and we head home for dinner. It’s not a complicated life, just a lot of dirt and sun.