Gawaran Masalas

Our workshop is located in Mehrauli village, which is part of the Wada tehsil. If you are driving towards Dahanu, you will pass the big Coca Cola company plant, and we are not too far from there. It’s a bit of a trek to get out here, especially during the monsoon when the roads in Palghar get a little rough. Being in a village like Kudus means things move a bit slower than they do in the big cities. We like it that way. We handle our masalas right here on the ground. It’s a quiet area mostly, except for the sound of our own machines and the occasional truck passing by. We started this because we wanted to do something local. Most of the staff comes from the nearby houses, walking or riding cycles to get here. We don’t have a big corporate structure. If something breaks, we usually fix it ourselves. The air out here is better than in the city, though the smell of dried chilies can be a bit overwhelming when we’re processing a big batch. We spend a lot of time checking the quality of the seeds and pods before they go into the grinder. It’s a lot of manual work, sitting on stools and sorting through stuff by hand. It’s not a glamorous job, but it feels good to be working with things you can touch and smell. We just stay busy and keep at it.