Srijeya Lakshmimodern Rice Mill

If you walk down Mariamman Kovil Street, you’ll eventually find us at No 13. Srijeya Lakshmimodern Rice Mill is where we spend most of our waking hours. It’s a loud place, to be honest, because the machines are quite old but they still do the job well. We handle a lot of paddy from the local farmers around here. The air is always thick with that specific smell of dry husks and grain. We don’t have any fancy signs out front, just the usual mill entrance. People from the neighborhood know us well enough. Sometimes the cows wander down the street and stand right in front of the door, so we have to gently move them along. The floor is always covered in a bit of grit, no matter how much we sweep it. It’s honest work, and it keeps us busy from dawn until dusk. We’ve had to fix the belts on the motors more times than I can count. During the harvest season, we barely have time to sit down because the bags just keep coming in. We keep a ledger to track everything, written by hand in an old notebook. It isn't a high-tech operation, even if "modern" is in the name. It’s just how we've always done things on Mariamman Kovil Street. We like the rhythm of the work and the people we see every day. Most of our family has helped out here at some point or another.