Murugan Bricks

Over here at 78, Athippedu Village in Ponneri we deal with a lot of mud. Murugan Bricks is basically just a big field where the work happens under the sun. It is a quiet part of Ponneri until the trucks start arriving. We have a rhythm to the days which starts before the sun gets too high. Making bricks involves a lot of waiting for things to dry and then heavy lifting. The ground at the village site is often uneven so walking around the stacks can be tricky. We don't have much of a front office so usually you just find us out by the kilns or near the loading area. It is manual labor through and through and our clothes show it by lunchtime. When the weather is good we can get a lot of bricks out to the local sites but the monsoon season really changes things. We have to cover everything up with plastic sheets and hope for the best. Most of the people working here live nearby in Athippedu Village so it feels like a neighborhood spot. We aren't trying to be the biggest operation in the region but we stay busy enough with the daily orders. You can see our stacks from the main path. It’s just us doing the same work every day to make sure the bricks are ready when someone needs them for a project. The air smells like woodsmoke and wet earth most of the time we are working.