R A K Ceramics

Out here in Shiroor, things move at a slightly different pace than the big cities. We’re located at T Moosa Compound, which is a big space that holds all the different ceramic pieces we deal with. It’s a bit of a drive out into the Udupi district, but it’s a nice area once you get here. The warehouse is filled with crates of tiles and bathroom fittings, and there’s always the sound of a forklift moving things around. We spend a lot of our time checking the stock and making sure the boxes are labeled right. It gets very humid here, especially when the rains start coming down hard in Karnataka. The air usually smells a bit like damp earth and cardboard. We have a small area where we sit and talk to the people who come in looking for something specific for their kitchens or floors. It’s mostly just us and the local workers who help with the loading. Sometimes the trucks arrive late because of the highway traffic, so we end up staying a bit longer than planned to get everything unloaded. We don’t use any fancy sales talk; we just show people what’s on the pallets and let them decide. It’s a lot of manual work, shifting heavy crates and keeping the inventory straight in the ledger. It keeps us on our feet and the day goes by pretty fast.