Ramaswamy Pindi Girni

If you walk through Sriramgiri in Nellikuduru, you’ll find Ramaswamy Pindi Girni at H. No -3-16. This is a flour mill, so the first thing you’ll notice is the smell of ground grain and the fine white dust that covers everything. The machines have a constant rhythm that you get used to after a while. We spend all day pouring grain into the hoppers and bagging the flour for people. It’s a loud place to work, so we have to shout sometimes to hear each other. Warangal can get very hot, and the mill makes it even warmer inside. We don’t have any fancy cooling systems, just a couple of old fans that move the dusty air around. People from all over the village bring their wheat or chilies for us to grind. It’s a messy job, and by the end of the shift, our hair and clothes are completely white. We’ve had these machines for a long time. They need a lot of oiling and care to keep running. We don’t do any advertising; everyone just knows we are here by the sound and the location. It’s a service for the community, really. We see the same faces every week coming in with their sacks. It’s honest work and it keeps us busy from morning until evening. That’s just the way things are at the girni. We shut down when the power goes out, which happens sometimes during the week.