The mills of yore grind slow

There used to be a time when oil was sold only in the loose; you couldn’t pick oil packets off supermarket shelves. You had to carry a container to the oil store and you would get freshly-pressed gingeli, groundnut or coconut oil for use at home. For many today though, the enna chekku (oil mill) is something from the past.

“Bulls were led round and round the chekku (mill) turning the crusher to extract oil. It would take 12 hours to crush 150 kilos in the traditional way. But now, with electricity, we crush 1,200 kg in the same time,” explains M.S. Chandrasekaran, proprietor of the 50-year-old Sri Lakshmi Narayana Oil Mill in Adyar.

This oil mill is one of the few still functioning in the city. “In the 1960s, there were around 200

chekkumodu as they were called. But now, there are very few left thanks to people preferring branded sunflower and rice bran oils. Not many prefer to work in oil mills as it is difficult work,” Mr. Chandrasekaran says, adding that a few people are coming back to the oil mills for health reasons.

“In the last one-and-a-half years, we have been witnessing this trend with some customers switching back from refined oils,” he says. A few mills continue to function in areas such as Thiruporur, Kelambakkam and Alandur. “We still buy gingeli oil to be used for puja and external uses as my mother insists on that,” says K. Sivaraman, a resident of Thiruporur.

Residents such as Velayudham of Thoraipakkam still collect coconuts, sun-dry them and take them to the chekku to get fresh coconut oil to apply on the hair. You get half-a-kilo of oil from one kilo.

R. Hariharan of Shanmugananda Oil Mill in Thiruporur, who runs a business that was begun by his grandfather, says that many customers continue to buy his product as the cost of loose oil is less than packaged oil. “ Also, daily wage labourers come to us since you can buy oil in small quantities. We started this mill as there was a lot of agricultural activity around and we used to get oil seeds from the surrounding areas,” he says, adding that old-timers will continue to patronise mills like his.

Only a few oil mills remain functional, that too, mainly in the suburbs, but there may be hope ahead for operators