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I grew up in a house near YMR junction and I have been seeing this mill since I was a kid. It is more than 60 years old. I did different odd jobs including working as a bus conductor at Nirmala Bhavan school before earning enough to buy the mill 28 years ago. By the way, I still work for the school. So I start my day at 6 am, as the school buses leave at that time. In the meantime, my co-workers open the mill at around 7 am. Although I visit the mill a couple of times during the day, I actively start working there after 6 pm, when my shift at school ends.
This is a well-known mill and there is brisk business from morning till night. We grind rice, wheat, chilli, coriander, urad dal and fenugreek here. Separate grinders are used for each of the different kinds of grains, pulses and spices to avoiding mixing of flours and powders. There is also a special grinder for sugar. Powdered sugar is used for making desserts and sweets.
In addition, we extract oil from copra. It takes more than 45 minutes to extract all the oil from 10 kg of copra. There is still a huge demand for this despite the easy availability of packaged oil. Coconut cake left after the extraction is sold to poultry and cattle farms in the suburbs.
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Did you know that grating of coconuts is also done here? That machine, which looks like a small grinder, is for grating coconuts. A lot of our curries use grated coconuts in different forms. So we make and sell that too. Rice is what we grind the most. On an average we get around 300 kg of rice per day. After grinding the rice, it is roasted for making the flour for puttu and idiyappam. Batter for dosa and idli are also made here.
Several restaurants in the vicinity get their rice ground here. They bring it in the morning and often in the afternoon as well. Our customers include some of the major caterers in the city. We get orders of more than 100 kg of rice and 60-70 coconuts when there are weddings or similar big events.
Most of the evening road-side eateries in Nanthancode, Kowdiar and Vellayamabalam region are our clients. They come to us for making the wet batter for idli and dosa. They also buy the curry masala and chutney powder that we make. A lot people living around here love it. The flour, batter and masala for households of many government officials including those at Cliff House are made here.
Till a couple of decades ago, people used to grind grains and use wet grinders to make the batter themselves. Today, although many have modern grinders, they still bring rice and pulses to the mill. So the number of clients has steadily increased over the years and life is good. I live near the shop at Devaswom board junction with my wife, Geetha, and daughter Athira.
A weekly column on men and women who make Thiruvananthapuram what it is