Eight Decades of Legacy: The Inspiring Journey of Our Family Business

As the relentless rhythm of life and work envelops us, a year has passed since I last set foot in the warm embrace of my hometown Pudukkottai. Recognizing the passage of time and the physical distance that had grown between us, my parents lovingly decided to bridge the gap by visiting our home instead. Over a sumptuous dinner, we eagerly exchanged stories and memories, laughter and wisdom echoing through the air. My father revealed an upcoming milestone amidst this joyful reunion—our cherished family business would soon celebrate its 80th anniversary. At first, I found myself puzzled, recalling that the auspicious date of July 14th, 2025, was still two years away. However, my father reminded me that this date marked the opening of the current location of our rice mill. In contrast, the true origins of our family business stretched back two years further.

I'd like to briefly describe my grandparents and their upbringing to give context to the narrative. My grandfather, the eldest of nine siblings (eight brothers and one sister), was born to an academic counsellor Sri Tippa Subhramanya Iyer, who served the King of Pudukkottai, Raja Sri Brahdamba Dasa Raja Ramachandra Tondaiman Bahadur. In addition to his advisory role, my great-grandfather was also a priest at the Dakshina Murthy temple, located within the old palace of Pudukkottai. Among my grandfather's siblings, four served in the Indian Army. Following his wedding, my grandfather Sri Tippa Ayyaswamy Iyer, a teacher by profession, established a school named Sri Rajarajeshwari Patashala in a small village in the Princely State of Pudukkottai.

Meanwhile, my grandmother, Sri Tippa Lakshmi Ammal, the eldest of twelve siblings (six brothers and six sisters), came from a similarly accomplished family. Two of her siblings served in the Education Department of the Government of India; two were lawyers, a district collector, and another served in the Army. Her youngest sister earned a chemistry degree in 1960 from the H. H. The Rajah's College, Pudukkottai.

After experiencing three stillbirths, my grandparents had four daughters and two sons. However, the modest earnings from my grandfather's teaching profession were insufficient to support their growing family. Upon the advice of his brother in the Indian Army, who offered financial assistance, my grandfather decided to venture into business. Unsure of which business to pursue, my grandmother suggested they invest in a rice mill and flour mill. Drawing from her experience observing her father's enterprise, she knew how to operate a paddy huller and an oil engine. Thus, on the auspicious day of Vaikasi Pournami in 1943 (I am not aware of the exact date, in the old days, only the Indian Almanac was followed rather than the Gregorian calendar), they established their business in a small village within the Pudukkottai princely state with the name of Sri Thyagaraja Rice Mill popularly known as the Iyer Mill. We renamed our mill in 2005 Sri Chinthamani Ganapathy Rice and Flour Mills.

My grandmother's brother, who visited the mill in the village, suggested they shift to a town and run it with an efficient electric motor. It is noteworthy that there were only three rice mills in Pudukkottai then. Heeding his suggestion, my grandparents moved to the present location on July 14th, 1945, with a brand-new Brooks motor with 25 HP capacity which is the heart of the Mill, even now functioning entirely well. We now discuss the circular economy, sustainability, environmentally friendly actions, and women empowerment as an essential agenda of any organization. Looking back, these words were unheard of, and even now, that is the way of living of my grandparents and my parents at our Rice mill. I will make sure to mention some examples to prove my claim below.

As I reflect on my family's history, I am continually amazed by my grandmother's significant contributions to the establishment and growth of the business. Her keen business acumen, tireless work ethic, unwavering dedication, and enterprising spirit were instrumental in turning their humble venture into a successful enterprise. It is remarkable to consider the extent of her abilities and impact on our family's legacy.

In 1947, my resilient grandmother settled her debt with her astute business acumen and relentless dedication. She seized the opportunity to establish a flourishing dairy business. By 1952, she had gathered more earnings and obtained a small loan, which allowed her to buy 15 cows and establish a thriving dairy business. The dairy business synergistically complemented the rice mill, providing a steady source of income and fostering close relationships with the local community by delivering fresh milk and other dairy products. Recognizing the potential of the by-product from paddy processing, my family ingeniously utilized the bran as cattle feed, effectively maximizing resources and ensuring sustainability. That same year, they commenced the production of parboiled rice, capable of yielding 30 bags per batch (Each gunny bag of paddy is ~60 Kg).

My grandmother's daily routine typically began at 3 AM, milking the cows, collecting cow dung, and converting it into dry cakes for fuel. By 5:30 AM, my uncle, my father's elder brother, would have delivered milk to customers' homes. Concurrently, my aunts arranged the kitchen, while my grandmother prepared delectable meals for the entire family, including the employees of the rice mill. By 1952, my grandfather had trained four dedicated helpers to manage the rice mill's daily tasks. The synchronized efforts of my grandmother, uncle, and aunts, along with the dedication of the trained helpers, allowed for a seamless daily routine and efficient management of the rice mill. Preserving a venerable 80-year-old tradition, my family provides breakfast, snacks, tea, lunch, and evening tea snacks free to all employees, ensuring they consume the same food as us. My grandmother once cooked for at least 20 members daily, a custom my mother still upholds. My grandmother grew a flourishing kitchen garden teeming with various vegetables and greens. My grandfather, an avid gardener and classical music lover, tenderly nourished the plants while serenading them daily. A significant portion of the vegetables for their daily meals came directly from this garden. Additionally, they utilized the Mill's rice husks and cow dung cakes for cooking fuel, epitomizing their resourcefulness and dedication to sustainability.

To digress a bit and mention a few lines about all my aunts. My grandfather and Grandmother were very orthodox and gave a lot of importance to their traditions and values. If they were in today's world, all my aunts would be successful business tycoons or excellent classical singers. To take the example of the superficial aspect of cooking, my eldest aunt would assist my grandfather's younger brother in making varieties of sweets on a large scale for weddings and functions and learned the art. Next to her was another aunt who would make all varieties of pickles, appalams and vadams (Indian flatbread crackers), and vattal (sundried vegetables) on a large scale. This is a thriving business now and in high demand; if only it had some angel investors at that time or the interest of some individuals with business interests, it would have independently become a very successful enterprise in addition to our rice mill. As a child, I also learned all sorts of traditional food preparation, assisting my grandmother, who would employ my uncle's son and me during summer holidays to make these preparations. She would put some money in our piggy bank and give it to us during the school reopening. The next aunt was an excellent cook; simplicity and swiftness were her specialties. I have often heard from our old workers that she would take a very short time to cook the food, but it would taste amazing. They would say that the meal would not have any great embellishments but just a simple garnishing, and it would not taste the same if others did. My last aunt was an extraordinary person who learned all the skills mentioned earlier and excelled at scale. All of them were adept in classical Carnatic music and masters in singing most of the compositions of the Carnatic music trinity. They knew how to operate the flour mill and would assist their father during busy days. At the age of 72, one of my aunts independently demonstrated how she would handle the flour mill to make a point to me that she was the one who would help my grandfather most of the time before her marriage.

Notably, they needed more advanced facilities or technology for pumping water. Producing boiled rice began with soaking the paddy in water for 12 hours, followed by steam cooking the next day. The boiler's fuel consisted of husks and dried eucalyptus trees. Each tank held 30 bags of paddy with a capacity of 2000 litres. They had two wells, and it took four members working tirelessly for four continuous hours to fetch water to soak the paddy. My grandfather contributed two hours of labour to this task from one well. It wasn't until 1991 that a borewell with an automatic pump was installed to facilitate water supply to the soaking tanks. For three generations, the boiler and steaming chamber were fashioned from a special metal alloy supplied by a single family. My father claimed that this unique alloy enriched the flavour of the boiled rice, and its composition remains a well-guarded secret.

My father was born in 1955 on the day of Krishna Jayanthi in the same building currently used for regrooving plates for the flour mills. By the time he was seven years old (1962), the family-owned almost 25 cows, and it became his responsibility, along with my uncle's, to deliver milk before heading to school. My father was an astute child and adept at learning the intricacies of the family business. My father earned a master's degree in physics and an AMIE (an engineering equivalent qualification). At age 15, he observed a rice sieving machine in Karaikudi. He ingeniously designed one to separate husks and broken rice from whole grains. This remarkable machine, unparalleled in modern-day traditional rice mills, remains operational. During my childhood and even now, I have never seen an external mechanic, electrician, plumber, mason, carpenter, or tinker visit our mill or home to do any repair work. My father would do all those work alone as if a professional did it. To add to that point, my books during my school days were hardbound by my father; I never gave them to a shop for binding. One cannot distinguish any worker from my father in the Mill; he will be among the workers and contribute to the daily routine giving instructions as and when needed.

In the last, let's say; 50 years after his takeover of the Mill, he has meticulously mastered the art of processing over 30 varieties of paddy species. Among all the rice mills around a radius of 150 kilometres, my father is the only go-to person for seeking advice from the farmers about the traditional rice varieties and rare paddy varieties. We hear about millets and their health benefits; during the 1970s famine, our mill processed all the available millet varieties. The core principles of our family and business are hard work and dedication, simplicity, no luxury, no pomp, and show, gaining the goodwill of all the people they would associate with, and facilitating people in need through charitable deeds. Every year, during Pongal and Deepavali, every member of the family of the employee and the employee will get new clothes, a bonus, and sweets. Our rice mill is known for its timely delivery of the finished rice with quality and quantity that most modern-day methodologies and machines cannot achieve for traditional varieties of paddy. My father had helped technically and freely designed, and erected new rice and flour mill for some of our senior employees who wanted to run their show and for some of his proteges. My father commands enormous respect among his peers because of his prodigious knowledge about every aspect of paddy's traditional and modern processing and his willingness to share it without inhibitions to even his competitors. He always says that God will always give us enough work and sufficient money for our needs if we do our work with dedication.

Until 2015, our rice mill never used plastic bags and only used jute gunny bags; since it is becoming costly for customers to afford them, we shifted to polypropylene bags. To give an overview of the sustainability aspects that were followed for the last 80 years, the husk will be used as a fuel for boiling use; as I mentioned above, the bran is sent for oil extraction to nearby factories, and some are sold to the dairy farms nearby, the broken rice of different sizes are used for various purposes that include poultry feed, the ashes that come from the boiling unit is taken to the farmlands for renewing the soil with potash and other minerals naturally available in the organic biochar. By adopting sustainable practices such as utilizing organic waste and natural resources for fuel and nourishing the soil with ashes, my family exemplified their commitment to the business and the environment.

In 2019, my father asked me to learn the nuances of the processes and practices, and I put in a dedicated effort to understand them. Everyone from the entire fraternity would ask, you are a PhD and a neuroscientist; why are you here doing all this work? I am here on leave and carry out my work. It is hard physical work and needs a lot of energy and stamina, and it will keep you fit and have a good night's sleep every day. After a yearlong apprenticeship, I concluded that it would be very hard to accomplish the same feat as my grandmother and father.

I am proud to have been part of the legacy for 30 years. The story of our family rice mill encapsulates the incredible journey of resilience and determination and the values and traditions that have guided us for over eight decades. Our ancestors laid the foundation for a thriving business that has stood the test of time through hard work, resourcefulness, and a commitment to sustainability. Their dedication to family, community and preserving our cultural heritage has driven our success. As I reflect on their inspiring legacy, I am reminded of the invaluable lessons they have taught us—lessons of integrity, innovation, and the importance of fostering strong relationships. Moving forward, we strive to honour their memory by upholding these principles and guiding our family business with the same passion and commitment. Our story is a testament to the power of hard work, resilience, and the enduring spirit of our family. This spirit continues to inspire us and will carry us forward for generations.