Flour Mill in a roadside shop in Punjab, India
Flour Mill in a roadside shop in Punjab, India

This is a video of a flour mill with two stones in a small shop outside the gates of Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, India. The film shows the grain being poured into the hoppers above the stones, and then going between the millstones. From one stone set, the brown/wholemeal flour goes into sacks; in the other, it goes straight onto a shaking sieve, with the bran and germ going to the back and the white flour coming out of the front of the sieve. It is then collected and bagged, here in 10kg sacks, for use without further grinding or bleaching. The mill also makes maize meal and gram (lentil/chickpea) flour. The wheat flour will be mostly used for making chapati (chappati) or roti breads, thin dough cooked on a heated stone. The flour has high gluten content to give the elasticity to the dough so it can be stretched to be thin.