When I am planted next to a mammoth stainless-steel boiler of molten ghee, my mind starts playing games. The sweet smell is intoxicating. But the heat from the container which can hold 2,000 litres of ghee, that is at touching distance, sends me into a tizzy. For RKG Ghee’s workers in blue uniforms, who go about turning levers and adjusting the intricate system, the scent, heat, and vision of cloud-like tufts of butter transforming into grainy, sunshine-yellow ghee, are routine.For, this scene plays out every day at the 94-year-old family-run brand’s factory in Kangayam.The making of ghee here is a coordinated process that starts at its Atmos dairy in nearby Dharapuram. “We collect up to 1,50,000 litres of milk every day from 10,000 farmers in and around the town,” says G Aravind, the managing partner. The milk, once churned into butter, arrives as gigantic blocks to the factory in trucks.There are over 200 men and women working at the factory, which is spread across 80,000 sqft in the town that is 95 kilometres from Coimbatore. We go behind the scenes to see how ghee is made by the family-run establishment that supplies to states such as Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh, apart from exporting to West Asia, New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, and the US.Smooth sailing