India, July 17 -- Every year, around July 15th, a heavy mechanical giant will awaken in Mandya taluk, just outside Bengaluru. Heralded by a puja and announced in newspapers, Operation "Sugar-Crushing" will begin. The state-owned Mysore Sugar Company, affectionately called as Mysugar (or Mysugaru in common parlance), will officially commence its sugarcane crushing for the season. This begins with pomp and ceremony. An MLA or minister will ceremonially ignite the factory's massive boilers, creating a poof of fire. Plumes of smoke will soar to the sky. And then the sugar-crushing season begins. Lines of trucks, tractors, and bullock carts stacked high with green-stalked cane will queue along the roads, waiting patiently for their turn so tha...