Ashok Halwai

Our shop, Ashok Halwai, is sitting right at Namner Churaha in Agra Cantt. It is a noisy spot with all the rickshaws and buses going by, but it is home to us. We start the fire very early, usually when it is still dark outside. The big iron kadhai is the main thing here. We spend hours stirring milk or frying up the morning snacks. My hands are always a bit rough from the work and the heat of the stove is something you just live with. The walls have turned a bit dark from the steam over the years, but we keep the counters as clean as we can. We don't have those fancy glass displays like the big city shops. We just put the trays out and people come by. A lot of folks stop on their way to the station for a quick bite. We wrap the food in whatever paper we have handy. It is not a place for sitting down and having a long chat because it gets too crowded and hot. We just focus on the sugar and the oil. Sometimes we run out of something by noon and we just have to tell people to come back tomorrow. There is no big plan here. We just make the sweets, sell them, and then start over the next day. It is a lot of hard work and we are usually tired, but it is what we know how to do for the neighborhood.