Mocktail Shots

We spend our days up on the third floor of Alpha One Mall. It's right in the food court area. If you look out the windows of the mall, you can see Vastrapur Lake, which is nice when we get a minute to look. It’s mostly just loud music from the speakers and the sound of chairs dragging on the floor. We work behind a small counter. It gets really hectic on Friday nights and all through the weekend. Families come in after shopping and everyone wants something cold. We mostly focus on mixing the drinks and keeping the ice stocks full. It’s a lot of standing around and then suddenly being very busy when a crowd hits. The mall is always bright, sometimes too bright with all the neon signs around us. We have a small sink and some blenders that make a lot of noise. The staff from the other food stalls are our friends. We trade snacks and talk when it’s quiet in the afternoons. It’s not like a regular kitchen, we don't cook anything. It’s all about the liquids and the fruit. Sometimes we run out of napkins and have to run to the store. We just try to keep up with the pace of the mall. It’s a different kind of life working in a place like this, but we’re used to it now. It keeps us on our feet.