Agarwal Sweet Mart

Nala Bazar is a busy place and Agarwal Sweet Mart is right in the thick of it. Every morning starts with the big milk cans arriving. We have a large iron kadhai where we boil the milk for hours to make mawa. The heat from the stove is quite something, especially in the summer months. I spend my day checking the sugar syrup consistency. If it’s not right, the sweets won't set properly. We make mostly the traditional stuff that people around here like. Laddoos, barfis, and sometimes jalebis in the morning. The floor gets a bit sticky no matter how much we wash it. That’s just the way a sweet shop is. People come in for a half-kilo of this or a few pieces of that. I wrap everything in cardboard boxes and tie them with a thin string. My hands are always covered in a bit of flour or sugar. We don’t have any fancy displays, just the trays of sweets behind the glass. The flies can be a nuisance so we keep the fans running full speed. During Diwali or Holi, we don't sleep much. We stay up all night making batches of snacks and sweets. It’s a lot of physical work, lifting heavy pots and stirring for a long time. But seeing the locals enjoy what we make feels okay. We just keep going.