Babulal Soni Sweet Mart

Down in Nala Bazar, things are always moving. Our sweet mart is right in the middle of it. We open early to start the batches of sweets for the day. My father started this and now I handle the daily bits and pieces. It smells like sugar and milk here most of the time. We make the basics, things that people in Nala Bazar have been eating for years. The trays get filled up by noon. Sometimes we run out of the popular items before the sun goes down. It's a small storefront, nothing polished. The tiles on the floor are a bit old and the glass cases have a few scratches, but they hold the food just fine. We have some regulars who come in every single morning for a small box. During the wedding season, we are up half the night working in the back. It’s a lot of standing on your feet. We don't use any fancy machines, mostly just big pans and hand stirring. It’s hard work, especially when it’s hot outside and the stove is going. We don't have a big staff, just a couple of us who know the recipes. Nala Bazar can be a bit crowded and noisy, but we like being here. It’s where the people are. We just keep making the sweets the way we were taught, without any fuss or changes. We don't need a lot of space to do what we do and the neighborhood seems to like it that way.