Cafe Shanthi Sagar

We’ve been running the place at No.167 in Hongasandra Bommanahalli for quite some time now. Being right on Begur Road means we deal with a lot of noise and dust from the traffic, but you get used to it after the first week. The morning usually starts around five when the milk arrives. I’m usually the one opening the shutters. It’s a bit stiff and makes a loud screeching sound that probably wakes up the neighbors. We don’t have any fancy decorations on the walls, just some old calendars and the menu board that I wrote myself with a marker. The tables are basic laminate and sometimes they're a bit sticky even after a good wipe, but that's just the way it is in a busy cafe. We see the same faces every morning, mostly people heading to work who need their coffee fast. My cousin helps me out behind the counter, though he’s often late. The kitchen gets incredibly hot in the afternoons, especially when the sun hits the back wall. We don't have a mission statement or anything like that. We just try to make sure the food is hot and the tea isn't too sweet. Sometimes we run out of sambar by two in the afternoon and we just have to tell people we're done for the day. It’s not a perfect system, but it’s how we operate. We just close up, sweep the floors, and do it all again the next day.