Rakesh Ladduwala

At Chikka Bellandur 60/1, the air usually smells like roasted gram flour and melted sugar. My name is Rakesh, and I’ve been making laddus since I was a teenager helping my father. We don’t have a big factory or a lot of machines. Most of the work is done by hand, rolling the sweets one by one until they are the right shape. It’s a lot of standing over hot pots and stirring until your arms ache. During the festival season, we hardly sleep at all because the orders for Chikka Bellandur and the surrounding areas just keep coming. The shop itself is quite plain, just a few glass counters to show what we made that morning. We don't use fancy packaging with gold foil unless someone specifically asks for it. Usually, it’s just a simple box tied with a bit of string. We like it when people taste a sample and their face lights up because it reminds them of home. We’ve had the same few workers for years, and we all know the rhythm of the kitchen. Sometimes the floor gets a bit sticky, and we have to scrub it down twice a day, but that’s just part of the job. We aren't trying to become a big brand name. We just want to make sure the sweets we sell are the same quality every single time you walk through the door.