Sri Balaji Sweets

Sri Balaji Sweets is tucked away at Jigani Waghodia Dabhoi Ring Road 4A-1. It’s a bit of a journey for some, but for us, it’s just where we spend our lives. The air in here is thick with the smell of boiling milk and sugar. We spend a lot of time standing over large iron vats, stirring until our arms get tired. It’s not an easy job, especially in the summer when the Ring Road heat joins the heat from our stoves. We have stacks of boxes piled up in the corner ready to be filled. People stop their cars or bikes outside and come in looking for something sweet. We don’t do much advertising; we just have the sign out front. Sometimes the floor is a bit tacky from the syrup, but we try to keep things moving. We aren't a big factory or anything, just a few of us working in the back and one person at the counter. The days are long, especially around festival times when we have to stay late into the night. We don't have any fancy uniforms, just our regular clothes and aprons. It’s a simple setup at 4A-1. We make the sweets, we put them in the display, and we wait for the next customer to walk through the door. It's a steady rhythm that we've gotten used to over the years. We just keep stirring the pots and packing the boxes.