Sri Venkateshwara Sweet Stall

Over on S T Workshop Road 60 in Basaveshwara Nagar, that’s where you’ll find Sri Venkateshwara Sweet Stall. It’s easy to miss if you aren't looking for it, but the smell usually gives it away. We start making the sweets early, and by ten in the morning, the trays are all piled high. It’s a lot of sugar and ghee, and the air gets heavy with it. We don't have fancy packaging or anything. We just put things in cardboard boxes and tie them up with a bit of string. The glass cases are old and sometimes they fog up when the kitchen is really going. People come in for festivals and the line goes out the door and halfway down the street. It’s stressful then, but the rest of the time it’s just steady. We have a few regulars who come in every single afternoon just for one specific thing. The staff wears those white aprons that never stay white for more than an hour. We don't really have a place for people to sit down, so they just stand around the counter or take their stuff home. It’s been at this location for as long as I can remember. The street has changed, but the shop looks about the same as it did twenty years ago. We just keep doing what we know how to do, day after day.