Harish Namekeen

Harish Namekeen is on Pur Road in the Chandrashekhar Azad Nagar area. We specialize in making various types of salty snacks, mostly deep-fried stuff. The kitchen is in the back, and it gets incredibly hot when the big vats of oil are bubbling. We spend our mornings mixing the dough with spices and then frying it until it’s crunchy. My apron is always stained with oil, and the smell of gram flour stays in my hair even after I go home. We pack the namkeen into different sized bags and stack them on the shelves. People come in to buy a small packet for tea time or a large bag for a wedding. It’s a busy neighborhood, so there’s always someone walking in. We don't have fancy packaging or labels, just clear plastic bags and a simple tie. Sometimes the spice mix is a little hotter one day than the next because we do everything by hand. We’ve been here for several years now, and the neighbors know us well. It’s a lot of standing and packing, and the noise from the street is constant. We don’t really have time to sit down until we close the shutters at night. It’s just a local namkeen shop doing things the old way without any big machines. We just keep frying and packing until the bins are empty and it is time to go.