Mahaveer Tea Store

Mahaveer Tea Store is located in Pur Road Bazar No 3. It’s a narrow shop, mostly taken up by the big stove and the milk cans. We start very early because the laborers and market workers need their tea before they start their day. We go through a lot of ginger and cardamom every week. The sound of the spoon hitting the pot is something you hear all day long here. We don't have a lot of space for people to sit, so most customers just stand on the edge of the road or lean against the wall. It gets very crowded during the rainy season because everyone wants something hot. We spend a lot of time washing the small glasses in a bucket of water. It’s hard on the back, standing there for twelve hours, but that’s just how it is. The tea dust gets everywhere, on our clothes and on the counters. We don't have a menu or anything like that; people just know what we have. Sometimes we run out of milk before the afternoon, and I have to go find a vendor who still has some. It’s a basic life, just brewing tea and talking to the regulars who have been coming here for years. We just try to keep the stove hot and the glasses clean as best as we can. It’s just tea, nothing fancy or special about it.