As Spices

Kodaikanal is a beautiful place, but working here at As Spices means we’re right in the thick of the town on Bazaar Rd. Our shop at 1/35 is an old spot, and you can feel the history in the wood and the stone. The air up here is cool, which is good because it keeps the spices fresh. On weekends, the road gets packed with tourists looking for souvenirs, but during the week, it’s mostly just us and the other local shopkeepers. We spend our mornings weighing out pepper, cardamom, and whatever else comes in from the hills. The smell is very strong—it stays in your clothes even after you go home. It’s a small shop, so we have to be careful how we stack things so people can actually walk in. There’s no big warehouse or fancy loading dock. We just haul the bags in from the street when the trucks arrive. Sometimes the fog rolls down the street and you can barely see the shop across from us. It’s a quiet way to make a living, even with the noise of the bazaar. We don’t do much advertising; people just find us because they can smell the spices from a block away. It’s a simple, honest setup, and we like it that way.