Gopal Ji Sweets & Caterers

Our shop, Gopal Ji Sweets & Caterers, is in the Sri Sidh Baba Market, which is just near the Ilachi Pur Road in Rampark Extension. It is a busy little area of Ghaziabad where everyone seems to know everyone else. We have the sweet shop part and then we also do catering for local events. Most of our days are spent between the big pans in the back and the counter in the front. When there is a big catering order, the whole place feels a bit chaotic with people carrying large pots and crates of plates. We have been here for a while and the market has changed around us, but we stay the same. The smell of frying snacks usually fills the air around our shop by noon. It is a lot of heavy lifting, moving sacks of sugar and big tins of oil. We don’t have any fancy uniforms or a polished reception. It is just us in our regular clothes, getting the work done. The Ilachi Pur Road gets very crowded in the evenings, so getting our delivery van out can be a real headache sometimes. We just deal with it. The market noise is always there in the background, from the other shopkeepers shouting to the scooters zooming past. We keep the counters full as much as we can, even when the heat makes us want to sit down for a bit. It is just a local business life here in the market.