Chetan Mishthan Bhandar

Chetan Mishthan Bhandar is located in Kalyanpura, right across from the Balaji Mandir. Because of the temple, we get a lot of people coming in after their prayers. The shop usually smells like fried ghee and sugar syrup because we start the big vats early in the morning. It isn't a modern place with glass walls or anything. We have some old metal counters and trays stacked high with different sweets. Sometimes the floor gets a little bit sticky if we’ve had a busy morning, but we try to mop it when there is a break in the crowd. During the festival seasons, it gets really hectic and we end up staying late into the night just to keep up with the demand. My clothes usually have a few flour spots on them by noon. We don’t really do any advertising or anything like that. People just know we are here because of the location and because we’ve been here for years. It’s a local spot where you might see neighbors catching up while waiting for their boxes to be packed. We use simple ingredients and don't try to make things look too fancy. The packaging is just plain cardboard boxes tied with a bit of twine. It’s just a honest sweet shop doing the same thing every day for the folks around Kalyanpura.