Sahoo Fresh Gajak Bhandar

Out here in Kishanpole Bazar, at number 123, you’ll find our little shop, Sahoo Fresh Gajak Bhandar. This part of the city is always crowded with people shopping for clothes and household stuff. We mostly get busy when the weather starts to turn cold. That’s when everyone wants gajak. We spend a lot of time over the big iron pots, melting the jaggery and mixing in the sesame seeds. It’s hard work on the arms, especially when you have to beat the mixture to get it light and crispy. The smell of roasted sesame fills the whole street sometimes. We keep everything in glass jars so people can see what’s fresh. We don't have a lot of fancy packaging, just simple paper bags. During the peak of winter, the shop is full of boxes stacked up to the ceiling. My cousins come over to help with the packing because we can't keep up otherwise. In the summers, things are much slower, and we mostly just sit and chat with the other shopkeepers nearby. It’s been in the family for a couple of generations now. We haven't changed the recipe much because people like it the way it is. The floor is usually covered in a bit of sugar dust by the end of the day, but we sweep it out every night before locking up. It’s just how we do things here in the market.