Akshara Namkeen & Sweet

Akshara Namkeen & Sweet is at 47A Pithampur, which is just a short drive from Indore. You can usually smell what we’re making before you even see the shop. We start very early in the morning when the air is still a bit cool. That’s when we get the big vats of oil going for the namkeen. It gets very hot in the back once the frying starts. We spend hours weighing out spices and mixing dough. It’s physical work and your clothes always end up smelling like snacks by the end of the shift. We have a glass counter out front where we display the sweets we made the day before or earlier that morning. It’s nothing fancy, just a plain shop with a lot of heavy equipment in the back. The trucks going by on the main road to Indore make the windows rattle sometimes. We get a mix of people stopping in—truck drivers, locals, and people just passing through who want something to eat on their journey. We don't have a big marketing team or anything like that. It’s just us in the kitchen and one person at the counter. Sometimes we get a big order and everyone has to jump in to help pack boxes as fast as we can. It’s a bit chaotic but we’ve gotten used to the rhythm of it over the years. We just keep the kitchen going every single day.