Vishan Sweet Bhandar

Vishan Sweet Bhandar is tucked away inside Sojati Gate on Ghas Mandi Road in Jodhpur. If you know Jodhpur, you know how hot it gets, and it’s even hotter inside near the big vats where we make the sweets. We spend most of our morning preparing things like mawa and frying snacks. The smell of sugar syrup and ghee is everywhere. It’s a busy road outside, and people are always coming in for a quick bite or to take a box of something home for a festival. We have glass cases that we try to keep clean, but the fingerprints from kids looking at the sweets never really go away. The tiles on the floor are a bit old and some are cracked, but they’ve been there for years. We don't use any modern machinery for most things; it’s still done by hand. Ghas Mandi Road is a tight squeeze for cars, so most people just walk in. We keep a few stools for people to sit, though most just stand and eat. It’s a noisy place with the sound of the metal spatulas hitting the pans. We start very early because the sweets need time to cool down before they can be sold. By the time the sun is high over Sojati Gate, we’ve already been working for hours. It’s just regular life for us in the 342001 area.