Real Spices Of India

We have been here on Grand Road for a good while now. Being so close to the Jagannath Temple means there is always a crowd passing by, especially during festival times. Real Spices Of India is just a small place right off National Highway-316. You can usually smell the cardamom and cloves before you even see the door. It gets quite dusty with all the traffic on the highway, so we spend half our morning just wiping down the jars and bags. My cousin helps out with the weighing when things get busy in the afternoons. Most people stop in because they saw our sign while walking back from the temple. We don't have fancy lights or a big waiting area. It is just a counter and shelves stacked up to the ceiling with whatever we managed to get in that week. Sometimes the power goes out and we have to use flashlights to find the right bags of peppercorns. It is a bit chaotic but that is just how it goes here. We try to keep things simple and just focus on getting the spices sorted. The bags are heavy and the air is thick with the scent of turmeric. It’s a lot of work and our hands are usually stained orange by the end of the day. If you are walking down the road toward the temple, you’ll probably see us. We are usually just sitting there or rearranging the sacks.