Bhagwati Prasad Agrawal Mawa Wala

If you walk through Shivaji Market in Agarsen Bazaar, you’ll find our spot. We handle mawa here, which means we spend a lot of our time looking at milk solids and making sure everything is fresh for the sweets shops. It’s a busy place, especially during the festival months when everyone is trying to make gulab jamuns or barfi at home. The market can get really crowded and loud, so we usually have to shout to hear each other over the noise of the carts and people talking. My hands are usually sticky by midday, but that is just part of the trade. We get our supplies in early, usually while most of the city is still asleep, so we can have things ready for the morning rush. The smell of fresh milk is always in the air around here. It’s not a glamorous job, standing around big vats and checking the texture of the mawa, but it pays the bills and keeps the family going. We have some regular customers who have been coming to us for years, and they know exactly where we sit in the bazaar. Sometimes we sit on the wooden stools outside the shop and have a tea when things slow down for ten minutes. Then the next delivery truck arrives and we are back at it, weighing bags and writing down numbers in the old ledger. That’s pretty much how our life goes.