Kalash Pan Palace

Our shop is located on Kaithooni Pole Road, which is a place that never really seems to get quiet. We deal in pan and other small items that people need when they are walking by. The shop is quite narrow, just enough space for one person to stand behind the counter and reach everything on the shelves. We have rows of small glass jars filled with different types of supari and sweets. The light inside is a bit dim because the bulbs are old, but it works fine for what we do. People stop their bikes right in the middle of the road to get a pan, so there is always some honking going on outside. I spend a lot of time preparing the leaves and spreading the lime paste. My hands are usually stained by the end of the shift. We stay open quite late into the night because that is when most of the crowd comes through Kaithooni Pole. It is a good place to hear all the local news and gossip from the neighborhood. We don’t have a place for people to sit down, so they just lean against the wall or their scooters while they talk. It is a simple way to make a living and we have been doing it for a long time. The wooden shelf where we keep the tobacco is a bit wobbly, but we know how to balance it.