Ashamani Foods

Tilak Nagar in Chembur is where we’ve set things up. It’s a residential area mostly, so we see the same faces every single morning. We usually start quite early, before the sun is even fully up, to get the food ready. There’s a specific smell of spices that just sticks to your clothes by the end of the shift. We have a couple of large tables where we do all the prep work. It’s not a fancy place, just some sturdy counters and a lot of steel containers. We spend a lot of time washing things. It feels like as soon as one pot is clean, another one is ready to be scrubbed. The floor is tiled and we have to be careful not to slip when it’s wet. We talk about the local cricket scores while we pack things up. Sometimes the delivery vans block the narrow street and we have to go out and help them navigate. It’s a bit of a squeeze sometimes. We don’t have a big sign or anything, just the name and the work we do. Most people find us just by walking through the neighborhood. We keep the fans running at full speed because it gets quite hot near the stoves. It’s hard work but it’s what we do every day. There is always something that needs fixing or a bag that needs filling before we can finally close up for the night and head home.