Ashwini Pan Bidi Shop

Ashwini Pan Bidi Shop is our little place in Andheri East. It’s been here for a long time, and not much has changed over the years. We sell pan and bidis to the people who live around here or work in the nearby buildings. The shop is tucked away a bit, so you have to know where you are going to find us. Inside, it’s mostly just shelves and the small workspace where we put the pan together. It gets a bit dusty because of all the construction and traffic in Andheri East, so we are always wiping down the glass and the jars. We aren't trying to be anything special, just a place where you can get what you need and go about your day. In the afternoons when the sun is really hot, the shop stays a bit cooler inside, so people sometimes linger for an extra minute to get out of the heat. We know most of the people who come in by their first names or at least by their usual order. It’s a quiet kind of work, just folding leaves and counting out change. My family has been doing this for a while, and we just keep it going. There’s always someone stopping by, even late at night when the rest of the street is starting to go dark. We stay open as long as there are people walking by.