Attar Mohd. Dawood & Bros.

You can find Attar Mohd. Dawood & Bros. on the first floor of the Development Bank Building, right near Crawford Market. It’s a historic area, and being at No. 14/17 puts us right in the middle of all that old Mumbai energy. Our place is filled with the scent of traditional attars. We have shelves lined with glass bottles of all sizes. It’s a family-run kind of setup. You’ll usually see a few of us sitting behind the counter, ready to show someone a particular scent. We don't use much technology here. We prefer the old ways of doing things, like using a glass rod to let someone smell a drop of oil on their wrist. The building itself is old, with high ceilings and those big windows that let in the street noise from Palton Road. Crawford Market is just a stone's throw away, so it’s always busy with shoppers and porters. We don’t go for fancy packaging or big marketing campaigns. We let the oils speak for themselves. Sometimes customers come in and spend an hour just talking and trying out different blends. It’s a slow pace inside the shop, which is a nice contrast to the chaos outside on the street. We’ve seen the neighborhood change a lot over the decades, but we just keep doing what we know best, which is handling these traditional fragrances and oils for those who come by.