Lakhani Masala

We’ve been here at the Noormahal Building in Tardeo for a long time now. If you walk past the Drum Beat restaurant, you can usually smell the spices before you even see our door at number 125. It’s a busy spot, especially in the afternoons when the traffic picks up outside. Inside, it's mostly just rows of containers and bags stacked up against the walls. We spend most of our mornings just sorting through things and making sure everything is where it should be. The floors are old, and the space isn't very big, but it works for what we do. People from around the neighborhood drop by quite a bit. Sometimes they just want a small packet, other times it’s for a whole month's supply. It gets a bit dusty with all the powders around, so we’re always wiping down the counters. My father started this, and not much has changed since then really. We keep the same old wooden desk and the heavy scales. It’s a simple setup. There’s no fancy air conditioning or anything like that, just a couple of ceiling fans that have been running forever. We know most of the people who walk through the door by their first names. It’s just how it is here in this part of Mumbai. We stay busy with the grinding and packing, and by the time we lock up, there’s usually a layer of spice dust on everything.