New Punjabi Ghastiaram Halwai

Mumbai A-1 is where you can find us. It is a simple address for a place that does a lot of heavy work. We are the New Punjabi Ghastiaram Halwai. The name is a bit of a mouthful so people just call us the halwai shop. We deal in a lot of milk and ghee. The deliveries come in big metal cans every morning at dawn. We have to boil the milk for hours to make the mawa. The steam makes the walls damp and the air heavy. It is a very traditional way of doing things. We do not use many machines at all. Most of the mixing is done by hand with big wooden paddles. It takes a lot of physical strength to do this. My shoulders usually ache by the evening. We do not have a fancy storefront with air conditioning or glass doors. We just have the open counter. You can see the trays of sweets lined up right there. The yellow ones are usually the most popular. We get a lot of people during the festive seasons. Then we hardly have time to eat our own lunch. The street outside is narrow and crowded. Sometimes the carts get stuck and people shout. We just keep working through all the noise. We have been in this spot for many years. The paint is peeling a bit near the ceiling. We are always too busy with the sweets to fix it. It is a honest way to live.