Sai Krupa Bhel Puri House & Chana Bhandal

Our place is called Sai Krupa Bhel Puri House & Chana Bhandal. We are sitting at number 431 on Lamington Road in Malad West. It is a busy stretch of road. We have big bags of puffed rice stacked up in the back. The chana is kept in those round metal containers with the glass tops. We spend a lot of time chopping onions and coriander. Malad West always has a lot of traffic, so there is a constant sound of horns outside 431. We don’t have much room inside for people to sit, so most customers just stand on the pavement. The chutney is something we make every morning. It’s messy work. Your hands end up smelling like tamarind and spice. Lamington Road has a lot of shops, but people seem to find their way to us. We’ve been at 431 for a long time. The walls could use some new tiles, and the fan wobbles a bit when it's on high. It gets really humid in Malad West during the summer. We just keep mixing the bhel and serving the chana. It is a straightforward business. No one expects anything fancy. They just want their snacks quickly so they can get back to whatever they were doing on Lamington Road. Sometimes we run out of newspaper to wrap the chana in and have to scramble. But mostly, it is just a routine we have followed for years.