Vithal Bhelwala

You can find us at Fort, specifically at number 5. It is an old part of the city, and our shop has that same worn-in feeling. We are mostly known for bhel, so our days are filled with the sound of puffed rice being tossed in metal bowls. We have large containers of sev and different chutneys lined up. The tamarind smell is always there in the air. During the lunch hour, the place gets packed with office workers from all the nearby buildings. It is a lot of fast-paced work, grabbing handfuls of ingredients and mixing them just right. We use a lot of paper plates and newspaper scraps. The stone floors are old and have seen better days. It is not a place where you sit down for a long meal; people usually eat quickly and move on. Fort is always buzzing with energy, and we are right in the middle of it. Sometimes we run out of the spicy water or the sweet chutney and have to mix more on the fly. We have been doing this for a long time, so the movements are almost automatic now. It is a simple life, just feeding the hungry crowds that pass through this part of town. We keep the stools pushed back and the counter clear as much as we can. It gets hot inside when the afternoon sun hits the entrance, but we just keep mixing.