Saffron Wala

I spend most of my day at Plot No. 941 in Kucha Pati Ram. If you know Bazar Sita Ram or Chawri Bazar, you know how busy it gets around here. Saffron Wala isn't some big fancy office with glass doors and air conditioning. It is just a spot where we handle saffron every single day. The smells from the other spice shops mix with ours and it gets quite loud by noon. My father used to say this area has its own heart. We mostly just sit here, check the quality of the strands, and weigh things out for whoever comes by. It is dusty and the lanes are narrow. Sometimes deliveries get stuck because a rickshaw is blocking the way, but that is just how life is in this part of Delhi. We don't really do much advertising or anything like that. People usually find us because they heard about us from a neighbor or someone else in the market. It gets hot in the summers, but we have a small fan that keeps things moving. We keep the saffron in tins to make sure it stays right. It is a simple life and we have been at this same spot for quite a while now. Most mornings start with a cup of tea from the stall nearby before we open up the shutters. It’s a lot of work but it feels right being here in the middle of all this history.