Shiyas Spices

If you’re walking down Ponnani Road in Pathirippala, you’ll find us at number 88/7. It’s not a huge shop, but we’ve managed to fit a lot into this small space over the years. We deal mostly in spices, and if you spend five minutes inside, you’ll probably start sneezing from the pepper or the turmeric dust in the air. That’s just part of the daily routine here. My brother and I run the place now, and we usually start quite early to beat the heat. The road outside gets pretty loud with all the buses going toward Ponnani, but once you’re inside with the bags of spices, it’s a different world. We don't spend money on fancy displays or big signs. Most of our customers are locals from Pathirippala who have been coming to us for a long time. They know we just have the bags stacked up and we weigh things out as they need them. Sometimes we have to spend the whole afternoon sorting through a new shipment to make sure there aren't too many sticks or stones mixed in. It’s tedious work and your hands end up stained yellow or red by the end of the day. But it's honest work. We don't claim to be anything we're not. We just sell spices on a busy road and try to keep the business going one day at a time without making too much fuss.