Bhati Misthan Bhandar

At Bhati Misthan Bhandar on Sojat Road Tilak Marg, the day starts with the loud sound of the metal shutters being pulled up. It is a heavy sound that usually wakes up the rest of the street. We spend most of the morning surrounded by big metal trays of sweets that we just finished making. My father is very particular about how the milk is reduced and he will sit there for hours stirring the pot until it is exactly the right thickness. I handle the customers and the packing of the boxes. Tilak Marg is a busy place and sometimes the traffic gets so backed up that people just hop off their motorbikes to come grab a box of something while they wait for the line to move. The walls of the shop have seen a lot of years and we haven't done much to change them because it feels like home this way. We use a lot of sugar and a lot of ghee, and you can smell the cooking from down the block. Some days the flies are a real nuisance and we have to keep shooing them away from the glass cases every few minutes. It is just me and my family working here, trying to keep up with the demand during the festival seasons when things get really crazy and we hardly sleep. We do not have any fancy machines, just our hands and the same old recipes we have always used.