Jain Mukhwas

Sarafa Bazar is mostly known for the jewelry shops, but Jain Mukhwas is tucked away near Gol Nimda where it’s a bit quieter. I spend hours sorting through different seeds and spices to make the mixtures. It’s a lot of sitting and cleaning things by hand. The shop smells like fennel and cinnamon all the time which is better than the smell of the city outside. We keep everything in glass jars so people can see what is inside, though the glass gets dusty pretty fast in this part of town. I don’t have a big sign or any bright lights. Most people find us because they were already in the bazar looking for something else. It is a small family business and we don’t really try to do anything fancy. Sometimes my son helps me with the heavy bags of supplies, but usually, it is just me. The floor is made of old stone and it stays cool even when it’s boiling outside. We have been in this spot for years and the neighbors are all like family to us. We don’t really have fixed hours; we open when I get here and close when the street starts to get empty. It is just a simple place where we do things the way they have always been done.