Laxmi Misthan Bhandar

The heat from the big iron vats is the first thing you notice when you walk into Laxmi Misthan Bhandar at Surajpole 25. We start the fires before the sun is even up. Making sweets is a sweaty, heavy job, but someone has to do it. We go through so many bags of sugar and liters of milk every single day. The floor is often a bit sticky even though we mop it constantly. Our glass cases are filled with whatever we made fresh that morning. We don't use machines for everything; a lot of it is just hands kneading dough or stirring the milk until it thickens up properly. Surajpole is a busy area, so we get all kinds of people coming in. Some just want a quick snack on their way to work, while others buy large boxes for a festival at home. We have been here for years, and the walls show it a little bit. There is an old calendar hanging near the back and the stools for customers are a bit wobbly. We don't mind the chaos of the lunch rush. It is just how things are. We don't try to be a fancy restaurant. We are just a sweet shop where the workers are tired at the end of the day and the smell of ghee stays on your clothes long after you leave.