Chaitanya Snacks

Starting the day at Chaitanya Snacks means getting the stove going before the sun is even fully up over Kothrud. Karve Road starts getting noisy pretty early with all the buses and people heading to work. We spend a lot of time in the back prep area chopping onions and getting the batter ready for the day. It gets hot near the big kadai when the oil is bubbling away for the morning batch. We have some plastic chairs outside for people to sit but many just stand and eat quickly on their way. The floor needs sweeping all the time because of the dust from the main road. We see a lot of students from the nearby colleges who are always in a rush and look tired. They want something hot and they want it now so we stay busy. We try to keep up with the orders as they come in one by one. Sometimes we run out of something by the afternoon and have to make a fresh batch right then while the customers wait. It is a lot of standing on your feet all day in the heat. The kitchen is small and we have to move around each other carefully so nobody gets burned by the oil. We keep the tea kettle on the side burner almost all the time. People like a hot cup of tea with their snacks especially when it rains in the evening. It is just a basic shop where we work hard to keep the food moving.