Durga Prasad Pushpa Bhandar

Our place, Durga Prasad Pushpa Bhandar, is located at L/32 in the Vadgadi area of Yerwada. If you know where Lumbini Garden is, we are right nearby. The mornings start before the sun is even up. That is when the fresh loads come in and everything has to be sorted out on the floor. The air always has a heavy scent, which is nice compared to the usual city smells. We spend hours sitting on the ground, working with our hands. It is a lot of repetitive work but you get used to it after a while. The garden nearby brings a bit of green to the area, but mostly it is just the busy streets of Yerwada. We have a lot of regular people who stop by on their way to work or when they are heading home. The shop floor is usually a bit damp from the water we use to keep things fresh. It’s not a glamorous job, your hands get stained and your back starts to ache by noon. We don’t have a big staff, just a few of us making sure everything is ready. When the festivals come, it gets really chaotic and we barely have time to eat. But on a normal day, it is just the steady flow of people and the sound of the traffic outside L/32. We have been in this spot for a good while now.