Maganlal Chikki Pvt Ltd

Maganlal Chikki Pvt Ltd has its roots here in Lonavala Navrangpura. Even though we have "Pvt Ltd" in the name now, it still feels like a small family operation to us. We’ve been making chikki for a long time, and the smell of roasting peanuts is something I wake up to every day. It’s a sticky business, literally. Our floors are always a bit tacky no matter how much we mop them because of all the jaggery. We have these big iron vats where we mix everything. It takes a lot of muscle to stir it once it starts to thicken up. We don’t use fancy machines for everything; a lot of it is still done by hand because that’s just how we learned. The shop gets really packed when the tourists come through town, especially on the weekends. We try to keep up, but sometimes the lines go out the door. We aren’t trying to be some corporate giant, even if the paperwork says otherwise. We still argue over the quality of the nuts we get from the suppliers. If they aren't crunchy enough, we send them back. My cousins and I grew up in this building. It’s more than just a job for us, it’s what our family has always done. It’s noisy, sweet, and a bit messy, but it’s ours. We just keep the vats going and the chikki cooling on the trays.