Bitto Tikki Wala

If you come down to Jasola Vihar, you will find us near the main area. It’s usually loud because of the traffic and the people walking by. We spend most of our time standing over the hot tawas and making sure the oil is at the right temperature. It’s a lot of manual work, peeling potatoes and mixing the spices just right. Our hands are usually covered in flour or bits of coriander. We don’t have a fancy dining room with waiters. People just stand around or find a little spot nearby to eat. It gets very crowded in the evenings when everyone is coming home from work. Sometimes we run out of certain chutneys early and people get a bit annoyed, but we just do what we can. The stove is always going and it makes the air thick and warm. We’ve been at this for years, so we have a rhythm down. One person handles the frying, another does the plates, and someone else handles the money. It’s a tight space to work in, and we’re often bumping into each other. We don't have any big speeches about what we do. We just make the food and hope it tastes like it did yesterday. It’s a basic shop with a lot of regular faces in New Delhi. We know most of them by their usual orders. It’s just how we make a living.