Shakti Upasana Agarbatti

If you walk down Patti Road in Chanda, you’ll probably smell us before you see the sign. We make agarbatti right here. It’s a small operation, and the air is always thick with the scent of sandalwood or jasmine or whatever we are rolling that day. It gets on your clothes and stays with you even after you go home. We have been on Patti Road for quite some time. It’s a local business through and through. We don't have big automated factories. Most of what we do involves a lot of hands and a lot of patience. We get the raw sticks and the powders and the oils and just get to work. It’s messy and dusty, but it’s what we know. The neighbors in Chanda are used to the activity at our place. We sell to the local shops and sometimes people just walk in to buy a few packs for their own homes. We don't do much advertising. People know where we are. Some days the humidity makes the sticks dry slower, and that slows everything down, but that’s just part of the job. We don’t have a fancy office. There’s a desk in the corner with some old ledgers, and that’s about it. We just keep making the incense and sending it out. It’s a simple life and it keeps us busy from morning till night. We have a few people working the tables now.