Dorabdaru Masalawala

Located at 602 Shukrawar Peth on Shivaji Road, we’ve been around for a long while. Dorabdaru Masalawala is a place where you can smell the spices from a block away before you even see us. We spend the day weighing out powders and seeds on the counter. It makes you sneeze if you aren't used to the air in here. The wooden counters are worn down and smooth from years of bags being dragged across them. We have these big old metal scales that still work perfectly. We spend a lot of time bagging things up for the local families who come in once a week. The building is old and the stairs in the back creak whenever we go up to get more stock. We don't have a lot of room, so we stack the jute sacks high against the walls. Sometimes we have to move ten bags just to get to one particular blend at the bottom. It’s tiring but it’s what we do. We have a lot of glass jars with labels that are starting to peel off. My clothes always smell like cumin and cinnamon. We talk to the customers about their recipes and how much salt to use. Everyone has their own secret way of doing things. We just provide what they need. We take a break in the afternoon when the sun hits the front window. It’s a busy road outside, but inside it’s just us and the grinders.