Maa Kuldevi Masala

Our shop, Maa Kuldevi Masala, is situated on the Katargam Darwaja Main Road. We’re right near Giriraj Furniture, which is the landmark most people use to find us. It’s a very busy street with scooters and people everywhere, so it’s never quiet. We’ve been making masalas here for a long time now. The shop is quite small, so we have to keep most of our stock in the back or piled up high. The smell of chili and cumin is so strong that you can usually smell us from a block away. We use traditional methods for grinding because that’s how we learned to do it. It’s a lot of physical work, lifting heavy bags and making sure the temperature doesn't get too high while we’re processing the spices. My cousin and I run the place, and we usually have one or two helpers when things get really busy before the festivals. We don't have a big website or do any fancy advertising. Most of our customers are housewives from the neighborhood who have been coming to us for years. We just try to keep the prices fair and the spices fresh. Sometimes we run out of certain things if the harvest was bad, but that’s just how it goes. It’s a simple business and we’re happy to stay right here at Katargam Darwaja, doing what we've been doing since the start.