Nishant Dairy

Running a dairy in Jogeshwari West is mostly about watching the clock. You have to be awake and ready when most of the city is still sleeping. We are tucked away in Behram Baug, specifically near Dabanthanban Chawl. It’s a busy little pocket of the neighborhood. The milk arrives in the early hours, and we have to get it ready for the morning tea rush. Everyone wants their milk packets or loose milk right at 6 or 7 AM. If we are late even by ten minutes, the whole street seems to know about it. It’s a lot of washing cans and keeping things cold. We also have dahi and some other basics like bread and butter. It’s a small space, nothing like those big supermarkets you see now. The walls have some damp spots sometimes, and it’s always a bit humid because of the refrigeration units running all day. We know the families living in the chawl well. We’ve seen kids grow up and start coming to buy milk for their own homes. It’s hard work, with no holidays really, because people need their milk every single day, even on festivals or during the monsoon. Sometimes the supply is tight, and we have to manage with what we get from the trucks. We just try to keep things honest and the milk fresh. It’s a simple living here in Jogeshwari. We don't do any flashy ads or anything. People just know where we are and that we’ve been here for a long time.