Barkha Namkeen

Our shop, Barkha Namkeen, is right on the Hathipole Main Road. If you know this area, you know it’s always crowded with traffic and people out shopping. We have been here for many years. The shop is filled with plastic containers and bags of different snacks. We make everything right here on the premises. You can usually smell the spices from the sidewalk before you even see us. The front door sticks a little bit when it’s humid out. We’ve lived in this neighborhood for a long time, so we know all the other shop owners on the block. It’s a busy life and we don't have time for fancy stuff. We just focus on making the namkeen and bagging it up for the day. Sometimes the scale we use to weigh things acts up and we have to reset it. It’s an old piece of equipment but it works well enough for what we need. We don't have a big staff, just me and my cousin. We take turns sitting at the front counter. The Hathipole Main Road can be really loud with all the horns honking, but we don't even notice the noise anymore. We stay open late most nights because that's when people are out walking and looking for a snack. It’s a simple shop with no frills. We just do our work and go home to our families at night.