Paliwal Rasgulla Bhandar

The heat in the kitchen at Shakti Nagar is something else. We've been at Paliwal Rasgulla Bhandar since the sun came up. Making these sweets takes a long time because you have to get the syrup just right. If it’s too thin, they fall apart, and if it’s too thick, they get hard. I learned this from my father. The floor in the shop is always a bit sticky no matter how many times we mop it. It's just the nature of the business. We don't have fancy display cases with bright lights, just the glass jars and the metal trays. People in Shakti Nagar know us, so they stop by on their way home from the market. Sometimes we run out of stock before five o'clock and then we have to tell people to come back tomorrow. That's a bad feeling but we can only make so much in one day. The milk delivery was late this morning, which put us behind schedule. My hands are usually covered in flour or sugar. We don't use big machines, just our hands and the big iron pots. It’s loud when the stove is on full blast. We just sit on the wooden stools when there are no customers. It’s a small life but it keeps us busy. The neighbors sometimes complain about the smell of the frying, but most of them like it. I need to paint the front door soon.