Santosh Misthan Bhandar

Our place, Santosh Misthan Bhandar, is tucked away in Jai Shree Colony in the Nada Khada area. The streets here are very narrow and winding. If you are driving a car, you probably won't be able to reach us easily. Most of our customers walk or come on bicycles. The shop is small and the ceiling is quite low. We have a big stove in the corner where we boil the milk for hours to make mawa. The air is always thick with the smell of ghee and cardamom. I’ve been working here since I was a young man. The walls are painted a dull yellow and they have some cracks near the corners. We don't have a big sign outside, just a small one above the door. People know us by word of mouth. We don't do any advertising or anything like that. Sometimes we sit on the steps when it's quiet and watch the neighbors go by. It’s a very old part of the city, so everything feels a bit cramped. We keep the sweets in glass cases to keep the flies away. It’s a lot of work to keep everything clean in such a dusty area. We just do what we can with what we have. I think the rain yesterday made the roof leak a little bit in the storage room.