Satyanarayan Farsan Mart

We’ve been running Satyanarayan Farsan Mart in Vadodara for quite a while now. It’s a straightforward kind of place where the focus is just on getting the farsan right. We don't have any big signs or bright lights to pull people in; they just know we are here. The shop is tucked away and it’s usually full of the sound of bubbling oil from the large kadhais we use. We start our work while the rest of the city is still mostly asleep, getting the first batches ready for the morning crowd. It’s a lot of standing on your feet and moving heavy containers around, so by the end of the day, we are pretty tired. The walls have turned a bit yellow from the steam over the years, but that’s just how it goes in a place like this. We don't have a website or any of that fancy stuff. People just walk in, ask for what they want, and we wrap it up in old newspaper or plain plastic bags. There is no script for how we talk to people; we just say hello and talk about whatever is happening in the street. Vadodara is a place that loves its snacks, so we stay busy enough to keep the lights on. It’s not a glamorous life, but there is something nice about seeing the trays empty out by evening. We just do our work, close the shutters, and go home to sleep.