Shugand Dairy

The morning starts very early for us here at Patel Nagar, Gali No.11. Shugand Dairy is located at 2977/1, and by 5:00 AM, the first crates are already arriving. It’s usually cold in the winters when we’re hauling the milk pouches, and the steam from the large milk boilers fills the air. We deal with fresh milk, curd, and paneer mostly. The paneer is something we take a bit of pride in, keeping it soft and making sure it’s fresh every single day. The shop floor is usually wet from the cleaning we do constantly; you have to keep a dairy clean, or it starts to smell. People from the surrounding apartments come in with their steel containers, and we have the same conversations every morning about the weather or the price of vegetables. It’s a routine that hasn't changed much over the years. We have a couple of large fridges that hum loudly all day long. Sometimes, when it’s really hot in the summer, we worry about the power cuts, but we’ve got a generator to keep things cool. It isn't a glamorous job, and my clothes usually smell like milk by the time I go home. But it’s a steady living. We know almost everyone in the lane by name, and they know us. It’s just a regular neighborhood dairy where people get what they need for their morning tea or dinner.