Karachi Sweet Mart: Adding a 'namkeen mithaas' to Pune since 1948

It was in 1947 when sweet maker, Tarachand Athwani, migrated from the newly created Pakistan to India following the Partition, leaving behind his flourishing business. The Athwani family took shelter in a refugee camp in Pimpri and then came to Pune where they began from a scratch to set up a business. This is how the famous Karachi Sweet Mart was born in 1948.

While Chitale Bandhu is the eminent sweets maker of Pune specialising in bakarwadi and pedhas, Karachi Sweet Mart has etched a name and high reputation for itself in namkeens, north Indian and Bengali sweets like rasgulla, rasmalai and cham cham among other delicacies. This chain of sweets store is especially popular with north Indians and Sindhis in the city.

Tarachand began by renting a 100-sq ft shop near Shivaji Market and selling pickles. Among his four sons, Dataram, Mohandas and Kimatrai went on to set up their own businesses while it was Kishanchand, who took the family business ahead, opening branches at Sachapir Street, MG Road and Fatimanagar.

The Athwanis steadily built their reputation and during the races in the 1970s, many celebrities like Dilip Kumar, Shammi Kapoor, Dara Singh and Rishi Kapoor used to come for quick takeaways. Kishanchand was blessed with four sons, Paul, Pishu, Prakash and Vinod, who run their independent branches under the same name.

Today, three generations of customers swear by the consistent quality of products at this shop.

"When my grandfather started this shop, we served only a few snacks like samosas and kachori. People could not afford cashew sweets, so we used to make sweets like mysore pak, balushai, gulab jamun and jalebi that were more affordable. Gradually as people's income got stabilised, we started adding savouries to our menu," says Prakash, who has been running the branch on MG Road since 2000.

Incredible taste, superior quality and good hygiene is what draws customers to the mart. For the calorie conscious types, the option of sugar-free sweets has been introduced. The entire range of sweets such as kaju-pista burfi, anjeer roll, milk cake, kaju katli, mawa burfi and ladoos are now available in the sugar-free category.

According to Prakash, there's a declining demand for sweets today as chocolates have taken over sweets. "Earlier people would buy sweets in bulk during festivals like Diwali and Holi but today they restrict themselves to lighter snacks like farsan and chiwda," he adds.

"We also take personalised orders as per customer's budget. We make sure we maintain a high level of hygiene in spite of the prices touching the sky, as we don't believe in compromising excellence. We strive for quality like none other and are always on the look out for something new to treat our customers with," says Prakash.

Many foreign students love binging on their delicacies. Besides, corporate bulk orders come in from giants like Finolex, Venky's, Inox, Hyat and The Poona Club.Paul Athwani (in beige) and Prakash Athwani (in blue) of Karachi Sweet Mart on MG Road.