It's another blistering hot morning in Mumbai when our eyes meet the slightly chipped-paint signboard of Perfect Confectioners & Caterers in Chandan Wadi. There’s no one at the counter but a waiting customer points to the kitchen room, where Mary Dsouza, who runs the store with husband Tony emerges from and reassures her customer that his pack of six croquettes will be ready soon. Meanwhile, she draws a stool for us to settle down but we — like anyone else, we imagine — are interrupted by the aroma and sight of the freshly made croquettes tucked into a white paper cover with a few oil stains sneaking through, as if nagging to say, ‘You wish you were eating this.’

Surrounded by counters and shelves, we notice an old Panasonic CRT TV set fixed right on top of the wall facing us.  “We pass the time watching it — now more so because we don’t get many customers,” Mary, 53, says. Like most food businesses, the lockdown has hit them hard. Perfect, as it is simply called, catered largely to community events and institutions like schools and colleges; it is unusual for one to run into any Catholic who has lived long enough in this part of town who hasn’t heard of their plum cakes and patties. The Dsouzas can’t draw up an average for the number of orders they used to receive per day, pre-lockdown. Mary simply says it was “non-stop”.