Connaught Place's fire and ice paan shops return in Unlock 1, but customers give them a miss

Like several malls and markets in the city, Connaught Place's famous paan shops returned amid Unlock 1.0. However, the fire and ice paan shops, which would have customers queueing up in the pre-COVID era, wear a deserted look now. Since there are no customers, the shops are only selling normal paans and not their specialties.

Paan sellers near Odeon Cinema tell us that though they have been taking all the precautionary measures, there are hardly any customers."No customer is asking for the fire or ice paan, so what is the point of selling these paans? There was a time when people used to wait in queues for these. It might take some time, but we will start selling fire and ice paans again. We are sanitising our shops, wearing gloves, following social distancing norms and we don't give our paan to anyone who is not wearing a mask. We are very careful but there are barely any customers," says Jatin Goyal from one of the paan shops.

From Parineeti Chopra and Sidharth Malhotra to Himansh Kohli, these paan shops have also been visited by many celebs who have tried these special paans during their Delhi visits. But even with no takers for fire and ice paans right now, paan sellers are optimistic and say that they will hopefully start selling these again once the situation gets better. "We will start selling these paans once our customers return. Jab samay aayega tab firse bechenge," shares another seller.