Spanned over decades

The princely empire covers an entire corner of the famous Greater Kailash (GK) market in Delhi with a queue that would spell competition even for most sought after cafes and restaurants in the vicinity... and they don't even have seating.

But for Prince Pan Corner service has never been the selling point. It is their legacy and delectable paans that have won them generations of loyal customers.

The journey started way back in 1950 when Bhagwan Dass came to Delhi following the Partition. While his father worked as a coolie at the New Delhi railway station, Dass, after attending school at Kashmere Gate, worked with a paan seller next to his house who taught him how to make paan and even paid him two annas a day.

In 1955, he dropped out of school and started his own paan shop with a modest investment of Rs 150. Unfortunately, it was soon demolished by the MCD. But Dass wasn't one to let go. He went back to selling paans and in 1965 shifted to GK. But it wasn't until 1984 that Dass saved enough money to buy the three shops that stand today.

It is this willpower and determination that has seeped into the walls of the Prince Pan shops, attracting a crowd that travels in the swankiest cars and wears only brands, yet stops by to grab a paan or even nimbu-soda.