Rachana General Store

Our little shop is right there on Water Tanki Road in Kamla Nagar. If you live around this part of Agra, you probably pass by us all the time. It’s a general store, so we keep a bit of everything on the shelves. There are biscuits, soaps, different kinds of dals, and those small packets of snacks that the kids always want after school. The shop isn't very big, so we have to stack things pretty high. Sometimes it’s hard to find what someone is asking for right away, but we eventually get to it. The road outside can get pretty dusty, especially when the wind picks up, so we spend a lot of time dusting off the plastic jars on the counter. We open up pretty early because people always forget they need something for breakfast at the last minute. My family helps out when it gets busy in the evenings. We don't have a computer or anything for billing, just a notepad and a pen to keep track of things. The neighborhood has changed a lot over the years, with new houses coming up, but we’re still here in the same spot. It gets very hot in the summer, and we just sit under the fan waiting for the next person to walk in. It's just a regular way to earn a living, making sure the neighbors have what they need without having to go all the way to the main market.