Rakesh Saree Center

We’ve been running Rakesh Saree Center at 76 Belanganj in Agra for a long time. The shop is tucked into an older part of the city, so the streets are narrow and always full of activity. Our place is filled with sarees from floor to ceiling. We have stacks of them on the counters and even more in the back room where it’s a bit dark. It’s not a modern boutique with bright lights and fancy carpets. We have some basic mats on the floor where people can sit while we show them different patterns. The walls have a few old calendars and photos pinned up. Agra gets very dusty, so we spend a lot of time with a feather duster trying to keep the fabrics clean. We aren't corporate at all. It’s just a family-run kind of place where we know many of our customers by name. Sometimes the tea we order from the stall down the street is the best part of the afternoon. We don’t have a website or anything like that. We just open the shutters in the morning and wait for people to come in. It’s a slow pace of life compared to the big cities, but it works for us. We just focus on showing the sarees and making sure everyone feels welcome in our small space. The fan makes a clicking sound, but nobody seems to mind it much.