Swati General Store

Up here in Agra, specifically in the Trans Yamuna Colony at F-179, you’ll find us at Swati General Store. It’s a quiet enough part of town most days, though the weekends get a bit more movement. We’ve been at this spot for some time. The shop isn’t very big, so we have to use every inch of the walls to hang things up. You’ll see bags of chips dangling from the ceiling and stacks of plastic buckets near the entrance. I usually spend my time sitting behind the wooden counter, watching the street. Agra gets really hot in the summer, and the cooler inside the shop struggles to keep up, but we manage. People come in for their daily bread, eggs, or maybe some washing powder. We know most of the faces that walk through the door. It’s nice when someone stays for a minute to chat about the local news or how the kids are doing in school. We don't do any big advertising or anything like that. People just know we are here at F-179. Sometimes the electricity goes off and we have to use a handheld fan while waiting for it to come back. Dealing with the wholesalers can be a bit of a headache when they bring the wrong brands, but we sort it out. It’s just a simple life running a local shop in the colony.