Shree Parshvnath General Store

Shree Parshvnath General Store is in Rabari Colony, right on the road where the fire brigade is in Ahmedabad. You can hear the sirens pretty often when the trucks go out. The shop is on a corner and it gets a lot of sunlight in the morning, which makes it feel quite bright inside. I have these old wooden cabinets that my father used before me. They are sturdy but the drawers sometimes stick. I spend my time weighing out portions of dal and rice into smaller plastic bags. The stone floor is cool under my feet, which is nice when it’s forty degrees outside. We have a lot of plastic buckets and brooms hanging from the ceiling hooks to save space. It’s a bit of a mess sometimes when a lot of stock arrives at once. I try to sweep the front area every couple of hours because the wind blows a lot of dry leaves and wrappers inside. Customers are mostly the local residents who just need a few things for dinner. I keep a jar of loose change on the shelf because someone is always short a rupee or two. The wall behind the counter has some old pictures and a small mirror. It’s a quiet life for the most part, just serving the people who walk in and making sure we don’t run out of the basics. The fire brigade bells are something you just stop hearing after a while.