Al- Vandana Home Appliances

Setting up shop in Nala Bazar means dealing with a lot of noise from the street all day long. Al- Vandana Home Appliances is basically just a room full of boxes and shining metal things. We have ceiling fans hanging from the rafters and rows of mixer grinders on the shelves. Sometimes the boxes get stacked so high you can't see the back wall. It's a bit cramped when three or four people come in at once to look at a fridge or a new stove. I spend a lot of time unboxing things and showing people how the knobs work. It gets dusty fast with the doors wide open to the bazaar, so we are always wiping down the glass tops. The electricity goes out sometimes, and we just sit there in the dark talking to the neighbors until it comes back on. We keep a few spare parts in the drawers for when people bring back their old machines that stopped spinning. It’s not a big showroom with air conditioning or anything like that. Just a simple place where you can find a good iron or a sturdy pressure cooker. My hands are usually a bit greasy from checking the motors. We know most of the people who walk past our door every morning on their way to work. It’s just how life is here in the market. We take our lunch break when the sun is highest, then stay open until late.