Mahesh General Stores

Mahesh General Stores sits right at the edge of Naya Bazar and Purani Mandi. It’s a good spot because we get people from both sides of the market. The shop is packed with everything you could think of—soaps, notebooks, plastic buckets, and packets of biscuits. We have things hanging from the ceiling and tucked into every corner. Sometimes it feels like the walls are made of boxes. I spend most of the day reaching for things on the high shelves with a long stick. It’s a lot of climbing up and down the small ladder we keep behind the counter. The floor is just plain cement and it’s worn down in the spots where people stand to pay. We have a big ledger book where we write down what we need to order for the next week. It’s not a supermarket where you walk around; you just ask me for what you need and I find it in the piles. The breeze comes through the front door but it brings a lot of dust from the street, so we’re always dusting the tins of milk powder. It’s a simple life, talking to the same neighbors every day and seeing the kids grow up as they come in to buy pens for school. We don't have any bright signs, just the name painted over the door. When it gets dark, we pull down the metal gate and go home.