Vishwakarma General Store

Vishwakarma General Store sits at a spot where Shastri Nagar meets Khan Pura Road and Subhash Nagar. It’s a busy corner and there is always someone passing by. Our shop is mostly filled with plastic buckets, mops, and all the dry goods you’d expect. We spend a lot of time hauling sacks of rice from the delivery trucks into the storage area. It’s heavy work and it makes our backs ache by the end of the day. The shelves are packed tight because we try to fit as much as possible into the small room. We have different types of spices in small plastic packets and big containers of salt. The counter is covered in a bit of scratched laminate and there’s a ledger where we write things down. It’s old-fashioned but it works for us. In the afternoons when the sun hits the front of the shop, it gets quite warm inside. We usually sit near the door to catch a breeze. We don’t have fancy lighting, just a couple of long tubes that hum a bit. People come in looking for lightbulbs or batteries or just a cold bottle of soda from the small fridge in the corner. We keep the fridge stocked with whatever is available that week. It’s just a neighborhood shop trying to keep up with what the locals want. We don't do anything special, just sell what's on the list.