R. Ramanujiah & Son

R. Ramanujiah & Son has been sitting at 17, Devaraja Mudali St. for a long time. It’s one of those narrow streets where everyone seems to be selling something different. Our shop is tucked in there with a heavy wooden door that we open up every morning. It’s a family thing, passed down through the years. My father spent most of his life behind that same counter. We don't have a lot of space, so we use the height of the walls. Shelves go all the way to the ceiling and we have to use a tall ladder to reach the top ones. It’s a bit dusty up there, to be honest. We sell a bit of everything that people in the area might need. The ledger books are still kept by hand mostly because that’s how we’ve always done it. It feels more real that way. The street outside is always a mess of carts and people, especially in the mornings. We get the shop ready early and stay until the sun goes down. We don't do any big advertising or anything. People just know we are here. Sometimes we sit on the front step when things are quiet and watch the world go by. It’s a simple way to run a business. We don't need any modern gadgets to tell us how to do our jobs.