Rattan Singh Jaswant Singh

If you find yourself in Saban Bazar, you’ll probably walk right past us at B-Vii-500. It’s a tight spot in a very busy market, but we’ve made it work for a long time now. The shop is filled with all sorts of things, and it can feel a bit cramped when there are more than three people inside at once. We’ve got shelves reaching all the way to the ceiling. Most of the time, we’re climbing ladders to pull down what someone needs from the top row. It’s a lot of manual work, lifting heavy boxes and counting stock by hand. The market gets very loud on weekends, and the narrow lanes are packed with shoppers and carts. We know most of the other shopkeepers around here; we’ve grown up together in this trade. There’s no air conditioning in the shop, just a few old ceiling fans that click as they spin around. We keep a ledger for everything, even though some people tell us we should go completely digital. There’s something about writing it down by hand that feels more real to us. We don't spend money on advertising or fancy displays. People come to us because they know we’ve been here and we know what we’re talking about when it comes to the goods. Sometimes we just sit on the small stools outside during a slow hour and watch the crowd go by. It’s a simple life, focused on the daily business and making sure we have what people are looking for.