Lucknow Chikan Palace

Our shop, Lucknow Chikan Palace, is located on Ebrahim Saheb Street in Shivaji Nagar. It’s on a road that runs parallel to Commercial Street, so it’s a bit quieter than the main shopping drag but still quite busy. The address is G 2 24 1. We have been here for a good while, surrounded by other small shops selling all sorts of things. The front of the shop is mostly glass so people can see the different fabrics we have inside. Chikan work is what we do, and you can see the threadwork on almost everything piled on the counters. The floor is tiled and we try to sweep it often because of the dust from the street. There is a small stool in the corner where the person who keeps the books sits. We don’t have fancy air conditioning, just a couple of ceiling fans that wobble a bit when they are on high speed. The neighbors are mostly other shopkeepers who have been on this street as long as we have. We often send someone out to get tea for everyone in the middle of the afternoon. The light in the back of the shop is a bit dim, so we usually bring things to the front to show the colors properly. It’s a humble place where we spend our hours folding cloth and talking to whoever wanders in from the street. It’s just a regular part of the neighborhood life here.