Tabrez Fruit Centre

You can find us at Tabrez Fruit Centre at Shivaji Nagar Tyagarajnagar 22, right where all the action is. The shop is basically just piles of fruit in wooden crates and plastic bins. We get up really early, way before the sun is up, to go get the best stuff from the main market. By the time most people are waking up, we’ve already sorted the mangoes, bananas, and oranges. It’s a colorful place, and it smells sweet most of the time, though sometimes a few things go bad and we have to throw them out. We spend the day weighing fruit on the scales and bagging it up for the ladies who come by after shopping for vegetables. It’s a lot of lifting heavy boxes, which keeps us strong, I guess. My hands are always a bit sticky from the fruit juice. We have a small radio playing in the corner to keep us company. The street is narrow here, so it gets very crowded with people pushing past. We know which customers like their fruit a bit green and which ones want it ripe to eat right away. It’s a simple trade. We buy it, we display it, and we sell it. There’s no magic to it, just making sure the fruit looks decent and doesn't cost too much for the neighbors. We stay until everything is sold or it gets dark.