Dipak General Store

This is our family shop in Bapu Nagar, number 77. It’s a general store, so we keep a little bit of everything that people might need for their kitchens or houses. We have sacks of flour and rice sitting on the floor and jars of biscuits and candies on the shelves. It’s the kind of place where neighbors stop to chat for a few minutes while they buy their milk or soap. I’ve been working here since I was a teenager. The space is tight, and we use every inch of the walls to hang packets of chips and spices. It’s not very modern, but it works. Sometimes the inventory gets a bit mixed up, but we usually find what a customer is looking for after a bit of searching. We know most of the families around here by their first names. We don’t have a computer system; we just write things down in a notebook if someone wants to pay later. The morning rush is the busiest time when everyone is getting stuff for breakfast. By the afternoon, it slows down and I can sit on the wooden stool and watch the street. It’s a simple life, running a store like this. We just try to keep the basics in stock so no one has to go too far. The building is old and the wooden door creaks, but it’s home to us. We’ve been serving the Bapu Nagar area for a long time now.