Shakti Bardana Bhandar

If you walk down Nehru Road, you will find us pretty easily. Shakti Bardana Bhandar is usually surrounded by big stacks of sacks. We deal with all kinds of gunny bags and packing materials. It gets dusty inside the shop, especially when the wind blows through the front door. We spend most of our day moving bundles around and counting stock. It is heavy work, and by the end of the day, our backs usually feel it. My father started this place, and I just sort of took over after I finished school. We don't have a website or anything like that, just the physical shop here on the road. People know us because we’ve been in the same spot forever. Sometimes the traffic on Nehru Road is so bad that the delivery trucks can't even pull up to the curb. We just wait it out. There’s a tea stall nearby that brings us glasses of chai twice a day. We sit on the plastic chairs and talk about how the prices of jute are going up or down. It isn't a glamorous life, but it keeps us busy. The shelves are a bit disorganized right now, but we know where everything is. It’s just how we run things. Most of our customers are regulars who have been coming to us for years. We keep the doors open late most nights to make sure the work is finished properly.