Gobind Mangal

Gobind Mangal is tucked away in Shop No.-119 of the MCD Market in Karol Bagh. If you know Karol Bagh, you know how crowded and loud it gets, especially on the weekends. Our shop is just one small part of that huge market. We’ve been here for a long time, and the walls are covered with years of dust and memories. It’s a tight space, so we have to be very organized with how we stack things. There’s barely enough room for three people to stand inside at once. Most of our day is spent talking to customers who squeeze in or shouting to the neighbors across the lane. The MCD Market has a rhythm of its own, with the tea sellers passing by and the sound of bells from the nearby temples. We don’t have air conditioning, just a couple of old ceiling fans that hum all day long. In the winter, it’s nice, but the summers are a bit of a struggle. We sell a variety of things, and the stock changes depending on what we can get our hands on. It’s a very traditional way of running a business—cash in hand and a lot of haggling. We don't have a fancy sign, just the name painted above the door. It’s a simple life in the middle of all the chaos, and we wouldn’t really know what to do with ourselves anywhere else. It is just home to us.