Aashish

The shop is called Aashish, and we are tucked away in Vikas Nagar, Mouli Jagran. It’s a local place. We’ve been here for years, serving the people who live around this part of town. We don’t have a big sign with flashing lights or anything like that. Most people just know where we are. We sell a bit of everything that a household might need on a daily basis. It’s a small space, so things are usually piled up pretty high on the shelves. Sometimes it takes me a minute to find exactly what a customer is asking for, but I usually get there in the end. It’s just me and my son working here most days. We open up early and stay open until quite late in the evening because that’s when people get home from work and realize they forgot to buy something. The street outside can get pretty muddy when it rains, but people still come by for their essentials. We know most of our customers by name and know what they usually need. It’s not a fancy supermarket; it’s just a neighborhood store. We don't have a computerized system or anything complex. I just write things down in a notebook when I need to remember what to order next. It’s a simple way to run things, and it works for us. We just try to keep the shelves stocked with what people want. It is a quiet existence here.