Sri Selvam Store

Out here on Gandhi Road in Thandalam, things move at a certain pace. Our store, Sri Selvam Store, is at number 48, tucked between a tailor shop and a small house. We’ve been here for quite some years now. The morning sun hits the front of the shop directly, so we usually have to keep the blue tarp pulled down halfway to keep the heat off the bags of rice. We sell mostly daily necessities. It’s a small space, so we have to stack things all the way up to the ceiling. If someone wants something from the top shelf, I have to get the old wooden ladder out. My nephew helps me on the weekends when the college students come by to buy snacks and pens. The road outside can get dusty when the trucks pass, so we are constantly wiping down the counters. We don't have any big signs or bright lights. Most people just know we are here because they’ve lived in Thandalam their whole lives. We keep a tab for some of the older folks who pay us at the end of the month. It's not a complicated business. We just try to have what people ask for. Sometimes we run out of sugar or tea leaves and have to wait for the distributor to show up on Tuesday. That’s just the way it works out here. It's a decent life on Gandhi Road for us and we stay busy enough.