Basanti General Store

Basanti General Store is situated right on Cuttack Road in the Old Station Bazar area. Since we are so near the railway station, there is almost always a crowd outside. People are constantly rushing to catch their trains or are just getting into the city and need something quickly. We stay open for pretty long hours because of that constant flow of people. The shop itself is packed with all sorts of things that both travelers and local residents might need. It can be a bit of a tight squeeze inside when we have boxes of new stock piled up on the floor. We’ve been in this specific location for many years now, and we have watched the whole area change quite a bit over time. The noise from the trains and the heavy traffic on Cuttack Road is just something you learn to ignore. It is never truly quiet around here. We see a lot of different faces coming through our doors every single day. Some are neighbors we see every morning, while others are just passing through and we never see them again. It keeps the work from getting boring. We don't use any fancy computer systems; we still write our accounts down in a big paper ledger. Sometimes the electricity goes out and we have to use old flashlights to see. It’s just a normal part of running a small shop in this busy part of the city.