Kalavaani

If you know Rajouri Garden, you know how hectic the Main Market gets. Our shop is at J 91. It’s right in the thick of it. Every morning, I have to fight for a spot just to unload things. The shop itself is small. I spend most of my day standing or sitting on a small stool near the door. People are constantly walking past, peering in. Some come in just to escape the sun for a minute. I’ve been running Kalavaani here for years. It’s a lot of work keeping everything organized because things move fast in this market. I have one helper who is usually late because of the Delhi traffic. We don't have any fancy air conditioning, just a big fan that moves the air around. You hear the honking and the shouting from the street all day long. It becomes like background music after a while. I know most of the other shopkeepers around here. We borrow change from each other or watch the shop if someone needs to step out. It’s a community, really. I don’t use any big words to describe what we do. It’s just a shop. We sell what we sell, and we try to be fair about it. Some days are good, some days are slow. That’s just retail life in Rajouri. It is exhausting but I am used to it by now.