Jai Santoshi Maa Gernral Store

You can find us at Shop No 2 on Tilpat Road here in Faridabad. We’re located quite near the Baba Surdas Mandir, so it’s a busy little area with plenty of people moving around. The shop is a typical general store where we keep things like pulses, soaps, snacks, and other small household necessities. It gets quite dusty because of the traffic on Tilpat Road, so we spend a lot of time with a duster in hand. The shelves are mostly made of wood and we’ve tried to fit as much as possible on them. We don’t have a lot of help, so we do everything ourselves, from lifting heavy sacks to helping a kid pick out a piece of candy. Every day is pretty much the same routine—opening up the shutters early, setting out the newspapers, and checking the stock. We talk to the neighbors while they shop, mostly about the weather or local news. It’s a small place, so we have to be careful about where we put things so people can actually walk inside. Sometimes the light inside isn't the best, but we know where every single item is kept without even looking. We aren't trying to be a big supermarket; we just provide what the local families need for their homes. It’s a lot of hours standing on our feet, but that’s just how it is running a small shop in this part of town.