M/S Babu Hoque & Co.

We operate out of Vill- Bikair, which is near the Nandanpur post office in the Dakshin Dinajpur district. It’s a rural area, so life is a bit different here than in the big cities. M/S Babu Hoque & Co. is a small family-run thing. We’ve lived in this village for generations, so everyone knows us. We do a bit of everything related to local trade and supplies. Our office is just a room in the front of the house, really. We’ve got a big wooden table where we do all our writing and accounting. There are usually some goats or chickens wandering around outside the door. We don't have fancy computers or high-speed internet; we mostly rely on our notebooks and our word. If someone needs something delivered or sourced from the next town, they come and talk to us. It’s a slow process sometimes, especially when the roads get muddy during the monsoon. We don't have a marketing plan or any big ambitions. We just want to provide for our families and help the people in Bikair get what they need. Sometimes we sit out on the porch in the evenings and talk to the neighbors about how the crops are doing. It’s a quiet life, but we like it. We’re just local people doing business with other local people.