Ashok Jain Grocery Shop

If you’re walking through Upper Bazaar in Gangtok, you’ll likely pass by Ashok Jain Grocery Shop. We are right near the main traffic point, so it stays pretty crowded around here. My family has been running this shop for years. We sell the usual things like rice, pulses, oil, and whatever else people need for their kitchens. It’s a small space, and we try to cram as much as we can onto the shelves. In the mornings, we’re busy unloading sacks of grain and setting things up before the crowd starts coming in. Gangtok can be cold, but the shop stays warm with all the activity. We know most of our regular customers by name. They come in for their weekly supplies or just to pick up a single packet of salt. Sometimes the delivery trucks have a hard time getting through the narrow streets near the traffic point, which can be a bit of a headache. We don’t have a website or anything like that. People just know we are here. If a bag of flour breaks, we clean it up and keep going. It’s just how a neighborhood grocery works. We stay open until late because there’s always someone who forgot to buy something for dinner. It’s not a fancy life, but it’s our life. We’re just happy to be part of the Upper Bazaar community. Dealing with inventory takes up most of my time, but I enjoy talking to the neighbors every single day.