Hatwal General Stores

You can find Hatwal General Stores in the Sahyog Building, Shop No B/1/10, right in the middle of Nehru Place. Most people think of this area for computers, but we handle the everyday stuff that office workers need. I have heaps of pens, staplers, and registers piled up on the counters. It’s a small shop and the ceiling feels a bit low because of all the stock we cram in there. During lunch hours, the place gets packed with people from the nearby offices looking for a quick snack or a new notebook because they ran out of pages. I’m usually busy tearing off strips of tape or counting out change while trying to listen to the news on a small radio I keep on a shelf. The Sahyog Building is old and the corridors are a bit dark, but our shop is bright enough with the tube lights. I’ve been here for years and I know exactly which drawer holds the paperclips and which one has the spare batteries. My chair is quite uncomfortable and the padding has worn out, but I’m rarely sitting down anyway. It’s a fast-paced spot but I like seeing the same faces every day. When the offices close, the building gets quiet and eerie, and that’s when I finally get to organize the shelves and see what we need to order for tomorrow morning.