Namdhari Cloth House

Namdhari Cloth House is our family business over at 24 B in the Shyam Park Main area of Sahibabad. We deal mainly in unstitched fabric, which is what my father always did before me. The shop is long and narrow, with wooden shelves that go all the way to the top. I have to use a heavy iron ladder to get the rolls down for people to see. It’s a bit of a workout every day. The neighborhood has changed a lot since we first opened, but the shop looks pretty much the same as it did twenty years ago. We have some old fluorescent lights that buzz a little bit when they’ve been on for too long. I usually keep a bottle of water under the counter because it gets quite dry in here with all the lint from the fabrics. People come in looking for specific colors to match their outfits. Sometimes they spend an hour looking through forty different shades of red. I don't mind because I like seeing them find exactly what they want. We don't have a website or any of those modern things. We just have our shop and our regular customers who have been coming to us for years. It’s a quiet kind of life, but it keeps us busy and we get to know everyone in the colony. I think that is enough for any local business owner these days.