Bengali By Nature

Our shop is tucked away in Maruti Vihar, specifically Shop Number 1016 in Saraswati Vihar. If you know where Sahara Mall is, we’re just behind it. Gurgaon has grown so fast that sometimes it’s hard to keep track of all the new buildings, but we’ve stayed right here. We focus on things that remind us of home, mostly food and ingredients that are hard to find in this part of Haryana. It’s a small space, so it gets crowded quickly when more than three people are inside. We have shelves stacked high with jars and packets, and sometimes I have to use a stool to reach the top ones for customers. My sister helps me out on the weekends when the mall crowd spills over into our lanes. We spend a lot of time talking to people about recipes and how to use certain spices. It’s nice to have a little bit of a community feel in such a big, busy city. The parking outside can be a nightmare because the lanes are narrow, so we usually see people walking over from their houses nearby. We don't have fancy signs or bright lights. It’s just a simple shop where we work every day. Sometimes the delivery trucks have trouble finding us, so I end up standing on the corner waving them down. It’s a bit of a scramble sometimes, but we like the pace of it here.