Jain Traders

You can find us at 40/3, Chawni Road in the Kalai Mohalla Sanyogita Ganj area. This part of town is very old and the streets are quite narrow. We’ve been trading here for a long time. My grandfather was the one who started everything in this same building. The walls are thick and painted a yellow color that has faded over the years. We have heavy wooden doors that we bolt shut every night. Inside there are stacks of goods almost touching the ceiling. It’s a bit of a maze if you don't know your way around. We use old scales for weighing things because they never break down like the electronic ones do. The air always smells a bit like jute bags and dust. We sit on small stools behind a counter that is worn smooth from people leaning on it. There is a small temple in the corner where we light incense every morning before we start the day. The traffic on Chawni Road is always loud with carts and motorcycles going by constantly. We don’t have a website or any of that new stuff. People know where we are and they just come by when they need to trade. We keep our records in thick registers with leather covers. It’s a slow and steady kind of life. We just take each day as it comes and try to do right by the people who walk in.