Raj Kumar Singh

I’m located at 76, G. T. Road, out in the Bagkhal area of Rishra. Being right on the main road means there is always a lot of noise. Trucks and buses go past the door all day and night, so you never really get any silence. It’s a busy district and being here keeps me right in the middle of it all. The shop is small and has been here for a while. We have a lot of regular people from the neighborhood who stop by just to say hello or ask a question. I usually have the radio on in the background, though it’s hard to hear over the traffic sometimes. The floor is concrete and we have some old wooden shelves that hold everything we need. It’s not the kind of place that gets a lot of cleaning, but it works for what we do. During the monsoon, the water sometimes splashes up from the road right to the front step, so we have to keep things moved back. It’s a bit of a struggle sometimes with the electricity going off, but we just wait it out. I’ve worked in Rishra my whole life and I don't see myself going anywhere else. It’s just a basic setup for a local guy trying to run a decent business. Sometimes I stay late to finish the books, and the streetlights outside flicker quite a bit when the heavy trucks roll past. It's not a fancy life, but it's mine.