Rajeswari Traders

We are at 145-44 in Maruthi Nagar. It gets busy because we are right near Satya Narayan Tempel. Usually, I open the shutters early in the morning. The street is still quiet then. Rajeswari Traders is just a small place but we keep a lot of stuff inside. Most days it is just me or my cousin helping out. We spend a lot of time counting packets and making sure the floor is swept. People stop by after they finish their prayers at the temple. Sometimes they are in a hurry and want change for the bus. I don't always have it on me. The weather gets quite hot in the afternoons, so we sit under the fan. It makes a clicking sound that I should probably fix one day. Our shelves are cramped. We try to keep everything where we can find it, but things get moved around. Sometimes a box falls. It’s not a fancy place at all. The paint on the walls is peeling a bit near the door. We’ve been here in Maruthi Nagar for a while now. Neighbors know us by name. They come in for a single item and stay to talk about the rain or the news. We just keep doing the same work every day. It’s a bit repetitive but it’s what we do. I usually close up when the street lights come on. My back hurts a bit from lifting the heavy sacks of flour.