Shalimar Kirana Grain & General Stores

Osmangunj is the place to go for grains in Hyderabad. Our shop is on the Main Road, Shop No 15-1-13. It’s right across from the Masjid, so we hear the calls for prayer throughout the day. We deal in big quantities sometimes, like sacks of rice and wheat, but we also sell smaller bits for people’s daily cooking. The air here is often dusty with the smell of raw grain and burlap bags. It’s a heavy job, moving those sacks around. I usually have a couple of boys helping with the loading and unloading. We keep the store open long hours. In the afternoons, when it's really hot, we sit under the fan and wait for the sun to go down a bit. Customers come in looking for specific types of dal or different grades of rice. We have to know the difference just by looking or touching the grain. It’s a skill you learn over time. The street outside is always full of lorries and rickshaws. It’s never quiet. We have a small desk where we keep our accounts. Sometimes people come in just to say hello because they’ve known us for thirty years. We aren't trying to be the biggest store, just a reliable one where people can get their food supplies. It’s a lot of hard work but it keeps us busy.