Sks Vegetable

Every morning starts way too early for me. I’m usually up before the sun to get the greens ready at 5-24 in Teachers Colony. People in Jyothi Nagar know Sks Vegetable is where they can find the basics for their dinner. It’s a messy business, dealing with mud on the potatoes and making sure the spinach doesn't wilt in the heat. I spend a lot of my time just sorting through crates, throwing out the bruised stuff, and spraying water on the carrots to keep them looking okay. The floor gets slippery sometimes because of all the washing we do. It’s just me and a couple of others helping out. We don’t have a big corporate setup. It’s just crates and some old scales that sometimes need a bit of a tap to stay balanced. Customers come in and haggle over the price of tomatoes, which can be tiring, but it's just how things are done here. I’ve lived in this area a long time, so I know most of the families by name. They know I won't sell them something that’s gone soft. It’s a simple life. You buy, you sell, you clean up the leaves at the end of the day. I also have to deal with the stray cows that try to wander in and snack on the cauliflower. That's a whole other chore. My back hurts from the lifting, but as long as the vegetables are moving, I’m happy enough.