Brajesh Kirana Stores

You’ll find us on Water Works Road in Jabalpur City, specifically around the Temer Bheeta area near Bhonga Dwar. It’s an old part of town and things move at their own pace here. We run a kirana store, which means our day is filled with weighing out sugar, pulses, and rice. The smell of the spices is pretty strong when you first walk in, but we don’t even notice it anymore. We’ve got big sacks of grains sitting on the floor and rows of jars filled with candies and snacks for the kids. It’s a lot of physical work, moving the heavy bags around and making sure nothing gets spoiled by the dampness. Jabalpur can get quite humid, so we have to be careful with the storage. We aren't trying to be a big supermarket or anything like that. It’s just a local shop where you can get a kilo of salt or a bottle of hair oil without any fuss. The customers are mostly people who live in the narrow lanes around here. They know us by name, and we know exactly what they usually buy. Sometimes the electricity goes out and we have to use a flashlight to find things in the back corners. We don't have any big signs or fancy decorations. It’s just a simple storefront with a counter and a lot of goods crammed into every available space. We just keep going, day after day, keeping the neighborhood fed.