Balaji General Store

Our shop, Balaji General Store, is located right by Pillar No. 127-128 on New Sanganer Road. If you are driving through Sodala, it is quite easy to spot us because of the big metro pillars right outside. Jaipur is growing fast and the metro makes everything feel different now. Inside the store, we keep a lot of variety, from school notebooks and pens to shampoo bottles and cleaning supplies. It is a bit of a tight squeeze when more than three people come in at once. I usually spend my time restocking the snacks because the neighborhood kids come in all the time. Sometimes the traffic on the road is so loud we have to shout a little to hear what the customer is asking for. It isn't a perfect setup, but it’s my daily life. I keep the doors open from morning until late at night. Sometimes I forget to eat lunch on time because someone wants a specific brand of toothpaste that is buried at the bottom of a box. Dealing with the heat in the summer is the hardest part. The fan just pushes the warm air around, but we are used to it by now. People from the nearby houses come here because it is convenient and they don’t have to go all the way to the big market. We just try to keep the basics in stock for our neighbors.