Crystal Mantra

Being over at 15, Dayal Nagar, you get used to the sounds of the Gopalpura Byepass. It’s a busy part of the city, but once you step inside Crystal Mantra, it feels a bit more still. I’ve lived around here for a long time, so opening a shop in this area felt like the right thing to do. We have all kinds of stones and bits of jewelry scattered around the place. It’s not perfectly organized, if I’m being honest. I try to keep the counters clean, but there’s always something new being unpacked from a box. Some days we have a lot of people coming in to ask questions about what the different stones are for, and I just tell them what I know from experience. I don't follow any corporate scripts or anything. We just talk like regular people. The shop isn't very big, so it gets crowded pretty quickly if more than three people are inside at once. I usually keep a chair near the back where I can sit and listen to the radio when no one is around. It’s a simple life running a small business on the bypass. You see the same faces walking by every morning. Sometimes the weather makes the shop feel a bit damp, or too hot, but we manage with a small fan. It’s just a local shop trying to stay open and keep the people nearby happy.