Hem General Store

Our shop is right on Chankya Marg near Subhash Chowk. It’s a small place, number 1137, but we try to keep a bit of everything. You know how it is in a general store. People come in for a single pack of biscuits or maybe some pulses for dinner. I spend most of my day behind the counter talking to neighbors. It gets dusty because of the road traffic but we try to keep things clean. My son helps out in the evenings after his classes. We've seen the neighborhood change a lot over the years. New buildings coming up and old ones getting knocked down. Some days are slow and I just sit and watch the scooters go by. Other days everyone wants something at the same time. We keep the ledger books for some of the regulars who pay at the end of the month. It's a simple way of doing business. We don't have those fancy scanners or anything. Just a calculator and a pen. If we don't have what you need, I usually tell people where else they might find it. It's just about being part of the community here. The morning time is usually the busiest with people getting milk and bread. After that, it settles down until the evening. We stay open until fairly late because people always forget something they need for the morning. It's just a regular life. We enjoy the routine of it.