K C Agrawal

K C Agrawal is located right in the heart of the action at 526/527 Chandpole Bazar. If you know Chandpole, you know how crowded and loud it gets. Our shop has been in this spot for a very long time. The building is old, with high ceilings and thick walls that keep it surprisingly cool even when it’s boiling outside. We have stacks of goods everywhere. It’s a traditional setup. Customers come in and sit on the stools while we show them what we have. There is a lot of haggling and talking, which is just the way business happens in the bazaar. You can hear the rickshaws honking and people shouting right outside the door. Sometimes we have to shout over the noise just to be heard. We don't use any fancy barcodes or scanners here. Everything is written in the account books by hand. It might seem old-fashioned to some, but it works for us. My father and his father did it this way too. We know most of the other shopkeepers on this stretch, so we often share a newspaper or a snack in the afternoon. It’s a community. When the monsoon hits, we have to move everything back from the entrance so it doesn't get wet. It’s a bit of a struggle but we’ve done it a hundred times. We keep going because it’s what we know.