Mandawariya General Store

The store is located out on the Delhi Road By Pass, near Maanbag in Jaipur. It is a dry part of town and the sun hits the front of the shop pretty hard in the afternoons. We have the Mandawariya name on the board, and we have been serving the GPO area for quite some time now. Most days are the same, starting with pulling up the heavy metal shutters and sweeping the front step. We stock mostly basic things, the kind of stuff you realize you ran out of while cooking dinner. There are bags of flour stacked in the back and rows of oil bottles on the middle shelf. The traffic on the bypass never really stops, so there is always a low hum of trucks in the background. It is not a huge place, so we have to use every bit of wall space for hanging packets of chips and shampoo. Sometimes the electricity goes out and we just sit near the door to catch the breeze. We know most of the people who walk in by their first names. They come in for a bit of salt or some washing powder and stay for a minute to complain about the heat. We don't bother with fancy decorations or anything like that. The wooden counter has seen better days, but it does the job. It is just a regular general store for regular people living around here. We just try to keep things simple and honest.