Ruby Kirana & Genral Store

Running a shop at Bajaj Nagar Anita Colony 10 means you know everyone's name in the neighborhood. We open early because people need milk and bread before they go to work. The shelves are packed with everything from packets of biscuits to large bags of rice. We spend a lot of time weighing things out and tying up plastic bags. It gets dusty, so there’s always cleaning to do. The floor is old stone and stays a bit cool even when the sun is hitting the front of the store. During the afternoon, it gets quiet and we usually rest for a bit or check the stock levels. We have to make lists of what’s running low so we can call the suppliers. Sometimes kids come in with a few coins for candy, and they take forever to choose. We also keep basic stuff like soap and batteries because you never know what someone might run out of at night. Dealing with the wholesale market is the hardest part, trying to get the right prices so we can keep things fair for the colony folks. It’s a lot of lifting heavy sacks and stacking tins. The ledger is always on the counter, filled with notes about who owes what. It is just a regular life here at the store, keeping things moving one customer at a time. The cats from the alley sometimes sneak in looking for scraps and we have to shoo them away quietly.