Tota Ram & Sons

We have been here at Ajmeri Gate for a very long time now. The shop is tucked away in Kamla Nehru Market East 18, and if you know the area, you know how busy it gets. My father started things here, and not much has changed in terms of how we keep our books or stack the shelves. It’s a bit of a tight squeeze when we get new stock in. Most days, you’ll find one of us sitting behind the old wooden desk, probably drinking tea or talking to a neighbor while we wait for the next person to walk through the door. The walls could use a new coat of paint, and the ceiling fan makes a clicking noise that we’ve just gotten used to over the years. We deal with all sorts of people coming from different parts of the city. Sometimes it’s just someone looking for a specific item they couldn’t find elsewhere, and other times it’s regulars who have been coming to us since I was a kid. The market stays noisy from morning until we pull the shutters down at night. We don’t have fancy displays or those bright LED lights you see in the new malls. It is just a simple place where we try to get things done without too much fuss. Keeping track of everything in this little space takes effort, but we manage. It’s what we do every day and we plan to stay right here.