Manilal Tarachand & Company

Our shop, Manilal Tarachand & Company, is on Sardar Patel Road. We are right near the Central Bank, which is where most people tell us to look when they are trying to find us. This area has been a hub for a long time, and the building feels like it has a lot of history. We don’t have a modern, glass-fronted store; it’s more traditional. There are wooden counters and stacks of items reaching up toward the ceiling. We handle a variety of supplies, and often you have to ask us where something is because it’s tucked away in a corner we’ve used for years. The noise from the street is constant, with cars honking and people walking by on their way to the bank. We’ve had some of the same people working here for decades, so they know exactly where every single item is located. It’s a bit old-fashioned, maybe, but it works for us. We write down orders by hand sometimes when the computer is being slow. People come here because they know we’ve been around forever and we usually have that one random part they can’t find anywhere else. It’s not a fancy life, but it’s a good one. We open up early and stay until the evening, watching the traffic on Sardar Patel Road go by. It’s a routine that we’ve come to appreciate over the many years we have been here.