Deepak Pan Bhandar & General Store

If you walk down B L Path in Noonmati, you’ll find us easily. Deepak Pan Bhandar & General Store has been sitting here for years. We do a bit of everything. People come in for their pan, and while they're at it, they pick up some soap or tea. It’s a small shop, honestly. It gets a little cramped when more than three people are inside at once. I usually spend my time behind the counter making pan or organizing the cigarette packs. The Guwahati heat can be something else, so we keep the fan going all day. Noonmati is a busy place, and there's always someone walking by. We know the names of almost everyone on this street. It’s not like those big supermarkets where nobody talks to you. Here, we ask about your family. Sometimes we run out of certain things because the delivery truck got stuck in traffic, but we get it back in a day or two. My hands are usually stained from the betel leaves, but that's just the job. We don't have a website or anything. If someone needs something, they just walk in. The building is old, and the paint is peeling a bit near the bottom. It doesn’t matter much to us as long as we have what our customers need. We stay open until fairly late because people like a pan after their dinner.