Vaishnavi Traders

Our place, Vaishnavi Traders, is located in Gaggal village. We are quite close to the Dharamshala Road in the Kangra area. It is a beautiful part of the country with the hills nearby, though we are usually too busy with the shop to look at the mountains much. We trade in various goods that the local people and small shops in the valley need. The building is a simple one-story structure with a wide front door for easy loading and unloading of the trucks that come by. We get a lot of travelers passing through on their way up to Dharamshala or the airport. Sometimes they stop to ask for directions or just to buy something small for their journey. We have been operating here for a few years now and it feels like home. The weather can be a bit unpredictable in the hills, so we always keep an eye on the clouds over the peaks. When it snows further up, it gets very cold and damp here too. We have a small electric heater in the corner for the winter months. It’s mostly just family running the shop day to day. We know most of our regular customers by their first names. It’s that kind of village life. We don't have a website or any of those modern things. Most people just find us by driving past on the road or hearing about us from a neighbor. We keep the books by hand in a big ledger because it feels more reliable that way.