Arora & Company

Our shop is located in the Gumti Gurudwara Building, specifically at Shop Number 13. Being in Gumti Number 5 means we are right in the thick of things in Kanpur. If you know G T Road, you know it’s never quiet. There is constant noise from the trucks and the market crowd, but we’ve gotten used to it over the years. This business has been around for a long time. It was started by my father, and I took over after I finished my schooling. We mostly stock materials that people need for their homes or small construction jobs. The shop isn't anything special to look at—just shelves filled with stuff and a counter where we write out the bills. We don't even have a computer for billing; we still use the old carbon paper books. It works fine for us. Sometimes the dust from the road gets into everything, so we spend a lot of time cleaning the glass cases and dusting the boxes. Customers come in, have a cup of tea, and tell us what they are looking for. We try to keep the things people ask for most. If we don’t have it, we can usually get it from the bigger godown in a day or two. It’s a simple life running a shop on G T Road. We know most of the other shopkeepers around here, so it feels like a big family, even with all the chaos outside.