Surendra General Store

Surendra General Store is sitting right there at 85/71 in the Afeem Kothi area of Kanpur. Being so close to Shivoy Palace means we see a lot of different people passing through, especially when there is a big event or a wedding going on. The shop itself is pretty basic, just a lot of shelves crammed with daily essentials that people around here need. Most of my morning is spent unpacking crates of milk or stacking up packets of biscuits and tea. The floor is old stone and it takes a lot of scrubbing to keep the Kanpur dust off it, though I usually give up by noon. There is a small radio we keep in the corner that plays old songs while we wait for the next person to walk in. It gets really humid in the summer, and the small fan above the counter barely does much, but we keep it running anyway. We know most of the people who live nearby by their first names or just by what they usually buy every Tuesday. Sometimes the delivery trucks block the road outside and there is a lot of shouting, but that is just how things are around here. We just keep the ledger books on the desk and try to stay organized between the rush hours. It is a long day from morning till night, but the routine keeps us busy and the shop stays full.