Ayub Bangles

Ayub Bangles is on the Ground Floor at 22, Burtolla Street. It’s a busy little spot, and we are right there where everyone walks by on the sidewalk. Being on the ground floor means we get a lot of dust from the street, so we have to spend a lot of time cleaning the glass counters every morning. The shop is long and narrow, stretching back into the building. We keep the most colorful bangles up front to catch the light from the door. My brother and I run the place, and we’ve learned to move around each other in the tight space without bumping into things. We don't have any air conditioning, so we just leave the front door open and hope for a breeze. The walls are lined with boxes from floor to ceiling, and I have to use a small step ladder to reach the ones at the very top. Sometimes the neighbors from the other shops come in to borrow a tool or just to escape the sun for a minute. We don't use any fancy software to track what we sell; it’s all just pen and paper in a ledger that’s falling apart at the edges. Burtolla Street can be a headache with the traffic, but we like being in the middle of all the action. It’s a busy life, but it’s what we know and we've been doing it for years.