Bhandari Saloon

I’ve been running Bhandari Saloon in Kalindi for many years. It’s not a big place, just a simple room tucked away in the neighborhood. People around here know me well. The 700089 area is a bit quieter than the main roads, which I like. I spend most of my day standing on this tiled floor. My knees hurt sometimes at the end of the day, but you have to keep moving. The walls could really use a new coat of paint, maybe blue or something light. I haven’t gotten around to doing it yet. We have the usual stuff, some combs, different pairs of scissors, and that old radio that plays the morning news. I don’t like the loud music some newer places play. It’s better to just talk or listen to the traffic passing outside. A lot of the older men from the colony come here for a shave and a chat. We know all the local news before it even happens. It’s a simple life. I open the shutters in the morning and sweep out the dust. There’s always dust in Kolkata, you can’t escape it no matter how hard you try. I don’t have a website or anything like that. Just the shop and the sign hanging outside. It’s worked for me so far. If you live in Kalindi, you’ve probably walked past us a hundred times. We are just a part of the street where we work.