D R Varieties Store

If you’re walking through West Masunda in Kolkata, you’ll eventually come across our variety store. It’s a typical small-town shop where we try to keep a little bit of everything. We have stationery for the school kids, some basic medicines, household plastics, and a few grocery items too. In Kolkata, the lanes can be quite narrow and the air is always a bit heavy with humidity, so we keep the door open and the ceiling fan running all day. The shop is pretty crowded with boxes because we don't have much storage space in the back. Sometimes you have to step over a crate of soda just to get to the counter. We’ve been in this spot for quite a long time, and the building itself is showing its age. There are some cracks in the plaster, and the paint is peeling a bit near the bottom of the walls. We don't mind it much. Our customers are the local families who have lived here for generations. They don't expect anything fancy, just that we have what they need when they run out. We spend a lot of time chatting with people about their families or the local politics while we wrap their items in newspaper or plastic bags. It’s not a high-pressure job, but it requires us to be here every day without fail. The evenings are the busiest when everyone is coming home from work and stops by for a last-minute purchase.