Dutta Stores Sreemaa Bhandar

The shop is located in Madhyamgram which is a bit of a distance from the main center of Kolkata. We call it Sreemaa Bhandar and it is a place where you can find all the basic things for your kitchen. The air here is often damp and we have to make sure the salt and sugar are kept in tight jars so they do not get ruined. We have bags of rice stacked up on wooden pallets to keep them off the floor. The street outside is narrow and can get very crowded on market days when everyone is out buying vegetables. We spend our time weighing out goods on the old scale and wrapping them in paper or plastic bags. It is a very local kind of place where everyone knows each other's names. We hear the local gossip and the news about the trains while we work. The fan in the ceiling makes a clicking sound as it goes around but it helps with the heat. We don't have any fancy displays or bright signs. The stock is just piled where there is space. Sometimes the delivery van has a hard time getting down the road to drop off our supplies because of the rickshaws. We close up for a couple of hours in the afternoon when it gets too quiet and then open again for the evening when the office people return from the city.