Taraknath Jaiswal

Our place, Taraknath Jaiswal, is at 14 Ganesh Chandra Avenue. This part of the city is very old and has a lot of character. The building we are in has high ceilings and thick walls, which keeps it a bit cooler than the modern ones. Our office is filled with wooden cabinets and piles of papers that have been collected over many years. It’s a very traditional way of doing business. We don't use a lot of fancy new gadgets. We mostly stick to what we know. Ganesh Chandra Avenue is always crowded with people, cars, and vendors selling all kinds of things. It’s a very loud and energetic place to be. We have a few staff members who have been working with us for decades. We all know the routine and we just get on with it. We don't have a website or any kind of online presence. People usually find us through word of mouth or because they’ve been coming here for a long time. Sometimes the power goes out and we have to sit and wait for it to come back, talking among ourselves. We drink tea from the same guy at the corner every day. It’s a simple, honest way to make a living. We don't have any big goals to expand. We just want to keep doing our work at 14 Ganesh Chandra Avenue like we always have. It’s a slice of old city life.