Gupta Variety Store

The shop has been here at Dum Dum Park Bazar for a good while now. We open early in the morning when the sun is just coming up over Shyam Nagar Road and the first few rickshaws start rattling past. It’s a busy spot, especially on weekends when everyone is out buying their groceries and household stuff. The shelves are packed with all sorts of things, from snacks and tea to cleaning supplies and school notebooks for the kids. Sometimes it gets a bit cramped in here because we try to keep everything people might ask for. We know most of the faces that walk through the door since they live right around the corner in Dum Dum. It’s not a fancy place by any means. The fan hums a bit too loud in the summer and the floor gets dusty with all the foot traffic from the market outside. We spend a lot of time checking our stock and talking to the distributors who pull up their vans on the main road. Dealing with the heat in Kolkata is just part of the job. We don’t have any big corporate goals, just keeping the shelves full and making sure people get what they need without having to travel too far. Most days it’s just about managing the morning rush and then taking it a bit easier during the afternoon lull before the evening crowd hits. It is a simple life running a variety store here.