Jaya Variety Stores

If you are walking down Canal East Road in Ultadanga, you will find Jaya Variety Stores at number 6. We are quite close to Muchi Bazar, which is always a busy place to be. Running a variety store in Kolkata means you never really have a dull moment. There is always someone coming in asking for something random, like a specific notebook or a certain type of battery. We have shelves full of all sorts of bits and pieces. Some days it feels like we have too much stuff and not enough room, but we know where everything is hidden. The humidity here can be a bit much sometimes, so we usually have the fan going full blast behind the counter. Being near Muchi Bazar means there is a lot of foot traffic. You get used to the noise of the rickshaws and the people shouting. I spend a lot of time just organizing the jars and packets so people can see what we have. It is a small space, but it serves the local neighborhood well. We have been here for years, watching the area change. People come in for a quick chat as much as they do for shopping. I might be busy writing down accounts in my ledger while a customer looks through the snacks. It’s not a fancy supermarket, just a regular shop where you can find what you need without much fuss. We open early and stay until the street lights have been on for a while.