Laltu Variety Stores

Sodepur Station Road is where you’ll find Laltu Variety Stores. It’s a bit of a jumble inside, to be honest. We carry everything from birthday candles to school glue and kitchen scrubbers. I think if you looked hard enough in the back, you’d find things I forgot we even had. The shop is small and the shelves go all the way to the ceiling. I usually have to use a wooden stool to reach the stuff at the top. During the festival seasons, the shop gets even more packed with seasonal items and extra stock piled on the floor. It can be hard to walk around sometimes. We don't have any air conditioning, just a couple of old ceiling fans that rattle a bit. The street noise is constant, with rickshaws honking and people shouting. We know the local kids who come in for a single pencil or a packet of chips after school. It’s a lot of small transactions all day long. I write everything down in a thick ledger book because that’s how I’ve always done it. Sometimes the rain leaks in a little near the front door during the monsoon, and we have to scramble to move the cardboard boxes. It’s just a regular neighborhood shop, nothing more and nothing less. We just open up every day and wait for the regulars to stop by. There is no grand plan here, just keeping the shop running for the local community.