Sanjay Kirana

Our little shop, Sanjay Kirana, is right on New Market Road. If you walk down this way, you’ll see us there among all the other shops. It’s always a bit noisy outside with the bikes and people walking by to do their shopping. We open up early because that’s when people want their milk and bread for breakfast. The shelves are packed with all kinds of stuff—pulses, spices, soap, and snacks. It can get a bit crowded inside when more than three people show up at once, but we manage. My hands are usually dusty from handling the sacks of grain or stacking the cans. We know most of the people who come in by their first names since they live just a few streets over. It’s not like those big supermarkets where everything is cold and quiet. Here, we talk about the weather or how the local prices are going up again. Sometimes the delivery trucks block the road for a minute while they unload the crates, and everyone just waits. It’s just how things go on New Market Road. We spend a lot of time just tidying up the jars and making sure we haven't run out of the basics. It’s a simple life, running a grocery store, but it keeps us busy from morning until we pull the shutters down at night. Most days we are just happy to see a familiar face and help them find what they need.