Raju Ghee Wala

If you walk down Jhalawar Road toward the Old Subjimandi, you will find our small spot. I am Raju, and I’ve been dealing in ghee since I was a young man helping my father. The shop hasn't changed much in thirty years. We still have the same heavy metal scales and the big containers lined up against the wall. The air always smells like rich, melted butter, which I suppose is better than the smell of the vegetable market next door. We get our supplies from the local dairies and then we process it right here to make sure it is just right. Some customers have been coming to us for decades, and now their children come here too. They bring their own steel tiffins or plastic jars to get filled up. It is a slow kind of business. We don't use much technology, just a simple notebook to keep track of the regular accounts. Sometimes the traffic on Jhalawar Road gets so loud we have to shout to be heard over the trucks, but that’s just how it is in this part of town. I spend most of my day sitting on the raised platform, chatting with the neighbors and watching the crowds go by. We don't try to be a big supermarket. We just do one thing and we try to do it the way it has always been done. It's an honest living and it keeps us busy from morning till night.