Shankar Fruit Merchant

We moved over to the New Subji Mandi near the New Cloth Market a while back. It’s a bit different from where we used to be, but the work is still the same. Every day is about checking the arrivals and seeing what the quality looks like. I spend a lot of time on the phone talking to suppliers and trying to figure out when the next load is coming in. My hands are usually stained from handling produce all day. We don't have a fancy showroom, just a space with stacks of wooden crates and some scales that have seen better days. It gets really dusty in this part of town, especially when the wind picks up. We just keep our heads down and get the work done. Shankar Fruit Merchant isn't some corporate entity; it’s just a few of us making sure the fruit gets moved. Sometimes we have a quiet hour where we can sit and have some tea, but usually, it's just one thing after another. The neighbors are other merchants and we all know each other's business. It’s a tight-knit community here in the mandi. We don't use fancy labels or anything. If the fruit is good, people buy it. That’s the only way we know how to run things. It’s not always easy, especially when the weather doesn't cooperate, but we've been at it long enough to not worry too much.