Umesh Chikan Palace

Umesh Chikan Palace is down in the basement at Shop No. 25 in the Prem Bazar Market. Nishanganj is always crowded, so you have to look for the stairs going down near the middle. It is a small space, but we have managed to fit a lot of fabric in here. The shelves are packed with Chikan work suits and kurtas. You can usually find us sitting among the piles of cloth, checking the embroidery. It gets a bit dim in the basement, so we have these bright tubelights to help us see the fine stitches. We don't have a big window to look out of, but the market noise from upstairs keeps things lively. People come in looking for something specific, and we spend time digging through the bundles to find the right color or size. It’s a bit of a maze sometimes. My hands are usually busy folding or unfolding fabric all day long. We have been in Prem Bazar for a good amount of time, and it feels like home now. The air is a bit heavy with the smell of new cotton and starch. We don't use any fancy sales tactics. People just come in, feel the cloth, and decide if they like it. It's a simple way to run a shop. It gets a bit cramped when three or four customers are inside at once, but we make it work somehow. It is just us and the fabrics down here.