Vikash General Store

Being located on Cantt Road here in Lucknow means there is always traffic and people moving about. Our spot is right by Jai Hind Chabutara in the Udaiganj area, which is a landmark everyone around here knows. My father started this shop years ago, and now we just keep it going day by day. It’s a lot of work keeping track of everything from soap to pulses. Sometimes the delivery trucks come late because of the congestion on the road, and we have to wait around in the heat. It gets quite warm in the afternoons, so we usually have the radio playing some old songs to pass the time when customers are thin. Most of our regulars live just a few lanes away. They come in for a single pack of biscuits or maybe some spices they forgot for their dinner. We don’t have any big signs or bright lights. It’s just the same counter we’ve had for a long time. You’ll usually see a few sacks of rice sitting near the entrance. I try to keep things organized, but in a small space like this, items tend to pile up quickly. We just do our bit and go home at night. It’s not a complicated life, just running a general store in a busy part of town where people still stop to say hello and ask how the family is doing before they leave. We’ve seen the neighborhood change, but the store stays pretty much the same.