Chopra Karyana Store

Chopra Karyana Store is just a small corner of Kidwai Nagar here in Ludhiana. We are at 270-G, quite close to Shiv Nagar. If you live around here, you’ve probably walked past us a hundred times while going to the market. The shop is filled with all the usual karyana items—lentils, spices, sugar, and those little packets of chips the kids like. I usually sit behind the counter near the door to catch whatever breeze comes through the street. It gets busy in the mornings when housewives are planning their meals and realize they are out of turmeric or oil. The shelves are a bit crowded and sometimes it takes me a minute to find exactly what someone is looking for among the stacked boxes. We have a lot of plastic containers that we’ve used for years to hold the loose items. Ludhiana winters are cold, so we bundle up in sweaters and keep a thermos of hot tea handy near the register. In the summers, it's the opposite and we just pray for rain. The building isn't anything special to look at, just a practical space for a practical business. We know which neighbor prefers which brand of tea, and we try to keep that in stock. It’s not a corporate life, just a local one where we know the names of the kids growing up in the street. By the time we pull the shutter down at night, I'm ready for some peace and quiet.