Kharati Lal Karyana Store

Down here in Salem Tabri, specifically at 529 Saroop Nagar, the days go by pretty fast. This is Ludhiana, so it is always a bit dusty and the air is heavy. Our store is just a basic room filled with all the groceries a family might need. We have large sacks of grain sitting on wooden pallets to keep them off the floor. The shelves are packed with jars of pickles, packets of tea, and different soaps. We don't really have a system for where things go, we just know where everything is because we have lived here for so long. Most of the people who come in live just a few houses away. They come for a kilo of sugar or maybe some cooking oil when they run out in the middle of making dinner. We have a small bench outside where some of the older men sit and talk for a bit in the evening. The light inside is a little dim but it works well enough for us to see the scales. We handle everything ourselves, from unloading the bags to sweeping the floor at night. It is hard work on the back sometimes but it is what we do. The neighborhood has changed a lot over the years but the store stays mostly the same. We just keep the doors open and wait for the locals.