Saksham General Store

Saksham General Store is at 8282/4A, 3, Gurpal Nagar in Ludhiana. It is a quiet residential street for the most part. I open up around eight in the morning and stay until nine at night. The shop is basically one large room filled with metal racks. I try to keep the floors swept, but people bring in a lot of mud when it rains. I sell the usual things—biscuits, pens, matches, and laundry soap. There is a school nearby, so I get a lot of kids coming in for sweets or notebooks. They can be a bit loud, but they bring life to the shop. I have a small television in the corner that I keep on low volume to hear the news. The address is a bit long, but most people just call it the shop on the corner of the third lane. I do not have any employees. It is just me. Sometimes my wife brings me lunch and sits for a while so I can take a break. We do not have a big fancy sign, just the name Saksham painted on the wall. The neighborhood is mostly working-class people, so I try to keep my prices fair. It is not about getting rich. It is about having a place in the community. I like talking to the elders who come in to buy their tobacco or tea. It makes the day go by faster.