Vijay Karyana Stores

Vijay Karyana Stores is over in the BMC Shivaji Market in Abdullapur Basti, right at shop number 1786/A. Running a grocery shop in a big market like this takes a lot of time and we have to start very early every single morning. We spend the first few hours of the day moving heavy bags of rice, sugar, and different kinds of pulses into the store. Everything comes in huge sacks, so we have to spend time weighing things out into smaller plastic bags for the people who come in. The air in here usually smells like a mix of spices and old grains. It gets very dusty, and we often find ourselves sneezing when we are shifting the sacks around on the floor. The market is always loud with people shouting and trucks backing up nearby. Our shop is quite narrow, so we have to stack the bags high against the walls to make room for people to stand. We have an old wooden desk where we keep our books and a few pens for writing down orders. We don't use any electronic scales, just the old metal ones with weights that we have used forever. It is a very physical job and our hands get quite rough from handling the burlap bags all day long. We know most of the other shopkeepers in Shivaji Market, and we usually share a cup of tea when things slow down in the afternoon. We just sell the basic food items that families in Abdullapur Basti need.