Fatima Arisi & General Store

If you are driving down Trichy Main Road in Melur, you will probably see our place. We are right in Sekkadi Bazzar. The main thing people come here for is the rice. I spend a lot of my day hauling heavy bags around because people like to buy in bulk. It is hard work on the back, but it keeps the business going. Besides the rice, we have all the usual general items you would expect. The traffic on the main road never really stops, so there is always a layer of dust on the front window that I have to wipe off every couple of hours. It gets very busy in the evenings when people are heading home from work. They pull over their bikes and ask for a few kilos of this or that. I try to be fast so they don't get stuck in the traffic for too long. My family helps out when things get too crowded. We have been at this spot for a long time now. The building is old and the floor is a bit uneven, but it works for us. We don't do anything fancy with advertisements. People just know we are here on the way to Trichy. It is a practical shop for practical people who just want good grains and a few household things without any fuss or waiting around. I like the smell of the rice bags when they are fresh from the mill. It reminds me of the hard work that goes into everything we sell.