Shalom Trading Corporation

North Masi Street is a narrow place. Parameswaren Pillai Lane is even tighter. If a big truck comes in, everything stops. We’ve been at number 49 for a long time. It’s a trading business, so we handle a lot of boxes. Most mornings start with moving things out of the way so we can actually walk inside. It’s an old part of town, so the buildings are close together and the air is always thick with the smell of the market. We don't have a big fancy office. It’s just a desk, some old chairs, and rows of stock reaching up to the ceiling. Sometimes the light in the back flickers, but we haven't gotten around to fixing it yet. People walk by all day, mostly regulars who have been coming to this street for years. Trading isn’t easy work, it’s a lot of counting and checking and making sure things get to the right place. We drink a lot of coffee from the stall down the road. The rain makes things difficult because the lane gets muddy and we have to cover everything with plastic sheets. It’s a bit of a mess sometimes, but we know where everything is. We have an old calendar on the wall that we forget to turn sometimes, but it doesn't really matter. That’s just how it works here on North Masi Street. We stay until late evening most days until the traffic finally thins out.