Midnapore Hardware Store

Nimtala Chowk is a busy crossing. Our store is right there. It’s a typical hardware shop, stuffed with everything from nails to buckets. We don't have much room to move around once a few customers come in. The shelves are a bit of a jumble, but I usually know where I put things. People from the nearby villages come here when they are building something or fixing a leak. It’s mostly local talk. We hear about the weather or the crops while we are weighing out nails. Sometimes kids come in for a single screw or a bit of wire. The front of the shop is always open to the street, so we get all the dust and the noise from the buses passing by. It’s a simple life. We don't use a computer for everything; a lot of it is still written down in big ledgers. When it rains, the water splashes up from the road, so we have to move the bags of cement further back. It’s just me and a couple of others helping out. We close up when the sun goes down and the market starts to quiet down. I've been working at Nimtala Chowk so long I can tell which truck is passing just by the sound of the horn. It’s been at this chowk for a long time, and I guess most people around here have stepped inside at least once.