Alif Collection

Our little spot at Marine Lines 193/195 has been around through a lot of changes in the neighborhood. It’s one of those buildings that has a lot of character, which is a polite way of saying the stairs are steep and the ceiling is a bit low. We deal in various items, mostly what people around here need on a daily basis. It gets pretty hot in the afternoons, so we keep the old fan running at full speed. Sometimes the stock arrives late because of the traffic near the station, but we just handle it as it comes. We aren't trying to be the biggest shop in Mumbai. We just want to make sure the person who walks in finds what they are looking for without a headache. My brother and I take turns at the counter. We’ve seen kids grow up and start coming in to buy things for their own homes now. It’s a bit dusty sometimes because of the construction nearby, but we wipe down the counters every morning. We don't have a big marketing plan or anything like that. We just open the shutters early and stay until the last customer leaves. It’s a quiet kind of business life, mostly built on just being there every day and knowing the faces of the people who live and work around Marine Lines. We handle our own paperwork and keep things simple without any corporate nonsense getting in the way.