Baba Sports & Gifts

If you’re walking down MG Road near Dhobi Talao, you’ve probably walked right past us at some point. We are situated right near the Bastani Restaurant, which is a big help because everyone in the city knows where that is. The smell of the food from next door is always there in the shop, which makes us hungry by noon. It’s a strange mix here because we have cricket bats and footballs on one side and then birthday cards and showpieces on the other. It happened because my brother wanted to sell sports gear and I wanted to do gifts, so we just split the space in half. It’s a bit cramped, to be honest. You have to watch your step so you don’t knock over a trophy or a glass vase when you turn around. The traffic on MG Road never really stops, so there’s a constant hum of horns in the background while we talk to people. We’ve been here for years, and we see the same people every week. Some neighborhood kids come in just to look at the new footballs, and we don’t mind. Sometimes the rain leaks a little near the front door during the monsoon, so we have to keep the cardboard boxes away from that specific spot. It’s a simple shop. We don’t do fancy gift wrapping with big bows, just regular paper and some tape. It’s just us doing our thing every day until the shutters go down.