Chowalla & Son

It's just me and my dad running things here at Malabar Hill. We are on the ground floor of the Arun Buildin, which has been there for a very long time. People around here know us by name because we’ve sat in the same spot for decades. Our shop is at number 12. It’s not a very big space, so we have to stack things up high against the back walls just to fit everything in. Sometimes it’s a bit of a squeeze when more than two people walk in at the same time to ask about something. We don’t use those fancy computer systems for everything like the newer shops do. Mostly we just write stuff down in our big ledger books with a pen. My dad says it's better that way so we don’t lose any information if the power goes out. The neighborhood has changed a lot, with new expensive shops opening up all around us, but we just keep doing what we’ve always done. We drink tea twice a day from the guy who has the stall down the street. It gets a bit noisy during the afternoon rush, but it’s mostly quiet in the mornings when we first open up. We don’t really do any big ads or flyers. People just walk in because they saw our sign outside or heard about us from a neighbor. It’s a simple life. We close up exactly at seven. There’s no big secret to how we work. (251 words)