H. Dawoodhbhai & Bros.

H. Dawoodhbhai & Bros. is tucked away at 100A in Lohar Chawl. If you know the area, you know how packed it gets. It’s a maze of shops and people everywhere. We’ve been in this spot for a very long time, through several generations. The shop is small and full from floor to ceiling with all sorts of items. It’s mostly hardware and stuff for tradespeople. My cousins and I run the place now. Most mornings start with moving things out onto the pavement so we have room to stand inside. It’s a lot of fetching and carrying. We don't use fancy computers for everything; a lot of it is still kept in ledgers and our heads. Customers come in looking for specific bits and pieces that they can't find elsewhere. We usually have it somewhere in the back or up on a high shelf. The noise from the street is constant—horns, shouting, people haggling. It’s just the way life is here. We drink a lot of tea while we work. Sometimes it's frustrating when the deliveries get stuck in traffic, which happens almost every day. We don't have a website or anything like that. If people want something, they just come down to the Chawl. It’s a simple way of doing business, but it works for us. We know our regulars by name and we know what they need before they even ask.