Premji Ratanshi Grain & Provision Merchants

Being down here in the Godown Gally of Mangaldas Market is a specific kind of life. We are at 40/9, which is right in the thick of things. The air always has that heavy scent of lentils and basmati rice. It’s a bit dusty, honestly. We’ve been operating as grain merchants for a long time, following what the family did before. The space is mostly filled with tall stacks of jute bags. You have to be careful walking through because the aisles are narrow. We deal with bulk grains mostly. It’s a lot of manual labor, moving sacks from the trucks into the godown. The market gets very crowded by noon, and sometimes it's hard to even hear yourself think with all the shouting and carts rattling on the stone floors. We don't have a website or any of that new stuff. People just know where we are. We keep our ledgers by hand mostly, though we have a small computer now that sits in the corner collecting dust. It's a simple business of buying and selling what people need to eat every day. The floors are worn down from years of feet pacing back and forth. It’s not a pretty place, but it’s functional. We open the shutters early in the morning when the cool air is still around. By the time we close, the whole place feels like it’s soaked in the smell of the market and the city.