Ramnik Grain Store

If you go down to Masjid Bunder West, at number 40, that’s where Ramnik Grain Store is. It’s right in the middle of all the chaos of the market. There are always laborers carrying heavy sacks on their backs and carts blocking the road. Our shop is filled from floor to ceiling with bags of rice, wheat, and all sorts of pulses. The air is always a bit dusty from the grain. We spend the day weighing things out on the old scales and sewing up bags that have torn. We don’t have a computer system that does everything; a lot of it is still written down in the ledgers. It’s a bit old-fashioned, but it works for us. The storefront is narrow, so we have to stack things carefully so people can actually walk in. We know most of the people who come by because they’ve been buying from us for years. We aren't trying to be the biggest store in the city. We just want to make sure the stock is good and the counts are right. Usually, there’s a stray dog or two hanging around the entrance, hoping for some scraps. We don’t have any fancy signs or advertisements. The address is just 40, and people know where we are. It’s a lot of sweating and heavy lifting, especially when the new shipments arrive in the afternoons. It's just a regular grain shop.