Uttam General Stores

Uttam General Stores is a small shop at number 8 on Carter Road Number 3 in Borivali East. We’ve been serving this corner of the neighborhood for a very long time. The shop is packed from floor to ceiling with all kinds of things people need daily. We have bags of rice, jars of biscuits, soaps, and those small toys that kids always beg their parents for. It’s a bit of a tight squeeze inside, and you have to be careful not to knock anything over. I know most of the families who live in the nearby buildings. I’ve seen their kids grow up and start coming in to buy their own groceries. We don't have a computer system or anything like that; I still write down the accounts in a big red ledger book. The morning time is the busiest when everyone wants milk and bread at the same time. I usually have a cup of tea behind the counter while I wait for the next person to walk in. It gets quite hot in the afternoon, so I keep the fan running at full speed. We don’t do any advertising or anything like that. People just know we are here and that we usually have whatever they forgot to buy at the big supermarket. It’s just a regular life in a regular shop.