Surajmal Shyamlal

Our shop, Surajmal Shyamlal, is right in the middle of Koat Bazar in Sitamarhi. If you know the area, you know how tight the lanes can be and how loud it gets with all the shoppers and rickshaws passing by all the time. We have been in this spot for years, and the building itself is quite old with thick walls. Inside, the shelves are filled with all the goods we stock, and it smells a bit like old paper and whatever items we’ve got in that day. I usually sit at the front on a small wooden chair, watching the street and waiting for customers to come in. It is a traditional way of doing business. We don't have any computers or fancy scanning machines; everything is done by hand in a ledger. Sitamarhi can get very hot in the summer, so we have a couple of old ceiling fans that just barely move the air around. Most of our customers are people who have been coming to us for decades, sometimes even their fathers used to shop here. We know almost everyone who walks through the door by name. It’s not like those big supermarkets where nobody talks to you. Here, we have a chat about the weather or the local news while we weigh out whatever they need. It is a simple life in Koat Bazar, and we just keep the doors open from morning until the market finally slows down at night.