Krishna Devi Fair Price Shop

Down on Naraina Ring Road, you will see the Krishna Devi Fair Price Shop. We are a small place that handles the giving out of essential items like rice, wheat, and sugar. Because we are a fair price shop, we have a lot of people coming through the doors every day, especially at the start of the month. There is often a line of people outside on the pavement waiting for their turn. The shop is packed to the ceiling with heavy bags, so there is not much room to move around inside. It gets quite hot in the afternoons because the sun hits the front of the shop directly. We have a single fan that does its best, but it is not always enough. The noise from the traffic on the Ring Road is constant, with trucks and buses zooming past all the time. We have to shout sometimes just to be heard over the engines. I spend most of my day looking at ration cards and weighing out the portions on an old metal scale. It is a lot of repetitive work and my hands get dusty from the grain. We do not have a computer; everything is written down in large registers by hand. The shop is not pretty to look at, but it serves a purpose for the community here in Naraina. We just keep going, day after day, making sure the supplies are handed out.