Jana Pan Bhandar

Down here in Akshaya Nagar, things move a bit slower than they do in the big city. Our shop is located in Kakdwip, which is part of the 24 Parganas South district. We are right by the Coastal Lot 8 police station area, so it's a safe and familiar spot for everyone. It is mostly a village atmosphere, with a lot of greenery and the smell of the salt air if the wind blows the right way from the coast. We started this place because there wasn't much else around for the local folks. It is just a small stall, really, built out of simple materials but it stays dry when the heavy rains come during monsoon season. We see a lot of farmers and people who work on the boats coming through. They stop to chat about the weather or how the crops are doing this year. We don't have a computer or anything fancy to run things, just a notebook and some good memory. It can get a bit muddy on the roads after a storm, but people still make their way here. We enjoy the peace and quiet of the evenings when the sun goes down over the fields. It's just a regular life for us, serving the people in our little corner of West Bengal. We don't need much to be happy, just enough work to keep the family fed and the shop running for another day.