Gujrati Kirana Co.

If you go to Khari Baoli, you know how packed it gets. Gujrati Kirana Co. is tucked away at 6656/11 in the New Garodia Market. My grandfather opened this shop a long time ago. We sell all sorts of kitchen staples like rice, lentils, and spices. The shop is small and every inch of the walls is covered with shelves. We have bags of grains stacked up on the floor. It’s hard to move around sometimes when we have a lot of stock. The whole market smells like a mix of cloves and cardamom. We open early, around nine, and there’s usually a line of people waiting. We use old-fashioned scales for some things, but we have a digital one now for the smaller spice packets. I spend most of my day sitting on the wooden bench behind the counter. My son helps with the heavy lifting and making sure the orders are ready for the delivery carts. We don't have a computer system; we still write everything down in those thick red books. It’s a lot of noise outside with the rickshaws and people shouting, but inside it feels familiar. We know most of our customers by name because they’ve been coming here for twenty years. We don't try to be anything fancy. We just sell good food items and try to keep the prices fair for the neighborhood folks who visit us week after week.