Jwala Ji Beads

If you walk through Kinari Bazar and find Shop No. 1963 in Katra Khushal Rai, that is where we are. Jwala Ji Beads is a small space, but we have thousands of different items packed into every corner. It’s the kind of shop where you have to move sideways to get past the boxes. We deal with all kinds of beads—glass, plastic, metal, you name it. The light inside isn't great, so we often have to take things out to the doorway to show customers the real color in the sun. This part of Delhi is always crowded, and the noise from the street vendors and shoppers never really stops. We spend hours every day sorting through tiny little pieces and putting them into small plastic bags. It’s tedious work, but there is something nice about the colors all lined up on the shelves. Sometimes the strings break and we spend twenty minutes crawling on the floor to find where they rolled. Our family has been in this market for a long time, and we know most of the other shopkeepers around us. We don't have a computer system or anything like that. Everything is counted by hand and written in a diary. It is a bit messy and the shelves are always overflowing, but we know exactly where everything is hidden. People come here looking for something specific for a dress or a piece of jewelry, and we just dig through the stacks until we find it.