Aarti Music & Photo Goods

Down on Subhash Marg in Sojat Road, we’ve been running Aarti Music & Photo Goods for quite some time. It started out mostly with cassette tapes and film rolls, but things have changed a lot since then. Now we have a lot of memory cards and digital stuff, though the shelves still have that old smell of electronics and plastic. The shop is small and the walls are covered with posters of old singers and some landscape photos we took years ago. There’s a desk in the back where we do the photo editing and printing. The printer makes a loud whirring noise that you get used to after a while. People come in to get their passport photos taken, and they usually look a bit stiff in front of the white curtain we pull across the wall. We tell them to smile, but most people just stare at the lens. Subhash Marg gets very busy during the festival times, and we end up staying late to finish all the printing work. Sometimes the power goes out and we just have to sit in the dark and wait for it to come back. It gives us a chance to talk to the neighbors. We don't have a big team, just a couple of us who know how the machines work. It’s a decent way to spend the day, surrounded by music and pictures of people from all over Sojat Road.