Bharti Kirana

Bharti Kirana is in the R.D.Sharma Market in Kankarbagh. It’s quite close to Dr. R.N. Singh’s place, so a lot of people passing by stop in. Patna can be very humid and the shop feels a bit cramped when the shipments arrive. We have bags of rice and wheat stacked in the corner. I usually sit on a wooden chair near the entrance. The shelves are painted blue but the paint is chipping off in many places. I keep the smaller items like matches and batteries right under the glass counter so I can see them easily. Sometimes the neighbor’s cat comes in and sits on one of the sacks until I shoo it away. The market is always noisy with people arguing over prices or rickshaw pullers shouting. I’ve been working here for years and my hands are always a bit dusty from handling the grain. We don't have any fancy displays. Everything is just kept where it fits. The ledger is old and the pages are turning yellow at the edges. Customers usually just tell me what they need and I go fetch it from the back. It’s a bit dark in the rear of the shop where we keep the bulk oil containers. I have to be careful not to trip over the crates when I go back there to fill a bottle for someone. Being near Dr. R.N. Singh’s place means we see a lot of people from outside the colony.