Malviya General Store

Malviya General Store is situated right in the middle of Anisabad in Patna. We’ve been operating out of this 800002 zip code for a long time. It’s a typical local shop where you can find mostly anything for the house. We have rows of jars filled with candies, stacks of soap bars, and bundles of notebooks for the school kids. The space is a bit tight, so we have to stack things high up toward the ceiling. Sometimes we need a ladder to get a specific brand of detergent down for a customer. It isn’t a supermarket where you walk around with a cart. You just stand at the counter and tell us what you need. My clothes usually have a bit of flour or dust on them by the end of the shift. That’s just part of the job. Patna can get very humid, so the ceiling fan stays on high speed most of the year. We know most of the families around here by name. We hear about their kids and their work while we weigh out some sugar or lentils. It’s a steady pace of work. We aren't trying to be anything more than a reliable place to get your daily goods. The morning rush is usually the hardest part of the day when everyone wants their milk and bread at the same time. After that, it slows down until the evening. We just keep going, day after day, keeping the shop running for the neighborhood.