Anand Provision General Stores

You can find Anand Provision General Stores right near the Pashan Bhaji Market on Baner Road. Since we are so close to the vegetable market, the mornings are always the loudest part of our day. We open up early, usually while the sun is still coming up, to get everything ready for the people who come to buy their groceries after picking up their greens. The shop is full of sacks of rice, lentils, and all the usual stuff people need for their kitchens. It smells like a mix of spices and soap inside. We don’t have fancy scanners or those big supermarket aisles. It’s mostly just shelves reaching up to the ceiling and us reaching for things with a long stick. Sometimes the floor gets a bit sandy from the street outside, and we’re constantly sweeping it out to keep it tidy. We know most of the people who come in by their first names or at least what they usually buy for their families. It’s a lot of weighing things out on the scale and tying up plastic bags with that thin red string. By the afternoon, when the market slows down and the heat builds up, we usually take a break and sit near the fan. It gets hot in here with all the stock blocking the breeze from the door. We’ve been part of this corner for a long time, and we just keep doing the same thing every day. It’s a steady, quiet life for us here.