Anmol Hojeri

Being located in the Sabji Mandi in Sheoganj means you have to wake up early. Anmol Hojeri starts its day when most people are still sleeping. The vegetable market is already alive by five in the morning. You can hear the vendors shouting and the carts rolling over the stones. Our shop is right in the middle of all that. We sell hosiery items, so it's a lot of socks, vests, and small things like that. The air always smells like fresh coriander and damp earth from the vegetable stalls nearby. It’s a small space, and we have bags of stock piled up high. Sometimes it feels like the walls are closing in, but you get used to it. I spend the morning serving people who came for their groceries and decided they needed some new socks too. By noon, the heat in Sheoganj really picks up. The metal roof of the shop makes it pretty warm inside. I have a small stool I sit on near the entrance. It’s not a glamorous job. My hands get dry from handling the cotton all day. We don't have any fancy displays. Everything is just in boxes or hanging from hooks on the wall. It’s honest work, and it keeps us busy. People know us because we’ve been here in the mandi for a long time. When the sun goes down, we finally start packing things away. The day is usually over when the last vendor packs up and the noise finally dies down.