Raju Store

Raju Store has been at Ashram Hari Nagar 202 for years. It’s a regular kirana shop where we sell things like pulses, rice, biscuits, and soap. I know almost everyone in the neighborhood by their first name. The shop is quite small and every inch of the wall is covered with shelves. We have bags of flour stacked near the entrance. Sometimes the cats from the street try to wander in and I have to shoo them away. My day starts at 7 AM when the milk crates arrive. I spend a lot of time weighing things out for people who only want a little bit of spice or sugar. It’s a lot of standing around and talking to the aunties who come to buy their daily groceries. We use a lot of plastic jars to keep everything fresh. The ledger on my counter is getting thick because I still let a few old customers pay at the end of the month. It’s just how things work in a place like Hari Nagar. We don’t have fancy neon signs or anything. Just a wooden board with the name painted on it. It’s a simple business and it keeps the family fed. Sometimes it gets lonely during the quiet afternoon hours, but then the kids come after school for candy and it picks up. We just try to keep everything in stock so nobody has to walk to the main market.