Ram Swaroop Jagdish Prasad

You can find us at 113-A in the Palam Colony Main Market. The shop carries the names of my grandfather and father, Ram Swaroop and Jagdish Prasad. We have been in this same spot for decades, long before the market became as crowded as it is now. It is a traditional shop with big wooden drawers and sacks of goods sitting on the floor. The air smells like spices and grains. We don't have those bright lights or self-service aisles like the new supermarkets. Here, you ask for what you want and we weigh it out for you on the scale. The scale is quite old but it still works perfectly fine. We spend our days chatting with the ladies from the colony who have been buying from us since they were young. The main market is always a chaos of colors and sounds, but inside our shop, things feel a bit slower. We have an old ledger where we write things down by hand sometimes. The floor is worn smooth from all the feet that have walked on it over the years. We open early in the morning and don't close until late in the evening. It’s a lot of standing and lifting, but it’s what our family has always done. We don't see any reason to change things now. Sometimes the stray cat from the market comes in and we give it a bit of milk.