Gowhar Cloth House

Gowhar Cloth House is located in Lal Bazar in Srinagar. It’s a place where we’ve been selling cloth for quite some time. The winters here get very cold, so we spend a lot of time bundled up in our pherans while we wait for customers. The shop is filled with all kinds of fabrics, and the shelves go all the way up to the ceiling. We have to use a wooden ladder to reach the top ones. It’s a bit creaky, but it does the job. Lal Bazar is a lively area, and we know most of the people who walk past our door. We spend our days measuring out meters of cloth and cutting them with our old heavy scissors. The edges aren't always perfect, but we try our best. We don't have a big team of staff. It's usually just me or a family member behind the counter. We drink a lot of noon chai to stay warm and chat with the neighbors about the news or the weather. Sometimes the electricity goes out, and we just use candles or the light from the doorway to see what we're doing. It’s a quiet, slow-paced life here, and we like it that way. We aren't looking to grow into a massive chain; we just want to keep the local people in cloth. Our shop is old and simple, but it has everything we need.