Maqbool Fruit Shop

Maqbool Fruit Shop is right there in Safa Kadal, over by Nawa Kadal. It’s not much more than a wide opening on the street where we stack up the crates. Depending on what time of year it is, the shop looks completely different. Right now, it might be apples, but in a few months, it will be something else. We get the fruit in early in the morning when the dew is still on the ground. Sometimes the boxes are a bit beat up from the ride on the truck, so we have to sort through them and pick out the ones that didn't make it. The smell of the shop changes with the seasons, which is one of the better parts of working here. We use old scales with metal weights that have been rubbed smooth over the years. It’s a noisy spot with the traffic right there, but we’re used to it. The floor is usually covered in bits of straw or cardboard from the packaging. We don’t have any fancy cooling systems, just the cool air from the mountains when it blows through the valley. Customers usually pick out what they want themselves, and we just weigh it up and put it in a paper bag. It’s a simple way to make a living. We’ve been at this same spot for a long time, and we know which trees the fruit comes from.