Mir Bilal

Our place, Mir Bilal, is right at the Main Chowk in Karan Nagar, which is a busy intersection in Srinagar. If you are walking down the Main Road, you can’t really miss us. We’ve been operating from this location for quite a few years and have seen the neighborhood change quite a bit. Srinagar has its own pace, especially when the weather starts to get cold and the snow settles on the rooftops. We keep a small stove going in the corner during the winter to stay warm while we work. The space is a bit cramped because we have a lot of stuff piled up, but we know where everything is. People stop by all day long, sometimes just to ask for directions since we are right on the corner. We don’t really do any big marketing or have a polished business plan. We just open up in the morning and see who comes through the door. It’s a lot of local residents and people who work in the nearby shops. The noise from the traffic at the chowk is constant, but it feels like the heartbeat of the city after a while. We handle our daily business with a lot of talk and a bit of patience. It’s an old-fashioned way of doing things, but it works for us and the people in Karan Nagar. We don't need a lot of fancy equipment to get through the day.