New Qadri General Store

People know us here in Batamaloo because we’ve been sitting right across from the fire station for a long time. It gets noisy with the trucks sometimes but that is just how things are in Srinagar. Usually, we open up quite early before the main traffic starts. It takes a bit of time to get all the boxes out and make sure the milk crates are where they should be. We carry the usual stuff people need for their kitchens like tea, sugar, and spices. If someone is running late for work they just yell their order from the street and we try to bag it up fast. The shop isn't very big so things can get a bit cramped when the afternoon rush hits. Sometimes the electricity goes out and we have to use candles or a small torch to find what someone is looking for on the back shelves. We know most of the people who come in by their first names because they live just down the road or work nearby. It isn't anything fancy here. Just a lot of plastic containers, sacks of rice, and the sound of the fire station sirens once in a while. We spend a lot of time cleaning the dust off the jars because the road outside is always busy. It's a simple life running a store in this part of town and we just keep at it day after day.