A.K. Chemist

We are over at Shop G-17 in the Shiv Someswara Enclave. It's right on the Althan Canal Road. This part of Surat, near Bhimrad Gam, has changed a lot lately. There are more buildings now than there used to be. The shop is on the ground floor, so it's easy to step inside. We get a lot of dust from the road because of the construction nearby, so we are always wiping down the glass. A.K. Chemist isn't a massive store, but we fit a lot of stock onto the walls. It’s mostly just me and a helper. We handle the bills and talk to the people who live in the enclave. The canal road is a bit quieter than the main city center, which is nice sometimes. We don't have any big signs or bright lights. Just the name on the board. We spend the day organizing the drawers. It can get confusing with so many different names for everything. We try to keep it simple. If we don't have something, we tell people when it might come in. No false promises. It’s a straightforward business. We see the same people going for their morning walks or coming back from work. It feels like a small community here. We just stay behind the counter and do the work. It’s a living. We’ve been in Althan for a while and like the pace of the area.