Maktab E Noor E Raza & General Stores

Our place is located in Gopipura, and it’s a mix of a general store and a bookshop. We carry a bit of everything because that’s what people in the neighborhood need. You might find some religious books on one shelf and then household items or snacks on another. It makes the shop feel a bit crowded, but we know where everything is kept. The building is older, so the wooden shelves have a bit of a creak to them. We spend a lot of time organizing the stock and talking to the people who walk in. It’s a quiet life for the most part. We don't have a big sign or anything flashy. People just know we are here. In the afternoons, it gets a bit slow, so we sit near the front and watch the street. Gopipura has its own rhythm, and we’ve been part of it for a long time. We try to keep the things people ask for the most in stock, but sometimes we run out of things. That's just how it is when you're a small store. We don't have a computer system for everything; we still do a lot of things the old way. It works for us and the customers don't seem to mind. We just keep things simple and try to be helpful when someone is looking for a specific book or a bag of flour. It is just a local shop.