Monika Bag

Out in Kamrej, there’s a shop called Monika Bag that stays pretty busy with the local crowd. It isn’t a very complicated place. We have bags hanging from the ceiling and stacked on every shelf we could get our hands on. There are backpacks for the kids going to school and heavy-duty bags for people traveling. We even have those small purses that people like to use for weddings. The smell of the material is the first thing you notice when you walk in—that mix of plastic and fabric. It’s a bit dusty because the road outside is always under some kind of construction, but we try to keep things wiped down. The shop isn’t very big, so you have to be careful not to knock anything over when you’re turning around. We have a big counter where we check the zippers and the stitching before anyone takes a bag home. Sometimes people come in with a broken strap, and we see if we can fix it or if it’s time for a new one. Kamrej is a growing area, so we see a lot of new faces lately. We don't spend money on fancy signs or anything. Just the bags and a place to show them. It’s a simple business. We open up in the morning, move some of the displays out front, and wait for the day to start. It’s a lot of folding and stacking, but it keeps us busy most of the time.