Chunilal Jivanram

If you walk down Vachli Sheri in Salabatpura, you will see our sign for Chunilal Jivanram. It is an old-fashioned name because we have been doing this for a long time. The building number is 3/2103 and it is tucked away in one of those typical Surat lanes where everyone knows what the person next door is having for breakfast. We don't really bother with fancy decorations or anything like that. The floor is concrete and the shelves are packed with whatever we are handling that week. Most days it is just us and the ledger books. The street outside is always noisy with people moving fabric or pushing handcarts. You can hear the scooters honking from early morning until late evening. Sometimes we sit on the wooden stools outside for a bit of air when the power goes out. It's not the most comfortable place, but it’s where we do our work. We know the tea seller at the corner very well. He brings us chai twice a day without us even asking. It’s that kind of place. We don't have a website or anything like that, we just stay here at our spot and handle the business as it comes. The walls have some stains from the monsoon rains and the door squeaks, but it feels like home to us after all these years of coming here every single morning. We're just regular people doing regular work.