Saree Sangam

Saree Sangam is on the lower ground floor of Ashoka Tower on Sahar Ring Road. Being on the lower ground means you have to walk down a few steps from the sidewalk to get into the shop. It makes the place feel a bit like a basement, but it’s actually a good way to escape the heat of the Surat sun. Ashoka Tower is a well-known building in this area, even if it’s looking a bit old and worn down these days. We have sarees everywhere you look inside—on the shelves, in cardboard boxes, and sometimes even draped over the old wooden chairs. The Sahar Ring Road outside is always a mess of traffic, so we hear the constant sound of engines and people shouting from the street above us. Inside the shop, it’s a bit quieter than the road. We have a few old ceiling fans that creak quite a lot as they spin. The floor is tiled, but some of the tiles are cracked from years of moving heavy bundles. We spend our time sorting through the new arrivals and making sure everything is in the right place. People come in looking for specific colors, and we spend a lot of time digging through the stacks to find what they want. It’s a lot of manual work, and our backs usually ache by the time we finish the shift. We get our tea from a man who carries a large kettle around the building twice a day. It’s a local shop in an old tower.