Shripal Fashion

The Ring Road in Surat is always a mess of traffic. We are at No. 3-A in the New Adarsh Market, which is right in the middle of everything. Every morning I have to find a place for my scooter, which is almost impossible some days. Once I get inside the market, it’s a different world. It is full of people carrying huge bundles of cloth on their shoulders. We have been operating Shripal Fashion from this small space for years. It’s not very big, but we make it work. The shelves are packed right up to the ceiling with different materials. Sometimes I worry things might fall over if we pull the wrong box out too quickly. We spend the day talking to retailers and writing down prices in our notebooks. The light in the market isn't great, so we have these bright tubes that hum a little bit throughout the day. By mid-afternoon, the whole market feels like a beehive. We try to keep our area organized, but it’s hard when new stock arrives every other day. Usually, we close up late because that’s when the last-minute buyers show up. It is tiring but it is what we do. New Adarsh Market has its own rhythm, and we are just one small part of it. We don't do much besides work and the occasional lunch break. It's just the way the textile business goes on Ring Road.