Vivaah Sarees

Being on Lalgate Main Road means you see everything that happens in this part of town. We open up Vivaah Sarees when the street is still a bit quiet, but that never lasts long. By ten o'clock, the whole place is buzzing with activity. The shop is not huge, but we pack a lot of stock into it. There are sarees piled up in the back room and more stacked high on the counters. We spend half our day just moving heavy boxes around to find a specific color or pattern that someone asked for. It is a lot of physical work, lifting and reaching for the high shelves. My hands are usually tired by the end of the shift from handling all that cloth. The floor gets swept three or four times a day because people bring in the street dirt on their shoes. We have some old ceiling fans that hum all day long to keep the air moving, though it still gets warm. If you look out the front door, it is just a sea of people and vehicles. Sometimes we stand at the entrance just to catch a bit of a breeze. It is a simple setup we have. We do not have fancy glass displays, just the stock and the people who come to buy it. Everyone knows everyone on this block. We talk to the neighbors about the weather or the price of groceries. When the sun goes down, the street lights come on and the sarees look a bit different under the yellow glow.