Manish Gift & Toys

Our shop is at 212 Bapu Bazar. It’s right in the middle of all the action. We have a lot of toys, mostly the kind that kids play with hard—plastic trucks, dolls, board games. Then we have the gifts, which are more for the grown-ups, like vases or clocks. The shop is narrow but deep. You walk in and it just keeps going. We have to use a ladder to reach the stuff on the top shelves. Bapu Bazar is always loud with people bargaining and rickshaws honking, so we usually have a fan going to keep cool. I’ve been working here for a long time now. My hands are always a bit dirty from moving boxes around. We don't have a fancy display window, we just put some of the colorful toys out front to catch the eye. Sometimes a toy starts making noise by itself because the button got pressed in the box, which makes us laugh. It’s a bit chaotic during festival seasons like Diwali or Holi. Everyone is in a rush then. We just try to help people find what they need and get them on their way. We don't use any high-tech systems, just a simple calculator and a notebook to keep track of sales. It’s a traditional way of doing things and it works for us. Usually, I'm the one who stays until closing, making sure the shutters are locked tight. It’s a small life but it’s ours.