Royal Handicraft & Toys

Our shop is at 83, Bhatiyani Chohata, which is a really narrow and busy street. If you’ve ever walked down there, you know how it gets with the bikes and the people pushing past each other. Royal Handicraft & Toys has been in this spot for a while, and it’s packed from floor to ceiling. We have all kinds of wooden toys and handmade things that we get from local makers. The wooden horses and the little dolls take up a lot of space, and I’m always moving them around to make room for new stock. It’s a bit of a squeeze inside, especially when we have more than two or three people looking at things at once. The floorboards creak a little, and it smells like old wood and maybe a bit of incense from the temple nearby. We don’t do any of that fancy marketing stuff you see online. We just put our things out and hope people like them. Sometimes the kids from the neighborhood come in just to look at the toys, and I don't mind that at all. It keeps the place feeling alive. My brother usually helps me out in the afternoons when the market gets really crowded. We spend a lot of time just organizing the shelves and making sure nothing gets broken in the rush. It’s a noisy, busy place to work, but I wouldn't want to be anywhere else besides Bhatiyani Chohata. We usually stay open until the market quietens down late at night.