Vikram Provision Store

Our store is right on Waghodiya Road, sitting directly opposite Ambe School here in Vadodara. If you know the area, you know how busy it gets when school lets out. I’ve spent a lot of my life sitting behind this wooden counter, watching the city change around us. Vikram Provision Store is basically what it sounds like—a place where we stock the daily stuff like flour, pulses, and cooking oil. The smell of spices is always hanging in the air because we keep the sacks open for people to check the quality. We don’t have those fancy automatic doors or air conditioning. It’s just a regular shop with high ceilings and old wooden racks that my father put up years ago. Some of the jars on the top shelves are hard to reach, so I usually keep a small stool handy. Dealing with the heat in Vadodara is just part of the job, and the ceiling fan runs all day long without a break. Most of our customers are folks from the nearby apartment buildings who have been coming here for years. They usually come in with a list written on a scrap of paper. I like the routine of weighing out the grains and chatting about the weather or the price of onions. It’s not a polished business, just a practical one that keeps us busy from morning till night. We just try to keep things honest and simple for everyone who visits.