Nandini Store

Nandini Store is right here in Lanka, Varanasi. If you know Lanka, you know how crowded it gets with all the students and the rickshaws. We are in the 221005 pin code area. My brother and I run the place. It’s a narrow shop, but it goes back a bit. We keep things like notebooks, pens, and also the usual grocery items since students always need both. The morning is quiet, mostly just local ladies coming for milk. But once the university crowd starts moving, it gets very loud outside. The bells from the nearby temples and the horns of the autos make a lot of noise. We don't have any big signs or neon lights. Just the name Nandini Store painted on the front. Sometimes the electricity goes out and we have to sit in the dark with a small torch until the generator kicks in or the power comes back. It's just part of living in Varanasi. We have been here for years. The shelves are old wood and they creak a bit. We stack the soap bars and the shampoo sachets near the front. It's a simple arrangement that works for us. People know where to find us. We don't do home delivery or anything like that. If you want something, you just walk in. The monsoon rains sometimes leak through the front door gap, so we keep some old towels handy for that.