A. J. Saree

Our shop, A. J. Saree, is located inside Pandya Haveli at Shop No. 28/17 A. It’s an old building with a lot of character, but that also means it can get a bit warm in the afternoons. We have shelves and shelves full of different fabrics and sarees. Most of our day is spent unfolding things to show people and then folding them back up again. If you don’t fold them right, the whole stack starts to lean over. It’s a lot of repetitive work, but you get to see some nice patterns. Customers come in looking for something for a wedding or just a regular day, and we try to find what they are asking for. Sometimes they stay for an hour just looking at different colors. Pandya Haveli is a busy place, so there are always people passing by the shop door. We have a small stool to sit on when there are no customers, but mostly we are on our feet. The lighting in the shop is okay, but we often have to take the cloth to the doorway to see the real color in the sunlight. We start the day by dusting the glass counters and making sure the floor is swept. Sometimes the deliveries arrive early in the morning, and we have to unpack everything and check the stock. It’s a simple business. We just stock the sarees and talk to the people who walk in. No big speeches, just the cloth.