Verma Provision Store

Our place, Verma Provision Store, is right at Assi Chauraha on the Main Road. If you know Varanasi, you know how busy it gets around here. There’s always someone shouting, a bell ringing, or a scooter zooming past our front door. We spend a lot of our time just moving stock around because the shop isn't huge and we have to fit everything in. From dawn until late at night, we’re mostly busy with people asking for household stuff like soap, sugar, or tea leaves. It’s a bit of a squeeze when more than three people come in at once. We’ve seen the neighborhood change a lot over the years, but the store stays pretty much the same. Sometimes we sit on the wooden stools outside when there’s a lull in customers, just watching the crowd at the crossing. The floor is old and the shelves have been repaired a few times, but they hold up. We don't do anything fancy with displays; we just put the goods where people can reach them. It’s a family-run thing, so someone is always behind the counter, even if they’re just eating lunch or reading the paper. Dealing with change is part of the job, especially when coins are short or a big delivery arrives and blocks the entrance. We just keep at it because it’s what we know. The local regulars know where everything is better than we do sometimes, which makes things easier for everyone involved.