Bakshu General Stores

Our shop, Bakshu General Stores, sits right on the Main Road here in Vijayawada. It is not a very large place, but we try to keep it packed with all the small things a household might run out of during the week. In the mornings, the bread man comes by on his cycle and we stack the fresh loaves near the front. The fridge is always humming in the corner because people always want cold sodas or water when the sun gets too hot in the afternoon. We have been here for a long time, so we know most of the people living in the nearby streets by their first names. It gets a bit chaotic around five in the evening when everyone is heading home from work and they stop in for a packet of tea or some cooking oil. The shelves are mostly made of metal and glass, and sometimes they get a bit dusty from the road traffic outside. I spend a lot of my day just moving boxes around or checking what we need to order from the wholesale market for the next day. It is a simple way to earn a living, really. We don't have any fancy signs or big advertisements, just the name above the door that has been there for years. Sometimes the power goes out and we have to use candles until the lights come back on, but that is just part of living in this city.