Risso Cool Drinks

If you find yourself in Vasantham Nagar, you might pass by Risso Cool Drinks at number 12. We share the space with the Srinivasan Soda Company here in Chettiyapatti. It is a pretty simple setup. We have the big coolers running all day and night, and you can hear the hum of the compressors from the street. The floor is usually a bit wet because of the ice melting and the bottles being moved around. We don't have fancy uniforms or a polished storefront. It’s mostly just us in our regular clothes, dealing with crates and glass bottles. Sometimes the delivery truck is late and we just sit on the empty crates waiting for it to show up. The sun hits the front of the shop pretty hard in the morning, so we usually keep the shutters halfway down to stay cool. People from the neighborhood stop by for a quick drink and a bit of gossip. We’ve known most of them since they were kids. It’s not a complicated business. We just stock what people want and try to keep the fridge cold. Sometimes the labels on the bottles are a little crooked, but nobody seems to mind that much. The shelves are made of wood we put up ourselves years ago. It’s a small place, but it keeps us busy from dawn until we close up at night. The ceiling fan wobbles a bit but we've gotten used to the noise.