Virmani Paints

The shop is sitting at 39/561 New Moti Nagar, right on Milan Cinema Road. You can usually hear the noise from the street all day long, especially with the movie theater crowds and the cars passing by. It is a busy stretch of road, so there is always something happening outside the front door. Inside, the walls are lined with row after row of paint tins of all sizes. We spend a lot of time climbing up and down ladders to reach the top shelves. The floor has seen better days, mostly covered in little drips of different colors that never quite came off. It is a practical space where things get done. We talk to painters who are on their way to a job and homeowners who aren't quite sure what they need. Sometimes the mixing machine makes a lot of noise, which makes it hard to hear anyone talking. Being in New Moti Nagar means we know a lot of the faces that walk past. It is a dusty job, and by the end of the shift, there is usually some white powder on our clothes. We keep the registers going and try to stay on top of the orders that come in. There is no air conditioning, just a ceiling fan that hums away while we work. It’s just how things are on Milan Cinema Road, a bit messy and always moving forward without much fuss.