We usually take monetary comforts for granted. Perhaps we appreciate the value of money only when we have to work hard to earn it. And when we are forced to clip our dreams we learn to be content too!
I’m Anurag. I live in Gorakhpur. I am in the eighth standard now. I study in a Hindi medium school but I can understand a little bit of English too. I come to Mumbai whenever I have vacations.
I haven’t seen much of Mumbai. I help my father and grandfather when I come here. We have a small fruit shop in Malad. My father and I wake up at 3.30a.m. to avoid the morning rush in the local trains. We go to the main market in Vashi. We take a train to Churchgate first. We get down at Bandra and switch platforms to go to the Harbour line. From there we take a train to Wadala. We have to change the platforms again here and then take another train to Vashi. This takes more than an hour every day.
The main wholesale market at Vashi is really very big. We select the best quality fruits from there. We buy 5 – 7 kinds of fruits every day. We buy only around 45-50 kg of fruits because in our shop there is no space to store the fruits that remain unsold. So we make sure we buy only what we can sell. My father and I then place them in cartons and label them.
We then carry all the boxes and place them in one of the trucks that go to Malad. My father has to pay the truck driver for carting all our goods to Malad. We return home at around 10 a.m., have our bath and breakfast and take a nap till 1 in the afternoons.
My grandfather, father and I then have our lunch together and go to the main market in Malad at 2 p.m. The trucks come at around 2.30 – 3 p.m. depending on the traffic. We clean our shop and chat with the other vendors until then. Sometimes my dad treats me to pani-puri and buys me an ice-cream too. I have made a friend here. His name is Saurabh. He sells the tea that his father makes in the market. I love the tea that he brings. He too helps his father during the vacations.
My grandfather takes charge of the fruit shop after that. I unpack all the fruits from the cartons. My grandfather weighs the fruits for the customers and I pack them in bags and rearrange the fruits in the baskets. We get several orders over the phone too. So my father delivers the fruits to our customers’ houses.
We get a lot of customers after 5 p.m. so I am really busy for the next 5 hours. Sometimes, we don’t even get time to drink water. Almost all the customers haggle for a long time with my grandfather. He speaks softly and tells them that he is selling good quality fruits. They do buy fruits from us regularly but most of the time they are very rude and impatient. They want to buy good quality for cheap prices instantly! They argue with him for several minutes. Sometimes all the women gang up together and insist that he should reduce his prices to the market rate.
I get annoyed when I see them doing such things. They wear such fashionable clothes. They are all well-to-do people. But they will walk away in a huff after selecting the fruits if we refuse to sell it below our price. My grandfather pacifies me at such times. He says if we want to stay in business, we should never be rude to the customers. He is right. Because the very same women return within a week. They will even apologize to my grandfather and say how the fruits that they had bought elsewhere last week spoiled within a day’s time. My grandfather doesn’t say anything when they talk about other vendors. He just says, “You will always get quality in our shop!”
We do brisk business. I don’t know how much we earn each day. But I know that we are able to live in comfort in Gorakhpur only because my father and grandfather work hard all through the day here in Mumbai. Both of them say only one thing to me, “You can take care of any business if you are willing to work hard ethically without complaining.” They don’t allow me to talk to the customers or take care of the money. They say, “You just study first. You can earn all the money that you want to later on. Just know how a successful business should be run. That is more than enough for you now.”
I feel very tired by the time we reach home at 10 p.m. But I feel a little good too. The life here is very different. I don’t miss my school or my friends here. There is so much to do, see and learn here that I hardly get any time to think. We can never take a day off from our business. On Sundays, when the other brick and mortar shops are closed, we can sit and do our business. But on other days, we have to stand throughout the day.
I have only one wish. I would like to see Mumbai along with my Mumbai friend Saurabh. But I wonder if we will ever get a chance to do so. It’s okay if my wish remains just a wish. I am happy with my life even now.
“You said your school will re-open on the 1st of July, didn’t you? It is already the 10th today. Aren’t you going back to your school in Gorakhpur?”
“My grandfather and I are leaving for Gorakhpur on the 15th.”
“Won’t you miss out on your lessons?”
Saurabh just shrugs and says, “I’ll just have to manage. My father and grandfather decide the dates. I just do what they say!”