A packing day in the room above our Chandpol shop

From the first week of October, the room above our shop on Chandpol Bazar becomes a packing floor. The tables go end to end, the fans run all day, and on a good day six of us pack around 300 gift boxes. Here is how a box goes from empty to ribboned.

The morning starts with stock. Cartons arrive from the stockist the evening before and are checked against the invoice before anything is opened. Each kind of cracker is stacked on its own shelf, away from the window and any light, and we keep sand buckets at both ends of the room. Nobody is allowed a match, a lighter or a phone charger on that floor.

Then comes the line. Rekha folds the boxes and lines them with tissue. Kavita places the items in a fixed order for each design, sparklers at the top so they are lit first. Sunita counts each box against a printed list taped to the table, because a missing flower pot is the complaint we hear most and the one we most want to avoid.

Cards are written separately by Meena, our youngest sister, at a table by the stairs with good light. Each card is clipped to its order slip, then slipped under the ribbon of the right box. Office orders are packed in name order so the delivery boy can hand them out without opening a carton. By 7 pm the day’s boxes are stacked by delivery route: walled city, Malviya Nagar and Mansarovar, Vaishali Nagar, and transport office.