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The following text is adapted from Rupa Bajwa's 2004 novel The Sari Shop. Ramchand works as an assistant in a shop in Amritsar, India.
Even at ten in the morning, the bazaar was throbbing with activity. The halwai [baker] was already installed in front of the Mishthaan Sweet Shop, pressing jalebi batter into squiggly shapes that floated and simmered in the oil in a big iron cauldron. All the shops had opened for the day and, Ramchand noted guiltily, all the shop assistants were already in place, trying to sell things with fixed, attentive smiles on their shiny, bathed faces.
Even at ten in the morning, the bazaar was throbbing with activity. The halwai [baker] was already installed in front of the Mishthaan Sweet Shop, pressing jalebi batter into squiggly shapes that floated and simmered in the oil in a big iron cauldron. All the shops had opened for the day and, Ramchand noted guiltily, all the shop assistants were already in place, trying to sell things with fixed, attentive smiles on their shiny, bathed faces.