Hyper-local, small business in Rishikesh.

I spent the last 3 days wandering the neighborhood for a few hours a day. It’s a fascinating place. I had a chance to see the small business up close. I passed Laxmi guest house where there was some construction going on. I looked up to the top balcony and saw a middle aged Indian woman looking down toward the construction workers. She noticed me, I pressed my hands together in the traditional namaste greeting, and she returned the greeting. “Guesthouse?” I said. She nodded yes. I brought my peace fingers to my eyes and then pointed them toward the guesthouse as a way to ask if we could come in and look. She nodded yes and waved us upstairs. We viewed the construction with her from the top balcony. After introducing my self in Hindi, I asked if she was Laxmi. She nodded yes. The conversation continued in English. She was the owner of this guest where the construction was taking place. She showed us a guest room which was not anywhere near as nice as the one we were staying in. Then she opened the window and revealed an awesome view of Ganga (the Ganges river). The room was more expensive than the one we have but the view definitely influenced the price.

VIDEO – Click here to see the construction at Laxmi Guest House

On the same tiny street there dozens of other businesses. A few snack shops, a couple of tailors, a few welders, and a wood shop. Most of the shops were tiny, maybe 6 feet x 6 feet. Other were a bit larger, maybe the size of a very small garage. The wood shop was making doors. They had a table saw for the larger pieces and then used hand planes to bevel the door panels.

Video – Click here to see the wood shop in action

The welders were making bases for food carts. The food carts were everywhere selling street snacks. Tailors were sewing on antique sewing machines and seemed really busy. Other shops had carved out their own little specialty or trade. One shop that caught my attention seemed to be selling mobile phone and electronics stuff. We are still figuring out our electricity/wifi/phone stuff. In 2007 we purchased a voyage converter to turn 220 into 110. It has always been a pain, never quite working right. I struck up a conversation with the young man running the shop asking for a voltage converter. After asking e what exactly I wanted to do he sold me an Indian made 220 to USB converter for about $6. This is a huge help because our 3 phones, water purifier, and wifi hotspot all charge via USB. The young man seemed very knowledgable. I then inquired about a broken phone with a cracked screen that I have. SIDE NOTE: When I asked about getting this fixed in the U.S. the price was $100. He asked if the touch display still worked and I told him it did. He said I didn’t need the display replaced just the security glass. Price = between $1.50 and $3.00. DISCLOSURE – I brought my broken phone with me to India to see if I could get it fixed and at what cost.  I plan to get the phone fixed this week. I also plan to get an Indian SIM card for that phone which will allow me to have 1 GB of internet access every day as a backup for about 15 cents a day. I just did the math again.

Up and down these tiny streets there are also men pushing carts selling produce all day long. Sometimes a man selling chai. Sometimes a man on a bicycle selling bread. It’s a fascinating place. One of the most fascinating things I saw today was a cement crew. I’ll let the photo and the video speak for themselves.

VIDEO – Cement work operations in Rishikesh