My shop survived three floods and I never once put up the “closing down” sign

Our lane floods almost every monsoon. Three times in eleven years, the water came up past my knees inside my own shop and ruined stock I couldn’t afford to lose. Each time, people expected me to give up. A few competitors did, over the years, and I understand why — it’s exhausting to rebuild the same shelves again and again.

I kept a simple rule: however bad the flood, the shop reopens within a week. Not because I had extra savings — I usually didn’t — but because my regular customers needed somewhere to buy their morning milk and matches and soap, and I didn’t want them to have to find somewhere else. Eleven years, three floods, and the shutter has gone up again every single time. That’s the whole achievement. Just showing up, again and again, when it would have been easier not to.