Billing for your fruit and vegetable shop in Assam
Xaak by the bundle, gourds by the kilo and the rate that moved overnight, all on one bill.
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Tools for a mat or a counter of xaak, gourds and banana flower
Bills on your phone
A bill that carries two bundles of lai, a banana flower and a kilo of pumpkin at their own units, made on a mat with no counter.
Daily reports
The weeks after the water went down, opened day by day, to see which vegetable came back to the shelf first.
Orders to suppliers
The next morning's order sent to the trader from the phone, after reading what the mat sold today.
When the river rises, the vegetable rate rises first
A flood week: the greens are short and the rate on the board is old
In a flood week the lorries are late and the greens that do arrive are short and dear. A rate you wrote on the board at seven is wrong by ten. The customer who stood at your mat a day ago remembers the older rate and says you are cheating, and you cannot show her which bill was made at which rate.
Lai xaak, kolmou, thor and kolphool: the same trader, four ways to count
A trader brings leaf greens by the bundle, stem and flower vegetables by the piece, pumpkin and gourds by the kilo. Each seller ties a bundle a little differently, so what you call one bundle is not what the next stall calls one. In the notebook everything is a line called vegetables, and at night you cannot say which of them the day really sold.
Why the carrot is dear, said to a shopper with others waiting
A shopper holds up a carrot and asks why it costs so much. You know the answer: the fuel, the toll gates and the traders it passed through. But two other shoppers are waiting, and you have nothing written to show her what that load cost you.
From the shower on the haat sheet to the trader's load and the last bundle of lai xaak
The shower that pulls the sheet in, with every sale already billed
When a shower comes on the haat day, the tarpaulin goes up in a minute and customers are still holding their bags. A bill made on the phone as each one takes the vegetables is finished before the sheet is tied, the notebook stays dry in the bag, and nobody has to remember what was sold in the rain.
A bundle of xaak that means the same thing every day
Make lai xaak, kolmou and the others items of their own, each with a rate for one bundle, and banana flower and stem with a rate for a piece. Your helper bills the same bundle you do. At night the list says how many bundles of each went, and tomorrow's order follows it.
The late, short, dear load kept beside the board rate
In a week when the lorry comes late and short, the trader's rate is high. Note what arrived and the rate you paid when it unloads, and keep that beside the rate on your board. In the evening you see how far your board sits from what you paid, and what stayed unsold at that board.
Cachar's plains and Barpeta's jute fields: who grows what in Assam
Vegetables, rice and jute grow across Assam, and the shops that sell them see the districts differently.
- Cachar is known for its tea plantations; paddy, vegetables, pulses and tea are grown on the plains along the Barak river.
- The Assam government names Barpeta, with Nagaon, Goalpara and Darrang, as the main jute-producing districts of Assam.
- Dhubri depends mainly on agriculture and forest products; paddy is the main income and jute and mustard seed are the major cash crops.
Farmer groups whose haat stalls and online shop came to one phone
What Assam vegetable sellers ask about flood-week rates and xaak bundles
When rain sends the tarpaulin up on the Sunday sheet, which bundles go under it?
Put the sturdy bundles under the sheet, the roots and the gourds that take a splash. Keep the leafy greens in the shop, where the rain does not wilt them, for the other days.
Kolmou left over at the end of the haat day goes soft by the next market. How much do I order next time?
Count the bundles left at night. Kolmou that waits for the next haat is soft, so order fewer by the bundles that stayed, and carry only what you can sell in the day.
My neighbour's bundles are bigger than mine. How do I pay her fairly?
At night read how many of her bundles went, and pay her for those bundles at the rate you agreed for her size. Her count stays apart from yours, so a big bundle of hers is never paid as one of yours.
The July 2024 floods, and the price of a carrot in Guwahati
In the July 2024 monsoon, two waves of floods damaged perishable stock in Assam, causing vegetable shortages and abnormal price rises in Guwahati markets. A vegetable shop is the first place a flood is felt in a household's day, because greens cannot be stored for the week.
Rising fuel prices, toll gate taxes and middlemen pushed up vegetable costs in Assam in July 2024, and Shillong carrots sold at Rs 150 per kg. The shop's own rate is the last link in that chain, so a record of what each load cost helps explain a rate to a customer.