Billing for your hardware and paint shop in Assam
Cement from two sources, a flood-plinth job in parts and a shade found again, on one phone.
Dhubri's jute fields, Cachar's tea plains and Tinsukia's industry: who builds where
Hardware goes where Assam builds, farms and trades. A few districts, and what they are known for.
- Incredible India describes Tinsukia as Assam's industrial powerhouse for tea, oil, coal and commerce.
- Cachar is known for its tea plantations; paddy, vegetables, pulses and tea are grown on the plains along the Barak river.
- Under the British, Tezpur became an important centre of trade and commerce, used as a river port for the surrounding tea gardens.
Tools for a counter of cement, tin, pipe and paint in a river valley
Credit book (khata)
A page for the tea-garden family raising its house on stilts above the flood line, with each load of bamboo, cement and tin written on the day it left the yard.
GST bills
A GST bill for a school committee's repair, the paint on its own line apart from the tin, kept for the grant file.
UPI payments
A QR code on the counter for the boy sent after the storm with a family's money on its phone, not in his hand.
From the train cement's own line to the torn roof's repair on one bill
Train cement and local cement, each a line of its own
Cement from the south comes by train and is booked by the rake. At the end of the month the list shows how many bags of the train cement went and how many of the Guwahati cement, and the next rake is booked from what the builders chose, not from a guess.
Above this year's water line, a load at a time, and the page adds it up
The family lifting its plinth above the level of the water buys as the money allows, and each load goes on its page on the day it leaves the yard. When the plinth is up and the family asks what the lifting cost, you read the page and do not add it from slips, and the page is still there when the rains come back.
A boy from the far lane, and the sheets promised at ten
A boy comes from the far lane with a family's money in his hand for a torn roof. You bill his sheets as they are cut, and the stack in the yard becomes a number at once. Then a sheet you promised at ten is not sold to a stranger at eleven only because nobody saw the count.
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Two cements on one floor, a plinth raised after the water and the roofs after a Bordoichila evening
Two cements on one floor, and the contractor asks for the cheaper
Some of the cement in your godown came by train from a southern maker, and some is a local brand from Guwahati. They are stacked side by side, they cost you different amounts, and they sell at different rates. A contractor says give me the cheaper one, the helper hands over whichever bag is nearest, and the bill says cement. Later nobody can say how many bags of each were sold.
The plinth raised after the water, bought in pieces over weeks
A family whose house stood in the water this year decides to lift the plinth before the next rains. Cement comes on one day, sand and rods another, bricks and tin sheets for the roof a third, as the money allows. The mason's name is on none of it. When the family asks what the plinth has cost so far, you add it up from several slips in your own writing.
The roofs torn after a Bordoichila evening
The pre-monsoon storm of an April evening lifts tin sheets off the roofs of a whole lane. By morning every family wants sheets, nails and bolts, and the ones who live furthest send a boy. You sell until the stack is gone and write almost nothing, and the sheets you promised to a neighbour at ten are sold to a stranger at eleven.
What Assam hardware shops ask about two cements, plinth jobs and pump pipes
The train cement comes by the rake. How do I know how many bags of it I hold before the next rake?
Make the train cement an item of its own and add each rake's bags when they come in. The count shows the bags left, so you book the next rake before the shelf is empty, and the Guwahati cement keeps its own count beside it.
A family is raising its plinth in stages over several weeks. Can every load go under the family's name?
Yes. The family has one page, and the mason who works on the house takes his goods under it. His lines sit among the family's own, so there is no second page and the family sees every load in one place.
After the storm a family has no cash but needs the sheets today. Can the bill wait on their page?
Yes. Open a page in the family's name and bill the sheets by the foot with the nails and bolts beside them, each in its own line. The bill is sent to their WhatsApp, and when they pay you note it on the same page.
The cement that comes by train, and the paddy and jute of Dhubri
A November 2020 report said cement from southern makers reaches Assam by train at Rs 350 a bag, against Rs 420 for local Guwahati brands. A shop that stocks both has two stacks in the godown, and the count of bags in each says which stack the builders chose and which to refill first.
Dhubri depends mainly on agriculture and forest products; paddy is the main income and jute and mustard seed are the major cash crops. A hardware shop there sells to farming families whose money comes once the crops are sold.