Billing and udhaar for every shop in Jammu and Kashmir
From the shawl counter to the walnut sack, the bill and the udhaar sit on your phone.
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Apples of Baramulla, walnuts of Kupwara and Basohli pashmina: the districts of Jammu and Kashmir
Every district of Jammu and Kashmir trades in its own way. These are some of them, and what they are known for.
- Baramulla is the largest producer of horticulture products in J&K, with vast apple orchards.
- Most people in Kupwara depend on agriculture and horticulture, and walnuts are a major product and business of the district.
- Agriculture is central to Anantnag district's economy: in 2019-20, 64.56% of the reporting area was under agriculture.
- Budgam district has 74 government handicraft training centres teaching about 1,840 people a year, and an artisan credit scheme gives loans of Rs 2 lakh.
- Basohli paintings and Basohli pashmina are Kathua district's One District One Product, chosen for popularity and export potential.
- In Kalakote tehsil of Rajouri district, the main livelihood is agriculture and allied work, and coal is the main resource, exported outside.
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Where a Kashmir counter loses count: the summer strangers, the snow weeks and the sack paid after harvest
The summer weeks when strangers fill the lane
When visitors from other states come, the shawl and handicraft shops are full from morning. A man picks up three painted boxes and a stole, wants the total at once and is gone before you have found a pen. He is not coming back, so he never gets a page in your notebook, and the sale is a number on a slip that you add up at night.
Winter, when the snow decides who comes
After a heavy fall nobody comes for days, and then everyone arrives on the same morning for rice, oil, sugar and flour. You weigh it all on a hanging scale and call out totals while the line grows. The godown behind the shop holds the winter stock, and the line moves at the speed of one hand and one scale.
The orchard family that pays after the harvest
Families who grow apples or walnuts take ration, cloth and medicines all year and settle when the crop is sold. Their account runs over many months, in many hands and on many slips. When they finally come to settle, nobody is sure of the whole list, and it is hard to ask for the full amount.
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What helps a Jammu and Kashmir shop through the snow, the Eid week and the apple season
Bills on your phone
A bill that names each thing in the visitor's bag, a papier-mâché box, a packet of saffron, a kilo of walnuts, each at its own rate.
Godown stock
Rice, oil, sugar and flour in the godown counted apart from the shelf, so a snow week is planned from the godown.
Credit book (khata)
A page for the apple grower who takes sprays and crates in spring and settles once his boxes leave for the mandi.
Low stock warnings
The shop sees what is running out before the Eid week, when flour, oil and dry fruits go quickest.
UPI payments
A QR on the stall pole for the houseboat guest who spent his last notes on the shikara ride.
From the visitor's quick bill to the khata page that waits for the apple money
The dry-fruit rate that changes with the crop
Walnut and almond rates move when the new crop comes in. On the first morning the new nuts are on the shelf, the boy at the counter must quote this season's price, not last season's to a buyer who has just asked next door.
Kangris, blankets and charcoal, counted as the cold comes
When the cold sets in, kangris, blankets and charcoal start to sell together. Each is its own item, so one look at the phone shows which of them is running low while the wholesaler in town still has it to give.
What the shop owes its wholesaler through the snow months
The shop pays its own wholesaler every month, even when the snow keeps customers away. Keep the wholesaler's page, with what you took and what you paid, and in the snow months you see how many months you must carry before the apple money arrives, and how much to ask the wholesaler to wait.
What shop owners in Jammu and Kashmir ask before they start
A seller on a shikara sells flowers and saffron on the lake. Can he make bills from the boat?
Yes. It runs on his phone. He makes the bill on the water and sends it to the guest's WhatsApp before the boat turns back to the ghat.
How much dry fruit should I hold when the new crop is about to come?
Read each dry fruit's count against what visitors took in summer. The fast seller, nearly gone, is the one to hold more of. The one that sat, buy less.
A visitor took goods on credit in July and has gone home. What do I have on him?
His page, with what he took and the day. His bills went to his WhatsApp, so a chat is open. The app does not ask him for you; you write to him yourself.
In the tulip weeks I sell more than in a whole month of winter. Can I see the difference in my own numbers?
Yes. Open the tulip weeks in the daily report and a month of winter beside them, and the gap between them is a figure, not a guess. You see by how much the tulip weeks beat a whole winter month.
Where Jammu and Kashmir buys: the Jammu mandi, the craft lanes and Lal Chowk
Jammu city's Narwal fruit and vegetable mandi was upgraded between 2021 and 2023 with improved sheds, a Mandi Plaza building and a 100-tonne weighbridge. A shop that takes its fruit and vegetables from there knows the load by weight before it reaches the shelf.
Srinagar's traditional crafts include Pashmina shawls, hand-knotted carpets, walnut wood carving, papier-mache, sozni embroidery, Kani shawls and copperware. Each one has its own maker and its own price for the buyer, and a shop that sells several of them keeps many rates at once.
Lal Chowk is Srinagar's central commercial area for textiles, handicrafts and souvenirs; Polo View Market is known for handicrafts and carpets. A visitor often passes through both in one day, buying small things in each, and expects a clear bill in return.