Billing for your hardware and paint shop in Lakshadweep
Cement in bags, coir rope by the weight and one page for every house being built.
Coir rope and the hardware counter
Coir is one of the main works of the islands, and coir rope is a thing a hardware counter sells by weight.
- The Industries Department names coir production, coconut-based industries and handicrafts as the key sectors of Lakshadweep.
Cement that came by ship, a block maker's account and a house built in stages
Cement is heavy, comes by ship and spoils in the damp
A bag of cement is a heavy thing to carry across the sea, and a bag that has stood in a damp godown is a bag you cannot sell. You count the bags by looking at the stack, which hides the ones at the back. When a builder asks for forty bags, you say you have them, and find thirty-two when you start to load.
Rope for the boat, cut to length and weighed
Boat owners and net menders come for rope, coir and nylon, in thick and thin. A length is cut from the coil, weighed or measured, and the price is argued on the spot. The coil on the shelf is never the length it was yesterday, and the end of a coil is pushed under another one and forgotten.
The block maker who buys your cement and sells blocks to others
Some men make blocks for walls on the island, and they buy cement and sand from you to do it. They are shopkeepers in their own right, with their own customers, and they ask to take cement now and pay when the blocks are sold. You trust them, and nothing but trust says how much cement is out there.
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The bag counted, the house on a page and the post-monsoon paint rush
Bags counted down as each builder's order is loaded
Make cement an item sold by the bag. When the ship's cargo is carried in, note the bags against it. Before the next ship, the count says how many bags the next builder can be told he has, so he knows whether to hire his boat now or wait for the ship.
Galvanised and plain nails kept as two items, so the sea air never gets the wrong one
Nails for a boat shed or a roof by the sea are galvanised, and the plain ones suit a dry box. Make them two items with their own rates and counts. The bill names the one the builder took, and the day's report shows how many of each went, so the next ship's order is for the right kind.
The weeks after the rain, when every wall wants paint
After the rough months, walls that the damp and the salt have marked get a new coat. Make paint an item by the litre for each colour, and see through the daily report how many litres of each went in the last repainting weeks. The next order for the ship is for the colours that sold, and the colours that stood are not ordered again.
Tools for a hardware counter that restocks only by ship
Godown stock
The bags in the godown near the jetty and the bags on the shop floor, counted apart, so moving twenty bags from one to the other is a single entry.
Sell to other businesses
The block maker who buys cement from you applies to buy on credit, and you decide whether he gets it, so what is out with him is a list and not a feeling.
Daily reports
Litres of each colour of paint and metres of each rope sold each day in the busy weeks, so the next order for the ship is for what sold.
Orders to suppliers
Cement, coir rope and paint ordered from the mainland, each line ticked off as the ship's cargo is opened at the godown door.
What island hardware and paint shops ask
A block maker takes cement on credit and pays when his blocks sell. Can I keep that separate from my ordinary customers?
Yes. A business that applies to buy from you on credit gets its own page. Each lot of cement goes on it with its date, and his payments go on it too, so what is out with him is a list.
A builder wants roofing nails, some plain and some galvanised, for the island. How do I show which is which?
Galvanised nails last in the salt air and plain nails rust through, so the builder pays more for the galvanised kind. Put the kind in the name and give each its own rate by the kilo, so the bill shows the gap and he sees what the extra buys.
Two builders ask for the last forty bags on the same day. Who gets them?
Read the count and bill the builder who is at the counter. Write the other builder's name and the bags he wants on his page, so when the ship lands you know whose the first bags are.
Cement, coral blocks and building on an island
The Lakshadweep Building Development Board buys construction materials from the Indian mainland, and cement availability depends on expensive transport from the mainland, Sanctuary Cub reported in 2024. A bag of cement in a hardware shop is therefore a bag that someone paid dearly to bring across the sea.
About 67.36 per cent of houses in Lakshadweep have walls made of porous bricks produced from a mix of coral rocks, sand and cement. Cement is the one part of that mix that comes from outside, which is why a hardware shop's count of bags matters so much to the builders.