Here’s a compilation of interviews from my first day filming the CONNECT Project. Camera shy, maybe a little mumbley at times, and certainly dry-mouthed. That’s not as disappointing as losing $21. It’s a long story, but Gary and CK are loses that still sting from years ago. Gentlemen, I shake my fist at you and challenge you to a re-match – double or nothing. First time on camera, and it’s still not comfortable. Before these interviews it was all microcassette and snapshots. This session really changed it all.
Mahender: the Man, the Myth
[One morning while walking home from my girlfriend's house, I spotted Mahender getting out of his car, heading to work. I thought to myself, "hey, my bodega man," as we waved to each other. That phrase spawned all this. My first website mybodegaman.com was exclusively about Bodega Men, and in turn spawned BodegaVision.com. From that and all this. Thanks Mahender!]
Mahender
2nd Avenue Grocery / 89 2nd Avenue between 5th and 6th Street / Interviewed September 2004 / By Gregory Rossi
After repeated tries over a week in which I wanted to interview Mahender, we finally were getting closer Monday June 28. After realizing he’d be too busy to interview in my apartment around the corner, or even downstairs in his store room, I realized the only way it would happen, was where it always happened – across the Bodega counter.
mbm: Um, my name is Greg.
MT: My name is Mahender [last name omitted].
mbm: Ok, I’m going to have to have you spell that later.
MT: Ok no problem.
mbm: So what I’m doing is I’m starting up, uh, a website.
MT: Okay.
mbm: Called “My Bodega Man dot com.”
MT: Okay.
mbm: Oh, I would like this (a Twix bar) and a small coffee please.
MT: How would you like that?
mbm: Milk, one sugar.
MT: One sugar, milk. (He always reverses the order like that.)
mbm: And you can just, obviously take care of folks as you need to.
MT: One fifteen together. Okay.
mbm: How old are you?
MT: Thirty-nine.
mbm: Where you from?
MT: India. New Delhi.
mbm: When did you move here?
MT: (to a woman customer )Two coffees?
Woman: One please.
MT: One this time.
mbm: Um, When did you move here?
MT: In the united States?
mbm: yeah.
MT: 84, 1984.
mbm: So what’s your schedule like in a week that you’re, you always seem to be here. You always seem to be very busy.
MT: That is so true. I start seven in the morning, seven-thirty in the morning until seven-thirty eight o’clock night time when I leave. And uh, it’s seven days a week.
mbm: And you have family here with you?
MT: Yep I have a wife and one daughter, 3 years old.
mbm: How did you meet your wife?
MT: How I met my wife?
mbm: Yeah.
MT: My wife was going to the FIT here. And I used to have a store on 37th Street between 7th and 8th avenue. And she used to come by there to buy garments, you know the (waving hands) fabric, you know the fabric market on 8th Avenue.
mbm: Uh, huh
MT: She used to come buy every week every second or third day and she used to stop by my store. And we chat, and we liked each other when we talked and it worked out. And that’s how we started. And that’s how it worked out, and that’s why I’m not single anymore.
mbm: And when you first moved to the states, why did you do so?
MT: My father was the one who was here before us. And he got the opportunity to be, a, a, permanent resident here and once he become a permanent resident all the family members get a permanent resident card with him. And I was one of them to get a green card, and uh, he just asked me to come along and give it a shot. See if you like it you can stay, otherwise you can go back to your country.
mbm: Was it a tough decision?
MT: It was very, very tough. Before I didn’t want to come at all, and uh, because I didn’t know how good it could be. And uh, finally he pushed me, he asked me, he told me so many things about it, he said, “The worse comes worse I’ll give you a return ticket.”
mbm: Hm.
MT: When I came I saw the circumstances, and the circumstances were pretty bad. He was not that wealthy and he did a lot for us, and I say that somehow someway it’s time for me to pay him back. And I came, and uh, start working, and then I saw that money was coming in, which back home I wasn’t doing anything. Going to college.
mbm: You were nineteen when you got here?
MT: I was twenty. Just turned, um, past twenty, and the law is that you have to be under twenty-one to be dependent on father to get a green card.
mbm: So you just had a small window.
MT: Just on the edge to get it. And that’s why he say, “the worse come to worse you can just go and stamp your passport. If you don’t like it you can always go back.” And that’s what I did, when I first came here and things turned out good. I like it, I like the people, I like the opportunity, and uh, life went up.
mbm: What do you like about the Bodega business?
MT: Nothing else I like about it, is just money coming in. Because people always need food and this is the business you rarely have seen not surviving. No?
mbm: Right.
MT: Any other business, you can always see too much up and down. You see you can become a top or a zero. This is the kind of business where you never become a zero and you never become a top. It’s always in between. It’s a very, in between, either a little bit higher or a little bit lower.
mbm: Hm. Did you consider anything else when you were younger?
MT: Yeah I always wanted to do some other things. I wanted to be in uh, in, the clothing business and some other business that I wanted to be, but I couldn’t because the day I started in this business this was the only experience I had, so I said, let me start with this. And plus, the first time I started in 1989 I become a successful shop and I continue with it, and so far I’ve done six…seven stores so far. And all of them has been successful.
mbm: Right. How is your experience been working in Bodegas? And your experience living in New York changed over the years since you first got here?
MT: As far as concerned with work, work is, uh, not that pleasant. It could be pleasant, it depends on which kind of area you are into. Because always you get, some people you, don’t like to deal with. Not that you don’t want to deal with them, but, um, it turns out that way sometime. And sometimes it get very difficult… And you get into arguments sometime, you get into fights, which you really don’t want to, but the majority of time you get people who are very very nice and gentle people. And you like to deal with them, and uh, this kind of business people don’t get pissed off because we don’t have anything which is very expensive. Always the items are which people can afford.
mbm: Yeah, yeah, yeah
MT: And the items which people wanted, routinely want you know. So that’s the reason it’s always turned out to be pleasant. Here and there you get into the people, the, the, the, the time when people will try to steal and uh, and you get into that “You charge too much,” kind of stuff which people compare sometimes with their own neighborhood stores, which they cannot. Because the rents are not the same one place or another and that’s why the prices changes. You know?
mbm: Right. So were you, when you first started were you good at dealing with this type of fighting or going head to head with people or is this something you got better at as…
MT: I, just learn everything with my experience in the past like how to handle certain people and uh, just, you take one person at a time and look at the situation, and sometimes you feel like this is not the time to get into, you just walk away, excuse them, you tell them ‘please excuse me, please be nice,’ try to leave. And there are times where we got into the worse situation and uh, we had to call the cops. There are plenty of situations where we had to do that.
mbm: Yeah, I can imagine. And what do you do if people try to make it personal, and you’re not a white man so people try to say something about that?
MT: Yeah, a lot of times people will say that, you, um, are illegal immigrant or something like that. And I told them I’m as good as citizen as you are, and I may be better citizen as you are because at least I’m a respectable man, I do my work, I feed my family honestly, and put my hours pay my taxes and people like you depend on my people, my kind of people to pay the taxes so you can survive on those taxes. I get into the situations where I feel like… Okay listen, they say, “You Arabic, you MF,” and…
mbm: You’re a terrorist, you probably get that.
MT: And I told them I’m not one of those, I’m not from that country. First of all I’m not a Muslim to begin with, which I don’t have anything against them either.
mbm: Are you Hindu?
MT: I’m Hindu from India, and I have nothing against Muslims either. But that’s, the kind of remark, sometimes you get burned out and you say some things you don’t want to say, and, um, that’s how you handle it.
mbm: Okay, what kind of coffee do you serve?
MT: 100% Colombian Coffee.
mbm: I like it, that’s one of the main reasons I come here.
MT: It’s a good roaster, a company in which they do their own roasting. They have their own roasting plant. That’s why it’s pretty fresh.
mbm: What’s the name of it?
MT: It’s called NBC.
mbm: MBC?
MT: N, N like Nancy, BC.
mbm: Okay, and…How many people do you have working for you?
MT: Five. Day and night, twenty four hours, seven days a week.
mbm: So I see you have a pretty good pornography collection.
MT: Yeah, not that much, but yes.
mbm: How did you start doing this? Are you a fan of pornography?
MT: No.
mbm: Or do you just do it because the customers need it?
MT: No. It’s all, all, the bottom line comes up to the money. You make money. People buy it. And that’s why you keep it.
mbm: Is it a good money maker?
MT: Uh, no it’s not a good money maker, but it’s an item, the customer comes up…the majority of people don’t grab one or two, they take three, four sometimes and it, it brings the volume.
mbm: Huh, okay. How about these penis lighters? Do you sell a lot of those?
MT: (laughing) Uh, here and there, these things sell yeah.
mbm: I wouldn’t notice them, but they’re always at my eye-level when I come in. (In a display cabinet by the register)
MT: (laughing) Right in front, that’s why. You have to expose certain things to get people’s attention so they’ll buy it.
mbm: (laughing). How about your muffins and baked goods, where do you get those from?
MT: Um, we get it from, uh, uh, Viola Bakery, V I O L A Bakery which is a very famous French bakery in Brooklyn. And they have their own line.
mbm: Okay, I have to say my girlfriend registered a complaint about the muffins.
MT: Oh really?
mbm: Yes.
MT: She didn’t like it?
mbm: She didn’t like it.
MT: Aah, there you go. You’re always going to hear complaints. Sometime it’s very hard to tell because, is not, not the thing you are baking yourself. You’re depending on the company and you do get… We always love the customers to come up to us and let us know what their complaints are so we can correct them.
mbm: There you go. I’ll tell her. Um. So my neighbor comes in here, and I don’t know if she still does, but she used to store a pack of cigarettes.
MT: Yeah she still does, Marlboro Light 100 yes.
mbm: She still does.
MT: Yes, the lady who walks the dog every morning.
mbm: Yes, how did that situation come about?
MT: One time she said she doesn’t want to carry a pack of cigarettes with her all the time because then she smokes a lot, and uh, wouldn’t come especially for a cigarette here if she has a pack here. She only would smoke if she’s around walking the dog, she walking by the store and uh, she’ll grab a cigarette. This way she wouldn’t smoke that much, that’s the reason we keep a pack of cigarette here.
(Man walks in.)
Man: Hi. (very deep voice) Can I get a large tea with milk, and a pack of Camel Lights.
MT: How many sugars?
Man: No sugar.
MT: No sugar, large tea, milk. Okay.
Man: (yawning, then to me) Whas up man?
mbm: How are you?
Man: Good (nodding)
mbm: I’m interviewing our Bodega man here. Do you have any questions for him?
Man: (complete silence)
mbm: No? Okay.
MT: Alright, right up here. And Camel Lights?
Man: Yeah can I get a Post?
MT: Ok. All together that will be 2.50 and 6.50, that’s 9.00 even.
Man: There you go.
MT: Thank you. You have a great day.
(The Tape runs out, but I don’t notice because we’re not talking when it does. I ask Mohanda about politics and his views and how that comes into play in his bodega. He begins by saying it is something people like to talk about. And they want to know how he feels but he thinks it’s better for the sake of the business not to take sides. I ask him how he avoids telling his opinion.)
MT: You really don’t want to say much.
mbm: You just kind of listen when someone is talking.
MT: Yeah, yeah, you just play it cool.
mbm: Have you ever been held up?
MT: Not held up me personally, but yes the store has been held up.
mbm: Yeah. This store?
MT:: Yep. Twice in the night.
mbm: Ahhh. And you have had other stores that have been held up?
MT: No, never. Never, this is only the place that’s been twice in the night shift because 24 hours sometime in the night time it gets really quiet and in the kind of situation you get people out looking for trouble.
mbm: Were they successful hold ups?
MT: Yep.
mbm: Do you tell your guys, to just, uh, give them what they want?
MT: Yes, let them go, let them go. Just give them whatever they ask you to do. Just do it. Don’t try to play smart with them.
mbm: Right.
MT: Life is more important than anything else.
mbm: And so you think that you see yourself doing this bodega business as long as you can?
MT: Actually I don’t think so for a very long time. Because uh, because family suffers. And you can’t pay…you can’t play unfair with your family. That’s the reason eventually I might get out, and especially now with the taxes that they have with the cigarettes business has really gone down…eventually I think I’ll do something else.
mbm: So I’m putting the website together this summer and asking friends and writers I know to contribute pieces about their bodega man.
MT: Okay.
mbm: And for the design of the site I was wondering if I could use pictures of your store for when people are visiting the site.
MT: No problem.
mbm: And the big kicker is if I could use a picture of you to put up?
MT: Uh, I’m a bald headed guy I don’t think that will be kind of attractive picture to put up. But I don’t mind, I guess.
mbm: Okay, I think that’s it for now.
MT: Okay, thank you. And talk to you’re girlfriend about the muffin. Next time she bring it back and I don’t mind at all, because we can always get our refund once we show to them this was the bad product.
mbm: Gotcha.
MT: Okay let her know. She can come by anytime she wants to.
mbm: Thank you.
BodegaVision 2.0 is here!
A quick place-holder post in what will be a quick rebuilding process. Be in touch at connect at bodegavision dot com if you have anything you want to talk about.