India, Dec. 6 -- Despite the sunny noon, the tiny grocery is submerged in semi-darkness. Musty and cold, it is the only grocery in Katra Bala Mal.

The quiet Old Delhi neighbourhood, close to Chawri Bazar, is a hotchpotch of beautiful but derelict doorways and cobwebby windows. Every building here appears to have been standing on its assigned space for hundreds of years. Same is the impression exuded by this grocery.

The grocery in fact used to be a telephone booth-"STD," says the seated gent in blue sweater. The elderly Jai Shankar gazes out from behind the shop counter, discoursing in a slow melodious tone of voice on life's unexpected patterns. "My grandfather was a clerk in the post office, my father was a pandit at Hanuman Mandir in...