Life As Is

Pre-COVID days visiting grocery shops would take up most of my week days. Browsing through rows and rows of items meant checking and comparing the price, quality and variety of stuffs before making an informed decision what to buy. It was more than need. It was availability and novelty of things.

COVID changed all that. Overnight we became online shoppers. For Indians, I think, it was a drastic manoeuvre because shopping in India is more of a social activity than just buying necessities.

Even after the historical pandemic online shopping continues because it seems to be less time consuming and one job less in the day’s routine. Earlier in days of physical shopping, the weekend was ideal. Now, any day grocery can be replenished because everything is available at the click of the mouse or tap on the mobile.

Life has, though, become easy the personal touch is gone.

Much before departmental stores took over the local bazaars, the shop in the corner of the gully used to be the hub of gossip mongers, news readers and makers, opinion builders and loud debaters. In a departmental store the shoppers are bedazzled by the offers and engrossed in filling their baskets. Far removed from interacting they are more into hording.

When it comes to favourites, as Indians, we are habituated to cook twice or thrice and even four times a day. So our grocery list is dominated by the staples – rice, wheat, pulses, lentils, spices and herbs.

We have specialities for every season. Winters are for maize and corn flour and leaves of all kinds, specially, mustard leaves. Mustard leaves cooked with lots of love, garnished with ginger paste and flavourfull ghee with corn flour rotis are a winter delicacy.

Again, we don’t prefer to buy vegetables from stores. It is usually from open market where vegetable sellers throng. Store bought veggies are generally from cold storage, are not fresh and don’t last long. We also have vegetable sellers coming to our doorstep with cart full of fresh vegetables which they bring straight from the Mandi or the wholesellers.

My vegetable seller has gone to his village for a month. So nowadays I have to go to the market to buy veggies which is again a more personalized service oriented customer dealing based on your rapport with the individual seller.

The last time I went Parsuram greeted me with a namaskar. 🙏. I asked him whether he accepted online payment to which he retorted, “Who is asking for money auntie? You take your choice of vegetables.”

I know it is his business to sell vegetables for money. He knows that I will not take anything from him without paying. But with the opening lines of the conversation the tone is set for an informal sale-purchase transaction.

This is India where every day to day activity has a layer of camaraderie attached to it.

I asked why the bun tikki seller was not seen in the usual corner near the big gate of the Society. He sold lovely crispy buns with well fried potato chop or tikki as big as the bun sandwiched inbetween with sauces and salads. Almost like a burger. But it was not MacD type. It was locally made, less expensive and whole lot tastier. It had the flavour of his nimble fingers.

To my dismay he had shifted base because of the Metro construction. His cart was not visible behind the DMRC (Delhi Metro Rail Corporation)’s hoardings which adversely impacted his sale.

The fruit seller is a whimsical fellow. Loud and lewd. I caught his mischief once when he sold me sour mangoes swearing they were as sweet as sugar candies. I shared the incident with all the other sellers who had a good laugh and the bugger learnt his lesson not to be oversmart with me.

This is India. Like tamarind sauce. Tangy and sweet at the same time. Sometimes with layer of bitter taste too. Yet hugely entertaining like a potboiler. Enjoyable. Humorous. Even sensational.

Welcome on board….