Buyin’ an’ sellin’.

2030  I have just turned seventy.

My daily help ameena walks in, “baayara, swalp saamantarodittu” this was a monthly event. She had to  buy her grocery and she was not net savvy. Her sons had no time to browse the net for the what she wanted.

In fact I stopped paying her a salary she has as a rupay on-line account instead.

The log in page,”ameena bi” that was her account name.

“dandeli1234” her code, we walked through the virtual store,fresh  vegetables she could not afford anymore. There were tinned fishes, frozen vegetables from India marketed through America, all the grocery she wanted. Her shopping bag full. We went to her rupay account and off she went to finish her chores. A  17 something kid with a red sweat-shirt and black trousers and an identification chip at the collar would deliver it sometime during the day.

It was almost as it were a full circle. The only difference, is that we had things fresh grown from either our backyard or friends backyard.

The online store at secretfarmer’s.org had this too. Vegetables grown from household waste in the balcony. But it was a very private store and one could log on only if one was a member and membership was on invitation and recommend only. Some stores had it for their privileged customers.

I remember 1970’s when Bhagi came up in the morning to milk the cows. We kept the required volume and she sold the rest. We didn’t pay her the profit was hers to keep. Then Marcina came with vegetables, lachichibai came in next door with fish we were vegetarians so no fishes here.

Then came the era of mum-dad grocery store. The odds of going to these stores for a loaf of bread and coming out with only a loaf of bread was three billion to one. Like Jarod Kintz says”a shopping cart flipped upside down forms a cage that use to protect myself from consumerism”was a necessary state of affairs. Then came the era of shopping malls where one found young girls  like the one who said”I don’t know when I am going to wear it,I only knew I had to have it. Once I tried it on…the dress claimed me.” In Isable Wolff’s a vintage affair. One walked into the cold blast from the sterile air conditioning on bare arms and legs, as we ambled down the shopping complex floor. The centre with bright lights and the most expensive brand on display with bright lights and digital sign bord like the Victoria’s secret one that lured one to purchase”confidence” maybe”sexual appeal” or whatever—fluorescent lights in each store contrasting with the shiny black tiled walls and eye-catching speckled marble tiles on the ground. One could lick the floor the tiles were spotless, clean like the clean like the fair air where  breathe in.

When my mother started living alone I would place her shopping orders online, so that she did not have to carry the stuff. Today we have no shops to shop. It is just walk through the store-bays online.  

Like I said, the circle is almost full. instead of sending lachi to the grocer’s with a shopping we give it to the grocers online avatar Lachi, instead of Baghi bringing vegetables, we shop on Baghici.com delivers our choice. Instead of rupees, we rupay.

My success as a blogger is I chronicle the memories from then to now.

written for Indiblogger ebay  future shopping experience. bit.ly/eBayCheck_Extention