"...kaaki, ek kilo bateka, ek atta Maggie ane paa kilo chana no lot..."

"...kaaki, ek kilo bateka, ek atta Maggie ane paa kilo chana no lot..."

...I announced, as kaaki (aunty) looked up. The quoted text (Gujarati) translates to "...aunty, one kg potato, one pack of noodles and 250 grams of gram flour. ."

There is this old school grocery shop near my home. It is run by an elderly couple (probably in their 70s). It is a small shop with some basic stuff. Ask for something like Rajma (kidney beans) or Redbull or a shaving foam and you'd see a smile and a nod indicating they do not stock such items. The shop was mainly closed during the pandemic owing to the risk the elderly couple faced.

After things came back to normalcy, on one such visit, I realised I had forgotten my wallet. I asked, "Aunty, do you accept Paytm?" Paytm is to digital payments what Xerox is to photo copying. "No son, we do not understand these modern things. But it's okay, you pay me later" she said, sweetly. I left that day with the goods and paid for them later.

Some time last month, I visited the shop again for some groceries. Before I could place my order, I heard an extremely familiar voice say "Paytm par chau-sath rupaye praapt hue" ["Rs. 64 received on Paytm"]. I was pleasantly surprised to see the much needed transformation to digital payments. I looked at uncle and aunty both and before my smile could break into words, Uncle gave a wide grin that conveyed more than mere words could. Since that day, I stopped carrying my wallet for the grocery runs.

If a 70+ year old couple can adopt change [and this change for their age must be a huge leap of faith] then who are we to give excuses?