When the supermarkets started dotting the city landscapes, there was a huge hue and cry about how they are out to wreck the mom-and-pop stores and as well as the friendly neighborhood kirana stores। And though I knew these supermarkets offered convenience and product range that the friendly neighborhood grocer could hardly match, I still didn’t want these kirana stores to disappear.

There’s no denying that they knew their customers personally। Our family grocer would recite a couple of things you would need for cooking every time my mom gave him the list of groceries every month end. And more often than not, she would spot 2-3 things that she might have otherwise missed out on. If you got out of the cab and didn’t have change, you could confidently march to his shop and he would be glad to give it to you. And they would know and inquire about the whole family. The old dad of one of the neighborhood grocers would always ask my mom “Baby SSC ho gayi kya?” even after I graduated from the Engineering college. :-)

But lately, I have been losing patience with these shops। Take last evening for instance. I was out of the cereal and so thought I will buy some on my way back home. I got into the neighborhood grocer and asked for Kellog’s Oat cereal. This guy has a shop-in-shop arrangement with Monginis and so he was busy taking order on phone. There are only 2 helpers in the shop and neither of them can read or write. I told one of them what I wanted. He returned with wheat flakes. Seeing the pleading look on my face, the shopowner, who by now had finished with his phone order, asked him to get the blue one. He then got busy with another customer who wanted to decorate a birthday cake.

The shop boy in the meantime showed me the Fruity Loops or whatever it’s called। I gave the shopkeeper another helpless look. He asked the boy to get the whole box so he would be able to pick out the right cereal. It was getting hot in the small shop and there were 2-4 more people standing cheek-by-jowl with me.

Five more minutes passed before the boy returned carrying 5-6 small packs of cereal in his arms – like Hanuman bringing up Dronagiri। The shopkeeper looked through them but they all were corn-oat flakes. He asked me if I could wait for a little while but my patience was wearing thin so I excused myself and walked out.

I went to the next shop and repeated my request to the old man who was standing at the counter। He shouted out to another guy who climbed on top of the rice sacks to get the box out of the top shelf – it was of wheat flakes. When I told him I wanted Oat cereal, he reprimanded the old man for not hearing it right. He then climbed up again to hand me Oat cereal but of another brand. I was so exasperated by then that I just walked out. I know, it’s rude but I had been sorely tried for 20 minutes.

I have only myself to blame because I had violated the cardinal rule – never go to the kirana store for anything but the basic items. I am going to the supermarket today evening!