In the last four months or so, grocery shopping has become one of my favourite domestic activities.
It’s simple; mom and I decide on a time, and over the weekend we just go to the nearest D-Mart (there are E, G and Z Marts, if you’re the adventurous kind) and start filling our trolleys. Every month, we spend more than a couple of hours doing this.
This is therapy.
A full trolly, on observation, says a lot about the family that’s shopping.
Are you buying more processed goods or are you more interested in raw materials that’ll (hopefully) be put to good culinary use?
Is your basket Maggi-heavy, or are you the experimental type, buying Ching’s, and other noodles? Trust me, most other stuff is shit.
If you’re buying too many vegetables, you are most probably living in a well-oriented family, it seems.
We spend a good hour in the mart, talk, and fill our baskets.
The whole thing feels Zen.
***
When I was 14, I wasn’t allowed to touch the delights that the great FMCGs presented my juvenile mind with. Cadbury Dairy Milk was out of the question, and we had to stick with Parle G. Yep, think about living in a world without Oreos! We did it in the ’90s.
Growing up in a lower middle class household, Cornetto ice cream, BIG BOTTLES OF COKE, and even tomato ketchup were absolutely out of bounds (barring occasions like Diwali and New Year’s Eve).
I remember growing up without knowing what Bournvita tasted like.
After I went to college and started making a basic living, something happened.
Everything became accessible.
***
This is a victory to be celebrated. I am still not at the top the socio-economic hierarchy (thank you Jordan Peterson), and I might not ever be. But I don’t give a fuck.
Today, my mom (and these days I drag my dad in too) never has to bother with the grocery shopping list being too long. We pick up chocolates, we pick up exotic looking coffee, sometimes and we pick up Bournvita (talk about childhood issues!).
But there is a deeper and a good truth to this.
If you aren’t having trouble grocery shopping, you have enough.
That alone should be the reason to pump your fist in the air.
I think that’s the point that’s lost on so many. People should be going “FUCK YEA!” all the time, while filling up their trolleys with three ketchup variants.
It’s enough, it really is.
I am expected to do better in society (whatever the fuck that means) and eventually become more and more prosperous, but in my head, the battle has already been won.
We don’t check price tags on food anymore.
If you’re not checking them either, chill the fuck out!
You’re doing good.
Share what you get with others who need it more than you, like a person begging on the street.