Neetu and I have had a tough year – we shifted to a new house in Bangalore with our ten-month old baby. Neetu was still recovering from postpartum and I had started working in a new firm here. It was hard to stick to the healthy diet prescribed by Neetu’s obstetrician, but I tried my best. I would run errands on weekends to procure her medicines & vegetables and groceries for the house. There would still be times during the weekdays when our little kid required a certain food item, or we would run out of an ingredient or two. Neetu could barely manage to cook meals with the baby, so I took care of the house. Not being able to focus on work because of household chores had started to frustrate me.
One such day, I buried my head over my arms on my office desk. My colleague Sanjay came over and asked me what was wrong. We went to the pantry for a cup of coffee where I opened up about my problems with him. “Why don’t you try ordering groceries and vegetables online? A lot of us rely on these online services to get our essentials delivered. At least that burden can be off your shoulders,” he said. While I nodded, I worried whether these online ordering platforms are expensive. I said nothing.
Yet that night, while working on my laptop, I recalled Sanjay’s advice. I searched a few popular delivery portals, and I was right – they delivered items at a higher rate than usual. I discarded the idea and started working again. On Friday when I came home, I saw that the kitchen had already been stocked with vegetables and other essentials were lying on the kitchen floor. “Neetu, who brought this?” I asked, feeling surprised. “Did some online grocery shopping. And the vegetables I ordered online were fresh too. I hate to see you running around on your off day,” she said.
“But Neetu, what about the delivery charges? It must have cost us quite a bit,” I said out of concern. “Oh come on honey, I am not burning any hole in our pocket. Instead, I’ve not only saved your time and effort, but also some money with the various combo deals available on the LoveLocal app,” she said. “Don’t you think we should stick to our local shops only? At least we are aware of the quality of their products,” I said. “Dearest husband, this app fulfills our requirements by connecting us to local shops,” she said, with an air of swag. I was intrigued. Indeed, why hadn’t I found out about this app before? I began ordering essentials over this app from then on, and was happy to buy different things from different local shops without any hassle.
‘Now all I need to grab is your medicines and her baby food. I shall do that first thing tomorrow,’ I said, amazed at how much my workload had been reduced due to this app and my brilliant wife. But then, there was another beautiful surprise waiting for me. With a playful smirk on her face, Neetu pulled out the bag of her online medicine order. ‘They connect you with chemists too?’ I spurt out unbelievably. ‘LoveLocal is the answer to all your everyday shopping needs,’ Neetu smiled and pulled me forward for a hug.
My baby girl Ananya turned 1,last Thursday. Ideally, I would have been worried about how I would manage. But I didn’t need to, thanks to the online shopping app Lovelocal, discovered by my wife. Despite last minute orders, the items arrived well ahead of the party. And what fun it was! Like Sanjay, I too have begun advising men in my office to start ordering groceries online using this app. After all, you never know who would end up blessing you for your piece of advice.
