Date: 06/09/2026
All Rights Reserved by the Author
There is always one person in a family who knows exactly how shopping should be done.
Unfortunately, that person is rarely the one doing the shopping.
“Don’t buy that brand.”
“Why?”
“It isn’t good.”
“How do you know?”
“I saw a review.”
Then comes another instruction.
“Compare the prices.”
I compare them.
“Not like that.”
Apparently, there is a correct scientific method for buying tomatoes too.
By the time I reached the billing counter, I had received three more messages.
One said, “Don’t forget the eggs.”
The next said, “We already have eggs.”
And the final message said,
“Buy them anyway.”
I came home feeling like a man who had completed an important national assignment.
The bags were inspected.
Everything was checked.
Then came the question:
“Did you buy coriander?”
I had not.
There was silence.
I decided not to explain that I had successfully purchased seventeen other things.
Some achievements, apparently, are invisible.
Especially when you forget the coriander.
Rajat Chandra Sarmah
Guwahati, Assam, India
Email: rajatchandrasarmah@gmail.com
