My shop-ping experience!

As I walked in the medical store to take the interview of one of my favourite and the oldest uncles, it struck me that I never spoke to him apart from our regular chitchat over the counter while buying something. I realized how much he had changed since the time I was a kid, at which he reminded me that even I changed!

Speaking to him about the prices of commodities going up and down he said, “From years I have been handling the store and to a very large extend, there has been a particular pattern which works throughout the year. There has been some amount of changes in it given the changes in generations but on the whole it has remained the same.” On this I asked him that how changes in this pattern affects the commoner. He replied saying, “It invariably affects the commoner because he is the one who has made this change in the first place. Not directly but indirectly. His demand for certain things at certain point of time is the reason why we see a certain pattern. It’s all a circle. You demand, we get it, you take it. The change or a pattern is formed. But we are just the middlemen”.

I asked him more about this pattern he was talking about. He said, “Throughout the year there is a demand of typical medicines like Crocin, Paracetamol or the regular Pudin Hara. The demand of medicines which come by prescription are ongoing only. During Navratri and December, there is a rise in demand of Condoms & Contraceptive pills. If there is a sudden change in the season, there is a rise of medicines for fever. During winters, all-time rise for cough syrups and cold-related medicines and also lot’s of cold-creams. During the transition from summer to monsoons, there is a lot of demand for stomach infections. During summers, all sunblock creams. Through the year, we keep on seeing changes but there that particular trend which keeps on rotating.”

As I listened with rapt attention, I was amazed to know so much can happen in a simple medical store! But then life is a bag full of surprises!