The evolution

When I was a kid, I had to go often to near by "pala-sarakku kadai", literarily meaning "multi-material shop". This had the provisionary items, veggies, candies, etc. Massive wooden desk would block you from entering into the shop. All you can do is, stand in the street outside the shop (sometimes along with crowded customers) and try to grab the attention of anyone of the four person serving from inside. Once you get the attention, u shd quickly list out the items you want. The guy would vanish into the dark side of the shop. None of the ordered items will be visible to us. After awhile, he will come out carrying paper bundles. If you had exceeded certain limit in purchase, u will get brown colored free gunny bag to put the bundles. The itemized bill will be a hand scribbled list in a piece of paper. (btw, they do buy old notebooks from you, may be for the billing purpose).

Then things changed. Gunny bags were old fashioned. Paper bundles were barbaric. The in-thing is plastic wrappers and covers. Goods were pre-packed and kept in the showcase. Now the shop is called "Stores". We were allowed inside the shop. The massive desk in the previous shops were bent into a big U-shaped desks and ran in parallel to the show cases. Service folks stood in between the desk and the show case. U could point the items you want and they placed those in the desk. Finally billed with a teleprinter, goods were placed inside a shining, attractive plastic bag with their store name written big.

Today I go to shopping malls and super bazaars. I can reach the goods all by myself. Even if I move without a trolley, someone pushes one into my hand. Now I am able to compare prizes, quality and other factors before buying stuff. After collecting the things, I meet the shopping personal at the billing counter (mostly 'she', as I have option to choose the counter). Thou the things are placed inside plastic bags, they make you feel guilty to do so. Seems like it is no more cool, but cruelty against nature. You are supposed to bring your own bag or buy a bag from them - it is our good old gunny bag, this time it is white.