It all started with Hand Sanitizers !!

Preeti mentioned that I had missed a few milestones while tracing my path through the many long and winding What’s App conversations.

And so, I write this short sequel to my earlier Blogpost.

Thanks Preeti!.

Once upon a time,

When the Yemlur Road in front of Sobha Palladian was jam packed with traffic all mornings and evenings,

When it took more than 10 minutes to make an ‘U’ turn in front of our exit gate,

When shopping malls were packed and PVR & INOX ran house-full on weekends,

When people chatted in groups / when ladies gossiped in tight circles and kids tumbled upon each other while playing,

When you could not find an empty table at Café Coffee Day,

When Covid19 was not yet a global life threatening Chinese bug,

And long before we joked that the Wuhan Virus won’t last long because it is ‘Made in China!!’    

And when people were debating whether to wear a mask or not,

Those good old days,

When you could go out freely and unhindered by a suffocating mask,

Those times when you could freely walk on the pavements and happily inhale lung-full of rich smoke and exhaust fumes and the heavily polluted air. (Incidentally, last evening I over-heard one bird twitter to another, “these humans are so crazy. Now when the air is so clean and pollution free, they go about wearing masks”!

 

And when the HAL helicopters chopped the air & rattled overhead throughout the day,

And screaming jets pierced your ear drums every now and then,

And the mighty Gajendra screamed while it inched up slowly over our block every weekend

And when the Indigo departure area was packed with tired, apprehensive and extremely impatient folks who rushed and tried to squeeze thru the narrow boarding gate four-at-a-time.

In that time,

One Officer and a Gentleman from SP had the wonderful intuition and foresight to predict difficult times.

And he immediately acted by consolidating the need for hand sanitizers and negotiated a great price for a bulk order.

   

And his initiative started what went on to become a steady barrage of long message chains of the future.

The hand sanitizer conversation chain was impressive.

It went on for 2 weeks and more.

Each enthusiastic resident announced his demand for the various size of bottles and quantities for each.

More than 60 such messages populated the SP What’s App group within a few minutes.

And unable to keep a tally the gentleman created a chain order sheet where people appended their names & requirement to the sheet.

And very soon we were flooded with dozens of sheets and conversations around them.

And some names got mysteriously drooped off causing more follow-ups and explanations and confirmations.

And a few folks wished to modify their order and so on.

And it went on and on until a series of final deadlines ended at last.

And when things appeared to have settled down, the bottle volume specs from the vendor changed and the barrage of messages restarted with renewed enthusiasm & vigor again.

And then the delivery got delayed – so we had daily updates on shipment tracking & when it would arrive.

And the suspense continued each day until the consignment finally arrived!

And that led to another barrage of messages for collection and payment.

I am sure we must have set a record for WhatsApp chain messages.

And once the SP residents got a hang of how to do ‘sourcing for crowd’ (reverse of crowd sourcing)

And they experienced the excitement and the adrenaline rush that such chain message provided,

They got addicted!!

And they took up  this ‘sourcing for crowd’ initiative with passion.

Frost came the Mango group and messages stared flowing here.

And then they added watermelons, musk melons and avocados and Jackfruit!!

Then Thai guavas and Alfonzo mangoes.

Then pastrys and sourdough bread and cheese

And organic fruits and vegetables chugged on simultaneously.

Then fresh farm grapes in 2 Kg and 3 Kg packs

And Daily Fresh and Big Basket followed.

And All this while long chains of complaints of missed delivery and wrong deliveries of milk and essentials  maintained its momentum each morning.

And one good Samaritan started Palladian Medicine DLRY group and that built up another lengthy chain with people updating their orders on Survey Monkey and then announcing their successful google pay transactions as well.

And to provide some great background music to these exciting events, our   Palladian Music Club group went on air with some brilliant on-line performances. 

And more entertainment followed with well edited dance performances and people brewing awesome drinks!

So these are exciting times in Covid times!

And just now (11.25 AM) I got a msg announcing that mangoes and guava vehicle has come!

Need I say more??

And I have switched off my WhatsApp notification.

So no more ‘tings’

And now the messages flood in quietly!!

  

Krish..