When you are an IT analyst with one of India’s leading tech giants, one can only expect some genius solutions from you at work and also at home.
That’s what IT analyst Era Golwalkar did when she asked her husband, Gaurav Golwalkar, to shop for some veggies. But being the analyst that she is Era wanted to make sure that the veggies were just the way she wanted.
“I am a big time foodie and am very particular about food (taste, smell, hygiene, etc). When I see good healthy vegetables, it lifts my mood! My husband jokes that I know roads in the city by the restaurant on the road rather than the actual name of the road, ” she told theindusparent in an exclusive.
Another reason why she’s so particular of the veggies she buys is the fact that she hails from Indore, which means that being a foodie is not a matter of choice for her, it’s in her blood.
Era Gowalkar with husband Gaurav Gowalkar
“Since I love food, I have learned the characteristics of veggies over years of shopping naturally. Analytical skills honed from my IT job helps me articulate concisely what I want. I love drawing/painting and do that a lot as a hobby. So given that, giving pictorial lists came naturally to me. I think many wives would be doing that for their husbands who have no clue about veggie shopping. I’ve seen some people ridicule the list, but men are truly from Mars and women from Venus. The illustrative list is one small communication bridge between the two planets to bring them closer,” she adds.
So that’s when how she came up with the genius of a list that went viral the moment her entrepreneur husband posted it on social media.
How it all started…
Era says that while she is a foodie her husband is quite the opposite.
“There always used to be something that was wrong with the fruits/vegetables he bought which made me unhappy. I figured that it was not intentional on his part, but he just didn’t get it – he takes it as a job to be done and without definite objective parameters it was difficult for him to decide between a good vegetable and a bad one,” says Era.
Naturally, like any man, Gaurav would goof up and there were too many mistakes that used to happen.
“I guess that’s how some men are wired. To give an example, he bought 2 bundles of mint thinking that it is some kind of vegetable like bathua. For him his target was achieved but for me cooking mint leaves vegetable was impossible. He even confused 1 dhaniya bundle assuming it to mean 1 kg of dhania – by Gods grace the vendor was alert/kind enough to correct him. There are many such seemingly hilarious incidents that happened,” shares Era.
Era’s illustrative shopping list that went viral
That’s how they thought of shopping online and coming up with illustrative lists that would make the job easy for the both of them
“So to avoid such incidents, a year or so ago, we tried online retailers hoping their quality standards would be better but that didn’t work out either. So that’s when we started with illustrative lists on weekends about 4-6 months back. In our home, one weekend it’s my turn to go vegetable/fruit shopping and the next weekend it’s his. When I go shopping, he also suggests things he wants but normally it’s limited to wafers, Maggie noodles or Bread,” shares Era.
Using illustrative lists to make life easy…
Era Golwalkar hails from Indore and currently lives in Pune, India with her husband.
Married for three years now, Era and Gaurav have been using illustrative vegetable/fruit lists for over 4-6 months now every time Gaurav goes shopping.
“As far as this list goes, it actually was a routine weekend when like always I gave him the illustrative list as I was busy creating a painting for my friend. Since it was a relatively free weekend for Gaurav he just decided to post the list online on LinkedIn. He was targeting online retailers with the hope that they see the list and improve their products. The original post on LinkedIn didn’t receive much attention but we didn’t bother much as we hadn’t hoped for much either,” she shares.
But suddenly last Saturday their friends from the US told that her list was being shared over and over again on social media.
“Soon our relatives told us the same thing, that’s when we figured out that it had gone viral. Since then, our phone hasn’t stopped ringing. I never expected that our mundane shopping lists that I had been creating for months now could go viral! Am truly humbled by the virality and the attention. I would definitely like to thank those FB group admins who were kind enough to give me credit for my list,” she adds.
The rest, as they say, is history!
[Images courtesy: Era Golwalkar]
This article is republished with permission from theIndusparent.