Mandar Shrouti
A thousand emotions ran through 28-year-old Mandar Shrouti the night before he boarded a flight from Mumbai to Bengaluru last year. A dentist by training, Mandar was set to start a new job as a clinical researcher for a multinational corporation.
While the idea of working for a big company and living independently thrilled him, a small voice in the back of his mind kept nagging at him before leaving - how would his parents, who are both senior citizens, manage their finances after he moved out?
In order to prepare his parents for his absence, Mandar patiently trained them to use the payments feature on WhatsApp until they could send and receive money without his help.
“My parents are not digitally savvy, which meant introducing them to digital payments would have been a tough task. But I realized they were quite well-versed with using WhatsApp on their phones, giving me the perfect opportunity to teach them to use the payment feature on WhatsApp and send them money from anywhere in the country without worrying about them remembering their netbanking passwords or running the risk of keeping cash at home.”
The best part about it was the ease of use and the fact that any contacts they wanted to send money to were pre-saved on the app
WhatsApp has truly been a savior, Mandar says, recalling how it took him just a few days to train both his parents to use the payments feature. “My mother was thrilled when I transferred Rs 10 (less than a dollar) as a trial to her using WhatsApp - it was childlike excitement!” The best part about it was the ease of use and the fact that any contacts they wanted to send money to were pre-saved on the app, he says.
“In fact, they sent me money in January for my birthday through WhatsApp,” he says with a laugh. And like clockwork, Mandar uses the feature to send money to his parents every month.
Mandar says that enabling his parents to use payments on WhatsApp has helped immensely especially in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“My parents have stopped going grocery shopping...since they come under the high risk group and there have been some reported cases near our home. Last month, they used WhatsApp to send money to our neighbors who bought vegetables and milk for them.”
The benefits of no human contact and ease of use that comes with using payments on WhatsApp is keeping Mandar less worried about his parents’ well-being.
“Last month, my school’s alumni group started a petition to collect funds for people affected by the COVID-19 lockdown. My parents were among the first to donate, and sent Rs 5,000 (approximately US 66) using WhatsApp,” Mandar says, with an unmistakable air of pride.
