You need a lot of luck and chutzpah to navigate the new India if you are not a young consumer. Try buying shoes or clothes for older people. Or for ones with an ailment. It took me thousands of rupees worth of experiments with perfectly useless shoes and chappals from very good shops before I discovered Dr Scholl’s footwear. It works beautifully with my rheumatoid arthritis. All Bata shops stock the brand, in case you are looking. But it is a state secret, so only if someone tells you about the brand, will you hear the name.

Welcome to the fringes of consumerism. Everything in popular perception, dominated by media and advertising, centres around the youth, defined as 15-35 year olds. There is within corporate India an obsession with this market, which goes beyond the demographics that show that young people make up half the population, roughly. It doesn’t matter what is being sold. It doesn’t matter that those below 25 years of age probably have the worst purchasing power and those over 40 have the best. The other half doesn’t matter.