My Dad vs Google Pay: A Tragicomedy in Three Transactions

By: The Unofficial Family Tech Support

It all began one fine Sunday when my father announced, with great pride, “I have finally joined the digital revolution!”

Which, in my family, means he downloaded Google Pay.

Five minutes later, he was shouting from the other room, “Beta! It’s asking for my UPI PIN. What is that?”
“Your bank PIN,” I replied.
“But why should Google know that? Are they spying?”
“Just enter it, Papa.”
“I’ll enter it later. First tell me what will happen if I die midway?”

By this point, my mother had joined in — not to help, but to provide emotional commentary. “You see, this is how people get hacked. I told you not to trust that Internet.”

Finally, after 20 minutes of collective panic and 3 calls to the bank helpline, my father made his first-ever online payment — ₹25 to the milkman.
The milkman, who was clearly more tech-savvy than us, simply nodded and said, “It’s still pending, sir.”

That’s when the fun began. My father stared at the screen like it was the Rosetta Stone.
“It says ‘processing.’ What does that mean?”
“It means… it’s processing.”
“I don’t like that answer. I’ll call the bank again.”

Two hours later, he received the notification: ‘Payment Successful’.
He celebrated like India won the World Cup. “I did it! Without anyone’s help!”
Meanwhile, my phone buzzed: ‘You received ₹25 from Dad’.

Apparently, he had sent it to me by mistake.

Now he uses Google Pay for everything — paying bills, donating to temples, and occasionally sending me ₹1 “just to check.” Every time it works, he beams like Edison discovering electricity.

Last week, he even bragged to his friends:

“Technology is simple! My son only had to teach me six times!”

And that, dear reader, is the story of how my father conquered fintech — and my patience.