No matter what the analysts tell you, brick and mortar stores are here to stay. At least for as long as Jeff Bezos needs to cook. The wealthiest man in the world who introduced the world to online shopping carts is often found walking the aisles of a grocery store in the suburbs of Seattle, pushing that metal wire cart loaded with all that he needs to indulge his passion for cooking. “I’m not a good cook but I like to cook. I just like to walk the aisles of a grocery store without a plan and then put together a meal,” said Bezos, on his first trip to Mumbai on Wednesday.But Bezos’s love for the physical store isn’t limited to his own pleasures. The founder of the world’s largest online retail giant has been courting neighbourhood mom-and-pop stores in the country as delivery agents or to sell products through them as part of their strategy. “In fact, I just visited a tiny kirana store today which was an incredible experience. They do regular business but they also provide a space for online packages. I met this young man who helps his parents run the store and how its improved their lives to have this extra source of income was a moving experience,” said Bezos while fielding questions from actor Shah Rukh Khan and filmmaker Zoya Akhtar at a gathering of members from the Indian film industry.For Bezos, who has been to India three times since he made his first trip 11 years ago, “there haven’t been perceptible changes of great magnitude,” he says. But it is for those reasons that he finds the country endearing. “Certain things are the same and I love those things. Every time I come here I see so much energy, dynamism and colour… everywhere you go and everything that you do, I’ve never seen more diversity in the world. Also, everybody here seems to be focused on self improvement. I get a boost of energy. I’m like wow, it’s so alive here.”The centi-billionaire worth $115.5bn did not perfect his winning formula right at the outset, though. “I wanted to be an archaeologist and that was pre-Indiana Jones. Then I went to college wanting to be a physicist but realised half way through I wanted to pursue computer science which became my greatest passion and that’s how I ended up doing what I do,” he recounted.Clearly, time isn’t something that Bezos has on his hands, one would imagine but the man who at 56, is perhaps more occupied than most people are in the prime of their lives, dismisses the thought. “There’s this false idea that CEOS are under the most stress. No, but why? I’m a CEO and when you’re in charge you can delegate your stress. It’s not hard work that people dislike, it’s being out of control and I hate being over scheduled,” is how he put it.If it’s his grandparents that Bezos considers his greatest influence, it is an unlikely item in his wardrobe that he credits as his “lucky” charm. “A pair of flashy Texan cowboy boots with red stars that you’ll see me wearing every time we send a rocket into the sky,” said Bezos, the space-obsessed cofounder of an aerospace company who revealed that the alien official in the last Star Trek film was “indeed me”.