Story is from early 1990s.
I went to a day camp near my house which was supposed to end at 8. My parents would come and pick me up at 8 is what was arranged.
For some reason they dismissed us at 6 and we had 2 hours to kill so i decided to go home by myself and come back at 8 with parents to see the finale. So I took an auto and went home. I ranged the bell and demanded 2.5 rupees for the auto fare. My dad was furious cause i misspent the money on auto while he would have picked me up at 8 anyway.
In those days one did not reason with the parents so i took in the heat and remained quiet for the rest of the evening thinking 2.5 rupees is such a small sum and dad is angry for no reason. His logic was that it might not be that big a sum now but it did have a great value when he was little and hence i should not be wasting that much on an unnecessary auto ride.
Fast-forward to 2011, after staying abroad a decade ans some i was back home and was visiting one of those newly opened "posh" malls. Usually i carry my drinking water with me but today i forgot and ahmedabad in april is not far from a kiln. After spending an hour browsing through books, i decided to buy a water bottle to my bemusement cashier demanded 30 rupees. I asked the guy if he was serious cause the bottle i chose was rather small (500 ml) he replied "uncle ajkal itna to hota hi he". He hurt my feelings at multiple levels there. Uncle? me? and ajkal itna hota hi he? means what " i have not updated my price cycle version? Anyways I thought 30 rupees for a bottle of water is exorbitant. May be I still live in 90s when i left India and price cycle 1.0 is what i have where world has moved on to 7.5.
But i realized one thing, I have become dad now, his 2.5 is my 30.
I went to a day camp near my house which was supposed to end at 8. My parents would come and pick me up at 8 is what was arranged.
For some reason they dismissed us at 6 and we had 2 hours to kill so i decided to go home by myself and come back at 8 with parents to see the finale. So I took an auto and went home. I ranged the bell and demanded 2.5 rupees for the auto fare. My dad was furious cause i misspent the money on auto while he would have picked me up at 8 anyway.
In those days one did not reason with the parents so i took in the heat and remained quiet for the rest of the evening thinking 2.5 rupees is such a small sum and dad is angry for no reason. His logic was that it might not be that big a sum now but it did have a great value when he was little and hence i should not be wasting that much on an unnecessary auto ride.
Fast-forward to 2011, after staying abroad a decade ans some i was back home and was visiting one of those newly opened "posh" malls. Usually i carry my drinking water with me but today i forgot and ahmedabad in april is not far from a kiln. After spending an hour browsing through books, i decided to buy a water bottle to my bemusement cashier demanded 30 rupees. I asked the guy if he was serious cause the bottle i chose was rather small (500 ml) he replied "uncle ajkal itna to hota hi he". He hurt my feelings at multiple levels there. Uncle? me? and ajkal itna hota hi he? means what " i have not updated my price cycle version? Anyways I thought 30 rupees for a bottle of water is exorbitant. May be I still live in 90s when i left India and price cycle 1.0 is what i have where world has moved on to 7.5.
But i realized one thing, I have become dad now, his 2.5 is my 30.
No comments:
Post a Comment