One day she dropped a bombshell, the message in my inbox was short- “Sending 100K, spend it if you can!”. It was an electrifying message. I reply her mails, within 2 to 3 minutes, but I thought she was up to some funny prank and was still making up my mind, as to 'What to reply".
Lo and behold! After 30 minutes, In came another mail, to my Inbox, exhorting me “Have any plan? Raking your brown matter? Hibernating? “
On the 33rd minute, the megaton explosive arrived- “Moola transferred to your account, lazy man go out & spend it”.
To tease & bait me she had added - java is the password, (read as alter failed word).
By the way “Java” is our conversation code (entry code that I have to use before I am allowed to enter her apartment, more like ‘Open Sesame :) ”), which ensured that I had a steaming cup of “caufee” to enjoy.
My grey cells started to race to come up with a plan, at least to end this charade !. I was wondering why the hell she chose me to play this Tom and Jerry game. To make sure that I was not being taken for a ride, I checked the calendar – it was not 1st of April.
At this juncture, my cell phone started beeping and I instinctively knew that it was the daughter-in-law communicating by SMS -when needing quick response she always used this technique. Yup she knows how to get a reply !
Fearing cluster bombing, I responded “Finalized, do you have a hk(hand kerchief), wipe your tears, he he”. She responded “Buy 1 hk 4 me, courier it b4 u buy hee hee”
We i.e. my wife, daughter and I assembled in our dining hall to discuss this serious issue of spending 100k.They were surprised to know that I, a shoe-string budget-er, was ready to go on a shopping spree. Hush! I had not yet told them about the “moola” (This started off as a discussion for a fictional spend).
My wife magnanimously proposed a IdeaPod costing about 50K for my exclusive use (to avoid interference with her live webcasts). Sensing the danger I vetoed it as a wasteful expenditure.
My daughter wanted to furnish our new flat with modern furniture with a guesstimate of 70k and a blackberry (or) gooseberry smart phone for her use. The size of different kinds of furniture, she had in mind is too big for the flat as well did not fit in my plan (no more mobile phones), for spending the money usefully. The wife & I voted out the proposal.
Being tight fisted, I was not willing to spend the money and at the same time wanted to put it to good use. I enthusiastically declared that it will be a good idea to buy gold ornaments for 100k.
Now it was the turn of the mother and daughter duo to draw blood. In unison they declared that enough ornaments were already with them and there was no need to invest in gold.
This statement made one man unhappy and another very happy. Are you wondering about the identity of the unhappy and happy men?
I am the unhappy man, on two counts, because such vital stock-holding had been kept a secret as the other day the duo ganged up to urge me into buying so called fashion jewellery for the daughter! The happy man, of course, would be none other than the Finance Minister of this country, battling CAD crisis due to oil & Gold imports.
The family conference slowly denigrated in to verbal nuances, slicing of words and hot tempers. The net result – the conference collapsed and the participants walked out with out finding ways and means of spending 100k.
The conference reconvened after lunch break. Probably, the hearty & tasty meal (Madame is an excellent cook - please don’t tell her that I told so) softened our belligerence
A single point agenda was taken up and unanimously passed – “let us send back the money with out spending it”
Fearing a barrage of “cluster mails” from my daughter-in-law, I left this task to my wife and daughter. May God give them the strength to read, reply and pacify the challenger.
Nice way to plan & spend money, the family actually backed out from the challenge..
ReplyDeletewonderful money tree.
when I read it today, Gold import curb and oil at $111.
the article reflects the times too!