On cycles and chains...

"You have short fingers. You will hold on tight to money" concluded my dad after an inspection of my palms. This happened after my mother (in half amusement and three quarters anger) reported to dad that I had hit a cyclist on my bike and he asked me for Rs. 7, which I promptly gave him. She added, "upon further thought, your son concluded the cyclist was drunk, the fault was the drunkards and to repair the cycle would cost exactly Rs. 5. So, he caught that fellow and got himself refunded with Rs. 2". My dad nodded his head in disbelief (and I wish to think some amount of pride over my shrewd behaviour) and gazed into the distance...

Before you smirk upon my behavior as being indecent unworthy of a gentleman, let me justify it. You think, afterall the drunkard has been through pscyhological trauma. And you can always afford Rs. 2. Why should you be a cheap skate to chase him, threaten him and get the Rs. 2 back? But my logic worked on several levels: 1) Any extra money I give him, he is going to use up getting drunk. So I might as well pay him just as much as it would cost to get his transport repaired. 2) The fault was his and even the 5 was a goodwill gesture. 3) I hate drunkards and we should introduce DUI laws for desi drunkards on bicycles 4) That Rs. 2 was my dad's hard earned money... (I ought to now confess that point 2 was foremost on my mind -- so I am not primarily noble)...

(fast forward 11 years to Aisle A in Champaign Super Walmart)

(Preoccupied with thoughts of going jobless after doing a splendid job with the PhD, a desi grad student prowls the aisle considering money conservation as the primary objective during this shopping spree - ironically)

S had demanded mattar sabjee for dinner. Little did I know that this harmless request would lead me to rediscover a perspective in life that had remained hidden for more than a decade in the dark, dingy alleyways of my mind. So I look for frozen mattar in Aisle A and find that it comes in two packages -- one a family pack (of 32oz) and the other a normal pack (of 26oz) size. I suppose the families for which this particular package was meant are familites where grown ups eat most of the mattar and the kids are left to starve... That apart, the unit prices differed by 1c between these packages (made by the same company) and for 32oz, that is going to cost me 32c more for the same mattar from possibly the same set of plants. This was rediculous. Looks like I could save $5-$10 every shopping trip (thats 10% of every typical grocery trip - which is free profit for the companies without doing any extra work!)

I thought about all the good things in life I missed by abandoning money conservation the last 11 years. I started to understand Gujjus better. Now when my wife goes to shop and stares at the prices for a full ten minutes before she decides to buy a pack of mattar, I will not mock her. You see, a single person waging a war against these chain stores is indeed worthy of my admiration

(epilogue: I felt proud of my cunning, came back home and shared it with my dear friend in bangalore. My conversation with him cost me $20.60 in phone bills...)