Learning financial management

Kirti Dua

In middle-class families, an important trait gathered over a period of time is to manage yourself reasonably well in the limited resources. I remember during my childhood my mother used to take out our new crockery set, or the new bed sheets only on the arrival of some important guests in the family. The general life cycle of the tooth brush in our families would start with cleaning the teeth, then for dying the hair, followed by cleaning the crevices of an instrument and finally when all its bristles are lost then as a “nala-pani” to put a string in the “pajamas”. These innovating management techniques are not taught in any of the textbooks across the globe.

The stay in the hostel is again another platform to learn important lessons of financial management. In the early eighties, the monthly allowance was about Rs 500 which was barely sufficient to meet the major expenses like mess, canteen and stationary bills. In this monthly allowance there was hardly any provision and scope for taking care of any hobby. One of my friends was very fond of chewing gum. Those days chewing gum was available as a three-inch long thin strip. Normally he consumed three-four gums in a day but as the month progressed this number would decrease and towards the fag end of the month, small pieces of one gum were made.  One fine morning he was very upset because he could not find his used gum kept in a small paper from the previous night to be continued on the following day — a typical example of extending chewing gum beyond the extendable limits.

There are students in every hostel who smoke. At the beginning of the month, they would puff expensive cigarettes and feel eternal joy at slowly rising and expanding smoke rings in the air. As the month progressed, they would shift to inexpensive bidis, followed by leftover cigarette butts. The last two-three days of the month were their testing time when all their resources would exhaust. With an eagle's eye they would approach a sweeper with a request to borrow a match box. A positive response would indicate that the sweeper smokes and would also have bidis. A very humble request for a bidi would then be made and if granted, that made their day. What an innovative idea!

At that time one could get a bottle of beer for seven rupees and empty bottles were sold for one rupee each. Generally, all the empty beer bottles were kept in the balcony of the hostel room.  During financially difficult times, getting a bottle of beer in lieu of seven empty bottles filled them with a feeling of great accomplishment. Today they still crave for those bottles of beer…filled not only with beer but also lots of comradeship and happiness.