Does money talk?

AT the canteen of a well known high school in South Mumbai, where I had ordered a cup of coffee, I was soon surrounded by groups of boys and girls. Many of them carried cell phones and some flashed credit cards. A girl student treated her friends to ice cream and snacks and paid with two Rs. 500 notes which she carelessly handed over to the waiter. Later I came to know that the school charged tuition fees of over Rs. 2,000 a month.

Cell phones, credit cards, Rs. 500 notes in the hands of school students? Why not? In another school a popular science and maths teacher let the details of her birthday be known only to be flooded with gifts from her rich students. The gifts included a music system, costly pen sets and so on. This was some three years ago. Today, the gifts may include laptops.

The smell of money is all-pervading and the younger generation belonging to the affluent classes never had it so good. Imported air conditioned cars disgorge dozens of boys and girls outside theatres showing children's films. The balcony ticket rates are around Rs. 100 while the popcorn and milkshakes expenses are more than what many people earn every month. Families spend tens of thousands of rupees every year on crackers during Diwali and in Gujarat, kites worth several thousands are bought for the children.

When I travelled by suburban trains, I came across college students who exchanged notes on how much they spend on footwear. "Arre yaar, it was damn cheap, yaar. At Rs. 3,000 a pair. Just throwaway prices, unbelievable. Get them fast." I wondered what kind of parents could afford such high prices for the shoes of their children. I mean, how many families in India earned more than Rs. 3,000 a month? It was a question of easy money coming and going.

I am highly disturbed by such high spending. What will be the condition of middle or even upper middle class parents who have two or three children in school and college? How much can they afford for the entertainment of their children? How much pocket money should the children get? Friends' birthday parties is another major problem. Rich children spend thousands of rupees on buying gifts for their friends and expect the same treatment on their own birthdays. What if some of their friends are not able to spend huge sums on gifts? Today's birthday gifts lean more towards expensive status symbols rather than symbols of affection and friendship.

Returning to the issue of pocket money for children, how much can a middle class family afford on this account? Rs. 50, Rs. 100, or Rs. 200 per child? If the son or daughter in a middle class family has two or three affluent friends, these amounts will be peanuts. If they treat our children lavishly, our children are also expected to treat them occasionally. Some middle class parents bask in the glory of their children rubbing shoulders with kids from affluent families. Do they think such friendships elevate their "status" in society? One of our neighbours could not imagine her good fortune when her school-going daughter was dropped at home by the son and daughter of actor Rishi Kapoor and his wife, Neetu Singh. She walked on air for several days and told everyone about this great event.

When my daughters were growing up, these problems were not so acute. My older daughter made friends strictly from middle class families. The birthday parties she attended and which we organised for her, did not break our backs financially. We did not give her any pocket money during her school days and in college, it was around Rs. 50 a month. It was only on her 18th birthday, that we organised something big. Dinner and dance for her friends on our terrace. But it was not a lavish affair. The cost of living had gone up when daughter number two was growing up. Most of her friends were from affluent class and sometimes this created problems for us. She did not want pocket money, she just took what she wanted from home. But her affluent friends were understanding and did not expect my daughter to reciprocate by way of five-star birthday parties, visits to the disco and so on.

I often compared notes with my wife on these issues. She came from a typical middle class Gujarati family and when she was in school in Ahmedabad during the Fifties and Sixties, she received Rs. five as pocket money. "I did not know what to do with this," she confessed,. "My mother cooked the most wonderful meals and snacks at home and we were seldom tempted to buy and eat anything from outside." Yet, there were some delicacies which tasted better when bought from hawkers like salted raw mangoes, salted berries and peppermints. She had no birthday parties.

Life was different when I grew up. I don't think I ever handled money in my school days. Did I ever feel a Rs.10 note in my hands? I doubt it. Money was for the grown ups, it was serious business. On my birthdays, the priest performed an Ayush homam ceremony, the cook made pal payasam, I did namaskarams to the elders, some of whom presented me with one rupee coins, which I promptly handed over to my mother.

This was also the case with the Vishu kani, the money received as a gift on Tamil New Year's day. Our parents provided us with whatever they thought we needed. Of course, there were temptations. The kamarkat and other sweets sold outside the schools sorely tempted me. Occasionally, I managed to get kaal anna or arai anna from home which I could splurge on these. But it had to be done on the sly, as there were strict instructions not to eat anything from outside. In college, while travelling from Fort Cochin to Ernakulam, I was given emergency money of eight annas which remained unspent for several days. The first time I got "big money" was when I got back the Rs. 25 which I had deposited with the Chemistry department. When the "Caution Money" came back to me, I did not know what to do with it and returned it to my parents.

V. GANGADHAR

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