The Prince and the Pauper

Back in IIT, my friends used to call me "The Prince of Chennai", mocking my pampered nature. My standard of living "rough" is very different from that of my friends; I've never done any hard physical work to speak of; I can count on the fingers of my hands the number of times I've used the city bus service; and I've always had two servants and a cook at home to do any mundane work.

I've also never had to worry about money. Don't take me wrong, I'm not from a rich family, and my Dad is pretty tightfisted when it comes to spending. But we're reasonably well off and I rarely have the occasion to spend money anyway, being content with my strange mix of home and hostel life and going out only once a week on an average. So on the occasions that I do go out, I don't mind going to restaurants where we spend two hundred rupees or more per person; on the occasions that I do buy something for myself, such as clothes, my tastes are such that some people may construe as expensive.

I also don't believe in worrying about sums of money smaller than 10 rupees, unless I feel I am doing something ethically wrong. This has resulted in some funny situations in the past. For example, I would be travelling with my friends by auto-rickshaw, and one of my pals would argue with the driver for five minutes just to bring down the price by five rupees. We would reach the destination, and then the chap would plead that it was slightly farther than we'd led him to believe, and that we ought to give him that extra five rupees. My friend would say firmly that a deal is a deal, but I would say "Sure," and hand him the extra five rupees.

My friends would then have long arguments on what would be the best way to torture and kill me, though I would just say that the five rupees was well spent; after all, we made one guy in the world happier. There is nothing wrong in it as he's earning his living, rather than begging or stealing. In fact, we could have saved five minutes of our valuable time and a lot of effort by not wrangling for that small sum in the first place.

One day I had a serious conversation with one of my friends from Raipur on the subject of money, and tried to understand why five rupees is so important when I spend a thousand rupees on a pair of jeans and two hundred rupees on dinner when I go out. He explained that he was used to spending not more than one hundred and fifty for a dinner for four, and perhaps two hundred for a pair of jeans. He thought Chennai city is attrociously expensive, and every rupee saved is valuable. Of course, there is also the matter that he is from a middle class family; I would classify myself as upper middle class I guess.

I guess money has never really been an issue for me. My wants are few; so when I do want something, I buy it regardless of price, as to me it would be worth it.

And then, of course, I left India and came to the US.

What a huge difference! Money earned in rupees is not meant to be spent in dollars. The conversions make my head giddy. I have long since stopped converting. I now measure distance in miles, weight in pounds, and money in dollars. But I know that I am being unfair to my parents if I continue to spend their hard earned money the same way that I used to back home, because the scale is now much higher. It is tantamount to waste, which is something I detest.

So I eat at fast food joints instead of restaurants, if I am forced to eat out. I look at prices when I shop, which is not something I normally do, and choose things that give me the best value for my money. I spend only on necessities and not on anything for my pleasure.

And, of course, I am no longer a Prince whose every need is taken care of. I now take care of myself. If you knew me from when I was young you would know truly what a huge step that is for me.

I feel like a Pauper in more than one sense of the word. Money. Care. Affection. The friends and family I love are not here. That one fact alone makes me feel poorer than everything else put together.

Consider this excerpt from the serial Friends a desperate attempt to lift my mood:

Ross: Well... I just never really thought of money as an issue..

Rachel: That's because you have it.

Cheers,
Prashanth.