My grandfather told me years ago, “Money doesn’t grow on trees. It is earned through hard work.” He was irked when I lost a towel in the village pond while taking bath. He asked me to go back and retrieve the towel. I enlisted the help of my cousins and somehow fished out the towel from the water. Grandfather kept his money in a stainless steel box in the puja room, since money was revered as Goddess Lakshmi.
During my childhood, my mother once asked me to buy soap from a neighbourhood shop. I went to the shop and returned with soap and a candy, because the shopkeeper claimed he did not have change. In lieu of change, he had given me a candy. My mother was unhappy with me getting a candy and my father said that she should not have sent me to the shop. Father implied that if he himself had gone to the shop, the shopkeeper would have given the change. Those days, people in middle-class families were very careful because there was not enough money to last till the month-end.
Today every other seller of goods and services is inviting me to park money in their e-wallets. The taxi aggregators urged me to deposit my money in their e-wallets. It looked convenient. Often the fare came to Rs 223, Rs 197, etc., and cab drivers invariably claimed that they did not have change. Some even said ‘Thank you’ and pocketed the balance. Hence the e-wallets of the aggregators came handy.
But there is a problem here too. The cab aggregator allows me to deposit Rs 599, Rs 999, etc., and if a taxi ride costs me Rs 178 the balance stays with the aggregator (in the e-wallet) till I book another taxi. Unfortunately, I am not a frequent taxi user. Some of my money is also parked in a few e-commerce sites from where I buy items which are unavailable in the local kirana store. I receive frequent reminders from the websites saying that my balance is low. They coax me to recharge and get a 1 per cent discount on future purchases. I have deposited a full year’s money in advance with my DTH service provider when he enticed me with a paltry discount. Even if I go out of the country for a few months, I end up paying for that period too.
All the e-wallets are password protected and no family member will know how much money I have in various e-wallets. My grandfather would certainly turn in his grave if he knew that I was in the habit of strewing some of my hard-earned money in e-wallets.
P Subramanian
Email: mailpsubramanian@gmail.com