Being honest

I got my first lesson in honesty from my father. As a child, I was horrified to see him throw a box of sweets from our first-floor rented accommodation onto the street below. My father was an engineer and, in that capacity, he was required to award contracts. Much later, I came to know that on that fateful day, a contractor, who had applied for a contract, had come with a box of sweets unannounced. My father had asked him to leave along with the box of sweets. He had left, leaving the box behind.

To be honest, I have never had to face such a situation in my own career. Gifts, though, have come on festive occasions. When I was serving as a Collector in Visakhapatnam district of Andhra Pradesh, it was customary for the residents, from all walks of life, to call on me on New Year’s day and present a variety of gifts, commonly lemons and fruits. At the end of the day, they were collected and sent to an orphanage.

The closest I came to the situation faced by my father was when I was working in the Union Textiles Ministry. A person landed up at my residence unannounced and offered a box of mangoes to my wife. I was in the office then. As per my instructions, my wife refused to take it. Despite much persuasion, she did not budge. The man was disgusted and left. My wife, from our first-floor house, saw him throw the box in his car, get in, and being driven away. In the evening, she recounted the incident and told me the person’s name. I realised that he was the scion of a textile magnate, but he had come to the wrong place. It was a case of mistaken identity.

My father taught us the value of thrift. My siblings and I were given a monthly pocket allowance of ₹2 in the 1950s, but we were not permitted to fritter it away. We were asked to save it and use it to acquire assets. I bought my first wristwatch after saving my pocket money for several months.

Another thing that my father taught us was the importance of keeping account of household expenditure. He had a unique way of doing it. The salary, which used to be given in cash those days, was distributed across various pouches made of cloth and labelled, such as house-rent, milk, and school fees. This helped avoid getting the impression at the beginning of the month of having great riches.

I did not follow this “pouch” method, but used other devices to control expenditure. Only a fixed amount was withdrawn from the bank at the beginning of the month. The expenditure had to be maintained within that. After every outing to the market, the change in coins we received was deposited in a talcum powder tin, in which a hole was created at the top by removing the sprinkler. During the last few days of the month, we went around making purchases carrying that powder tin. In addition, an account of daily expenditure was also kept and totalled up at the end of the month. Thrift and keeping account of expenditure have been the stepping stones to honesty.

I must admit to a weakness for books. I have regularly visited bookshops and picked up publications at will. I have also sometimes subscribed to book clubs, which send a book every month. My habit of reading and writing has yielded good dividends. Income from royalties and sundry academic assignments have helped me acquire assets. I got my first refrigerator at the age of 27, in the early 1970s. Its cost was almost four times my monthly salary then. The first investment in landed property was also made around the same time. The first AC, however, came only at the age of 55.

Fortunately, I have a spouse who literally hates to spend. She is the epitome of thrift and frugal to the core. She is also skilled at bargaining. We are fond of eating basmati rice. There were times when we could not afford the whole grain. She bought broken basmati rice to satisfy our palate. The cauliflower vegetable has a healthy mix of its stem. She has made vegetables out of the peel of bottle gourd and the shells of green peas. I need to say no more. She has played a great role in my being able to stick to the straight and narrow path. We have always been happy living within our means. Have successfully avoided looking at others’ plates. This has kept the temptation at bay.

It is said that honesty pays, definitely in the long run. Having discharged our family responsibilities in good time, in our sunset years now, we are able to live a comfortable life with our pension.

vkagnihotri25@gmail.com