When I think back about my life, it feels like many stories put together. I am sure all of your lives seem similar to what my life feels to me. I am just in a mood to share a few with you now. It seems like a good time now to share. Because I have seen whatever needs to be seen, experienced all events from birth to death of close ones. Poverty. Hunger. Hardwork. Greed. Lust. Anger. Arrogance. Jealousy. Delusion. All of it. And most importantly I have come to understand that one thing in life, after which one knows everything about everything. “The One thing, knowing which everything else becomes known” courtesy : ‘Mundaka Upanishad’. While I let you figure out what that One thing is, let’s have some fun in me sharing some of my past events with you.

You may ask, how is my story relevant to this New Gift i.e. Neo’s story. Well isn’t it?

I remember when I was in the 2nd grade (early 1990s), my father was employed as a Marketing Manager in a well established Industrial products & services company in Chennai, Tamilnadu. I came to hear from him much later (around 2015s) that he was traveling from Chennai to a different city on a work related trip, he was lured into a bigger post with better pay for a bigger company. He may have jumped the gun and made some mistakes like quitting his present job without having an offer letter from the new company. Obviously, Greed + Delusion took control of my father during that decision. What followed next was a brutal fall from middle class to lower middle class lifestyle.

My father was well qualified. A mechanical engineer in those days and was a brilliant Engineering Drawing teacher as well. He made a conscious shift from Teaching to Marketing. He was very good in what he did. He was very organized. In fact his organization skills were quite awe inspiring. But when it came to finances, he was not that good. He did not have much to rely back on his family or his own savings. He saw two ways to weather through this rough patch between Jobs. This was the early1990s. Globalization had not yet kicked in back then. MNCs were not yet on the doors rolling out opportunities. So he thought loaning money by pawning gold or selling off furniture/ appliances were good ways to provide for the house during that rough patch.

To begin with, the rented apartment we were living back then was a good one and we had almost all appliances and furniture back in those days itself. Then came the sell off/ pawn off.

One day we see some stranger visiting our house, taking stock of the sofa sets, dining table, double cot, refrigerator. Everything else was fine. But I loved the refrigerator for 2 reasons. The Ice Cubes and Cold Water. I was so elated when it came in. In Chennai there is high humidity and as children we remember being thirsty a lot. So that refrigerator was indeed a good relief from the merciless sweating. And that would go away now. That stranger made a deal for X amount of money and went away. But a few days later when he came back to buy those things, he further bargained the amount from X to Y. He quoted that his days were not so good either and that he came in an autorickshaw instead of his own car etc. It took me 20 years to understand what that guy pulled off. Ha. He conned us off and got away with all the stuff for just half the price maybe.

Point is, when you are 8 or 9 years old and all this happens, it leaves an impression on your mind. From that day onwards I had lost interest in things like furniture, appliances etc. I was like there is no guarantee that my father would never have a rough patch again in his career again. There is no guarantee that the furniture and appliances would stay us forever. There is no point developing a favorite among those material things. Wow! I am able to explain it fully now but back then I could not explain in so many words, makes sense right. But something changed in the way I looked at material things from that point.

Many years later I did develop a fascination for the iPhone though. As fate would have it, I bought an iPhone 5 in 2014 on a 6 month EMI. I loved it. Nothing like it. Exactly after 6 months, I lose the phone and never get it back. I punish myself with a non-smart phone for a few months and then eventually I move on to an Android phone. I swore never to buy such an expensive phone with my hard earned money ever. Its 2026 now. For 12 years, I have managed to resist any and every expensive smartphone. Even though I can afford one, I buy a basic Android phone with the basic features I need. That’s it.

So what made an impact on me back in 1990s when I was in the 2nd grade, faded away once I started earning. But as life’s roller coaster rides would have taught me, I was constantly reminded not to expect too much in life and nothing is permanent right repeatedly in my life. For instance, my fathers rough patches kept repeating every 3 years after my 2nd grade patch. Every 3 years we would sell off all that we bought only to keep the house running. Obviously my brother and I kept growing in age. My father did get a better job, better pay, better designation every time after a rough patch. But these periodic phases where my father did not have any job left us in deep philosophical mindset. We may not have had money but we did not lose our spirit. It brought my father, mother and brother closer to me. We became a close inseparable unit. Many nights when there was minimal or no food to eat at home, we used to laugh our way out of the situation listening to FM radio songs. Beyond a point there would be nothing to sell also. My mother would reach out to the neighbors and ask for a 50 or 100 rupees promising we will pay back in some time.

One such instance in early 2000s. We were living in far away sub-urbs. Rents are cheaper there. My mother reached out to a neighbor. She promised my mother that she can give only 50 rupees. I was asked to go to the main road with her son where he would change a 100 rupee note for two 50 rupee notes and give me one 50 rupee note.

So I went with him. He changed the 100 rupee note and gave me a 50 rupee note. After giving me this he asked me “Did you eat anything?”. It could have been just a casual thing to ask for him but it hit me differently. I suddenly realized that we are at a stage where people think we have not eaten anything for days maybe? He was right. We were scrambling for food indeed. That day something else changed in my life. I started taking some decisions for my family of four.

Coming up Next, my newspaper delivery days and my days in Sathyam Cinemas while studying in Madras Christian College, Chennai.