A tiny little truth and lesson for life!

After having read the blog post brief provided by #IndiBlogger for Kinley’s Kitna chain hota hai na sachchai mein #HappyHours campaign, I kept on wondering what exactly should I write. I am no saint and there have been instances in life where I have chosen to lie instead of revealing the truth to my parents or others, with the intention of keeping situations under control. But they have not been such that harms anybody. Today, I chose to write about an incident that became a life lesson for me way back in my early childhood.

I love food and the excitement of eating out never really dies in my case. While in school, Ma would pack some usual tiffin for me that would look and sound boring. Of course, it would’ve been impossible for her to make different types of snacks and meals every day but then, having the same old food never satisfied my hunger. At my school, Gokhale Memorial Girls’ School, students were allowed to buy food from the canteen from Std. II and that meant, we were allowed to carry money with us. While for most of us, it was more about the jhaal-muri and aloo kabli that mattered most than the food prepared at the canteen. When I had informed my parents about this deal in Std. II, I was first asked to get the rate card of the food items that were usually sold. They would vary from Rs. 3, 5 or maximum 10. I was allowed to carry Rs. 5 on the days I wanted to eat from the canteen.

Well, I did start having food from the canteen initially, but felt the need to save the money in the next few days. I would take money from Ma or Baba but never really used that money to buy food, neither at the canteen nor from the food stalls outside the school. I kept collecting and saving that money in a tiny purse that I had got as a gift. This went on for about a month or so until one fine day, Ma found out about the entire thing.

I was not able to find a classwork copy in my bag and like all other child, asked Ma to find it for me. I was pretty sure that her expert eyes will not skip the copy. While she rummaged through my bag, she, instead of the copy, found the purse and the money inside. I had, actually kudos to me, saved about Rs. 50 by then, which in any case was a big amount. She wasn’t sure about how I ended up with so much money and just asked me about it. With a very scared look on my face and fearing a big scolding on my way, I chose to gulp down the truth. For the initial five to seven minutes, I heard her scolding me and threatening me about how Baba will scold me. While I chose to keep quiet till Baba would come and hear me out, the fear and guilt of hiding this truth kept creeping me out. Baba reached home and we started the case. Ma explained the entire scenario and I was asked to speak up. Not having the courage and strength to hold it back anymore, I spoke. The truth. “This is the money that I have been keeping in my purse for the past one month. The same money that you give me for eating at the canteen and also jhal muri. I just didn’t eat but thought of saving the money because I heard you that we need to save money for emergency situations and that wasting money is not good.” 

They obviously didn’t know what to say but I knew, this wasn’t the statement that they were expecting from me. They both replied, “It is our responsibility to save money and not yours, at least at the moment. We gave you money to eat because you wanted but that doesn’t mean that you put it in the bag and don’t use it. This is neither saving nor proper utilization of the money. We could have used this money in some other cases. If you don’t want to eat out, then don’t take the money on that day. And if you wish to save, we have the Mickey House where we drop coins and rupee notes to save for emergency situations. We appreciate how you thought about the entire thing but did you realize, if you got caught by your teacher, what would’ve happened?”

Yes, I realised. Now, why I call this tiny incident in my life as a life lesson is because, my parents cleared my misconceptions. The very importance of understanding what people mean when they say something is important. And Baba taught me about the importance of saving and proper utilization of resources. This, now, sounds like a petty situation but at that moment, telling them the truth definitely felt like the right thing to do.

While watching this advertisement by Kinley, many of such incidents stirred up in my mind and I kept on reminiscing about them. There have been situations where I have told myself to speak up the truth to avoid any further deterioration of the situations and went ahead to tell my parents about it. It definitely felt the right thing to do.