Are we rich?

....so asked my daughter one day as soon as she came back from school. Tricky question that. She is old enough to not be fed a cock bull fairy tale but enough to not really understand economics slash money.

Fortunately she was distracted by a phone call from a friend and not even my offering of taking her out for a pizza would have separated her from the phone (she has her priorities so right! Friends before parents or anything else for that matter)
So there I was, desperately looking for an answer that would satisfy my daughter and me as well. Are we rich?

My mind harks back to an interview of Shekhar Kapoor’s many years ago in a film magazine. I am the last person to read anything related to Shekhar Kapoor. I just don’t like him, don’t like his mumblings and don’t like his preening and posing as an intellectual film maker (what’s wrong with just being a film maker?) I haven’t seen Elisabeth (or was it Victoria or Mary?) and don’t follow his Cannes outings (does anyone? We are fans of Aishwarya Rai here and her many experiments with the mercurial subject called fashion).
BUT this interview I will never forget for he actually echoed my sentiments and I remember having blurted out a heartfelt and spontaneous ‘Wah wah”. He was asked if he was rich and the answer he gave made me weep. At last here was a thought we both had in common and this was enough. He answered “I have enough money to buy books and music without a second thought” Maashallah! What a beautiful answer! It was like a Haiku, delicious in its brevity and so precise in its expression.

That evening I steered the topic around my daughter’s question and delivered my answer neatly like a batsman waiting for that perfect loose delivery and hit it resoundingly for a massive six, way outside the stadium. “I think we have enough to buy us books and CDs”. Of course that answer cost me because my daughter took it literally and trapped us quickly into taking her to a bookshop. But I did see a fleeting expression of wonder in her eyes. Probably because she expected a different answer, or expected us to talk about money or how it is a precious commodity and how we should spend it wisely. Instead I had expertly negotiated this minefield of an answer. Glad to not have to explain wealth or lack of it to my teenage daughter.

Thanks Shekhar Kapoor, see this much we have in common.
By the way, when I was in Mumbai some time back, I bought a yellowed copy of a book called Masterclass. It had the name ‘Jayant Kriplani’ inscribed on the first page. This is a terrific book in the sense it’s not like any other I have read before in style and story. It is leisurely even in the con-job that is central to the plot. More about the book later though. Got to grab a coffee….sorry no more using the word grab as far as food is concerned! So got to have a quick coffee and run over to the Metro Water Office.

See ya folks and have a great Friday!