An anecdote

Today I am going to do with a small, little anecdote as I am a bit under the weather myself. The feel. of course, makes me yet more intensely aware of what Aai-Papa must have gone through in their old age. 

The anecdote is a simple one. Papa would not be very happy if we were to `waste' money on him, while he had to get till the end what we might want. Was this the steely desire to keep all the authority, all the controls, all the decision powers vested in him alone? Oh, no, absolutely not! He was very proud of his sons' success. He gloried in the fact that like him, they, too, were self-made That is to say, they made it big without any pull or push. Sheer pure merit! 

Yet, for him, they continued to be his children, his favourite sons, as if he would continue to see in the grown up men, for whom he had spent a lifetime, the babies he loved to distraction. The spending for his family was not asserting any authority, rather it was his expansive deep affection.

Just the same way, each time any of her nephews or nieces  would come to visit her, Aai had to give then an envelope which would have a measly sum of Rs. 251/- Hardly a princely gift. But sure it was a token of her affection. Why, later in her life, she would give even her sisters-n-law money instead of any "wan". Yet again the idea was to indulge them in a small way to her heart's content. 

In brief, the gift matters not much. Centrally important is the affection and concern of the elders.

pratima@look the gift horse in thy heart, not in its mouth!