Cure for spendthriftry

Want to get over shopping addiction ? Want to get someone (husband/wife/son/daughter) to stop being a credit-card fiend ? Want to teach your teen the value of money ? (Oh wait that reminds me a I have a bank account to flood, to be ready in 15-18 years for this experiment).

Well make them shop like hell for a month. But only with CASH. Yes that's right. Oh wait they already made a movie on it - Malamaal.

But I am talking from personal experience. Real-life.
The effect is same as making someone gorge or eat continously. Absolute hate for food, or money. Puke-worthy. The person will stay away from money (atleast cash) for a long long time. That's what happens

• When you shell out 120-200 Rs every morning, and evening to Autowala. For a 4 km ride, each way.
• When you part with 4-5 crisp notes of 500 to fill up the petrol tank.
• When you hunt exact change for Rs 45 to give to vendor for a tini-wini pav-bhaji, which you know may not have cost 10 bucks to make, but only that you are too hungry to care. Again.
• When you carelessly strew 5-600 for a lycra t-shirt which you know wont last 5-6 washes.

Forget making anyone 'earn money' to realise the value of money. Just the exercise of doling out cash after cash, calculating the exact amount, handling those solied or crisp new notes, watching them all the time ... just go away and away ... can drive anyone crazy. I know it did to me.

I just wonder how parents do their kid marriage shopping. Or build house from scratch, supervising each and every component and its payment.

I think I have zoned out by now ....

Bangalore to Minneapolis

Well, as of now, we are enroute to Minneapolis.

Sideways

Sideways. I bought this book nearly 3 years back. And now found time to read it. Its ok type. I am a very discerning book buyer. But this time I got swayed by the Sideways the movie promos.

First few chapters are only about Wine and Women. Fortunately women bit eases out, replaced by some bit of adventures. I think adventure is too strong a word for what happens. It's that tame. But there are bits & pieces of humour around. I am not talking of level of subtlety. Only quantity. The book is my introduction to the world of wine snobbery.

The hero and his friend, they are more like a grownup version of Tom & Huckalberry Finn over a week. Or even a debaunched version of Harry Potter and Ron Weasley. And closer home, like Lucky & Bangali (of Oye Lucky, Lucky Oye); only they are more real friends.

But one thing for sure. This book has made me curious about what the hell is "Pinot Noir" ? I think I want to check it out. Amazingly once I finished reading this, the first thing I buy is "Pocket Reference Book of WINE". At a good sale price too. Let's see how this is.