THE DELAYED GRATIFICATION
Pic.: Anand Ashokan I met a young-man, this morning. His 2-year-old was sweetly dressed-up for his playschool, with a cute piggy-back. The young-man worked for a private bank while his wife worked for an ad agency. The little-one went to a well-known nursery, which charged an annual fee between one lakh and two lakh! “This one is our first child; he has to study till he turns twenty or twenty-two,” the young-man said to me, “Just imagine the kind of money we will have to spend on his education!” Yes, it was on one child, he was talking about! He wasn’t talking about the clothes, the toys, gadgets, cars, house, fun and entertainment, holidays, functions and celebrations, health care and hospitalization, care of the parents, weddings of sisters, education of siblings and so on.... “How will we be able to cope with this insane cost of living?” the young-man wondered. Yes, how could he... How could we? N o matter how much we all earn, unless we kno...