Spare the Rod........ Rod can take different Dimension

Spare the rod………………………………..

Rod can take different dimension

Spare the rod ………………………. is an old adage. I dare not fill in the blanks lest I am accused of being inhuman to children. But the rod can take different dimension. Here is a true experience.

My son Nikhil who is an young man of 39 years, but when on the ship he is called the “Old Man”. He along with his wife and two beautiful daughters were here spending time in the salubrious climate of Bengaluru—away from the pollution of Delhi. One evening father and son had a very long chat on various issues and one thing he mentioned that he has learnt financial discipline from me. I was little taken aback because I never had money to impose financial discipline.

He narrated two incidents of his growing period of life. When he was a cadet in a private Merchant Navy Academy in Chennai, I gave him ₹300 (the $12) as monthly pocket money. I could not afford more as the tuition fees and cost of full board and lodge were quite expensive. This ₹300 per month, made him think, how to manage, so he did no go out on weekends, as each outing cost ₹ 500 to 600. So he studied and slept. But managed within ₹300. He never asked for more. Later when he was in Glasgow, his pocket money (including cost of lunch) was British Pond 50 per month. He again narrated the story as how he managed within this amount. In order to supplement his income to have some minor luxury, like all students, did some part time job as well. To add to it, there was a time when he had 100 Pounds a month to manage his rent and food. He combined with four other students and spent at the rate of 20 pounds a week. Visited departmental stores after 2300 hrs (11PM) at night and brought discounted grocery for the whole week.

So, inadvertently, I exercised the economic rod.  I could not afford more than what I gave. So the rod took entirely a different dimension which imbibed in him financial discipline. Even today, he follows very strict financial discipline in his real life. So “scarcity” can be used as a rod to bring in discipline than a physical rod.