How to live like a prince on the budget of a pauper??
Alpha to Charlie…………
Charlie: Charlie on line sir.
Alpha: Operation here has been brought to standstill. Send immediate cash replacements...
Charlie: Sorry sir, we have run out of our cash supplies.
Alpha: but, how could this possibly be, hello……...hello? are u on line ?
Voice from phone: Line you have been calling has been permanently disconnected …

If this situation prevails at war field, position back home ain’t any surreal and trivial. How often have we longed for an access-all-things pass, but got stranded due to unavailability of sufficient cash .
The portrait of an average college goer that strikes your mind foremost – fun loving, little lazy, dexterous, well dressed, and kanjoos fellow. Yes you heard the last one right, behind all the glitz and glamour lies a stingy and perennially out-of-cash sort of person. ‘Bindaas masti’ seems to be leitmotif of these hell raisers. You may be the boy or girl with the golden spoon at your home, but when it comes down to college, even the kingpins taste the dust. For this is the place where the probability of finding cash on your hands is equivalent to that of finding water in Rajesthan, snowfall in Kerela or a multiplex in Bhopal. Behind the flamboyancy, a strategic mind is at work, which formulates all the possibilities of his surviving the ordeal. Their strategies can earn them respect even from management gurus. Who says u can learn only by paying handsome cash in somebody’s hand?
DISCLAIMER
“ For all purposes, this has been my personal experience, and any resemblance to any person living or dead may be purely intentional.
Children – don’t try this at home ’’
I profess: - “The Maximum Fun with Minimum Cash Funda”As I jog my mind to recount some of the experiences, I put through some of them to provide you maximum fun @ minimum reading.
Born to be free – This ain’t freedom from old prejudices, rules and regulations. It’s ‘Free’dom of a different kind. The hunt is for free coupon, contest prizes, sales and discounts, buy one take one free offers that have tsunamised every sector of commercial business. Opportunity to bring home some cash never get “ambanished”, (new lingo for diminished!!).
Preference to eat in the canteen, be it the night one or the ‘self proclaimed’ 24/7 college canteen, than in a elite restaurant, signifies attitude towards cost cutting method of foods. That is why a samosa or a bhel may sell better then a domino pizza or a Mac combo.Gen –y (yuppie generation) also wears this attitude on the sleeve of their local brands. Local, cheap, florid outfits (some of them do actually bear the Nike, Reebok logo) are excused by saying “I am an Indian”. Surprising how patriotism is the best excuse to save up on some cash.
The one that takes the cake are two rituals widely practiced by all and sundry. I call them the “treat bait” and “debt spree”.First one involves coaxing somebody out of his cash for no particular reason. Giving treats to each other for not making it to the black list is a common syndrome in the college campus. Insiders have revealed that bidding is also done on which guy gets the cutest gal of the tinsel campus and who comes out with the maximum proctors in his baggie.Debt spree is made for the canteen wallahs and local diminutive outlets. Do remember “Sharma ji hai Na.” And the idea of democracy, “ for the students, by the students and of the students” rules the roost. (For further confirmation ‘ask’ your local mata mandir vendors).
4. Talking money – I say this because money does talk in the hands of people who appear to have walked straight from the La-La land with as varied models of cell phones as are the spicy remixes in the market. Missed calls and sms serve to give a better mileage, landline or cell-to-cell calls being passé. The advent of missed calls repackages miscommunication as potent form of communication. Each has their own blueprint for decoding the calls. A single missed call may indicate that a person needs to be called back, a double may serve as an indication of a emergency crisis, or a “GT” break, an option which many of my batch mates use to perfection. Speakers that hit the wall with latest music and deafening noise are the call of hour. They seem to take a leaf out of idea’s new slogan “ bada hai to behtar hai”.
Robinhoods of Modern Era – These are the show ponies who survive the wreath of spending money by pulling out indigenous ideas. Traveling in general classes of train, using expired railway and bus passes, sitting for hours at a restaurant sharing only a soft drink, bouncing cheques, seeking out the shortest routes between places to save bike fuel, are few of the many to name. Cometh the advent of birthdays, cometh the time where a person pays a huge ransom for him taking a plunge into this world. Giving low priced gifts, then justifying with the theory that “ It’s the feeling that matters”, rubs salt to his injury!
Whatever students may do, your very own mess may never disappoint you to take your daily shot at pockets. Food festivals or festive weddings are always an instant hit with the masses, but are quite seasonal, much to their chagrin.
On a more serious note, I would like to say life is a series of accidents waiting to happen, with an occasional thing that will bring a smile to your face and a bit of respite(like this article).Without showcasing any more of my idiosyncrasy, I would like to end with a Metallica song that personifies my article“Life is ours, we live it our way All these words I don't just say And nothing else matters”