10 Rupees Note

My father is a banker. And he has literally grown from the scratch . After tenth class he was sure to become a farmer as there was no money for him to study further. And may be his roots has taught him to be careful. When we were young and school going, we were allowed some monthly allowances. It used to include our daily rickshaw fare, to and fro school and some more money for miscellaneous work. But for anything major we need to tell him during the last week of the month so that we are allowed for it by the next month. On top, he always insisted on a written account of all the money spent and saved, of course he never asked for the saving back. We could do anything with that saving. We used to save it mainly for the annual book fare and when I grew up a bit than for my parents anniversary, birthday etc. One big chunk of my savings used to be for my sister's surprise birthday gift. Guess how much? It started with Rs10/- . That I am talking about my first sister. When I was in hostel the Rs10/- reduced to the value of one evening snack from the local bakery or Momo wala. I have one more sister who is much younger to me. I some times feel she is more like a daughter. That Rs10/- note was so important for me. I had to save for a year for that one note. And whenever I ended at a count of ten rupees collection of various smaller currency notes, I would ask my mother to give me a ten rupees note and take my changes in return. And she happily did that. Now I think she did that because that was the only way she actually knew how much money I had and what am I doing with it.
Now after years of that time. And being able to spend a lot of such ten rupees, I no more feel the same attraction to that note as I did before. And when I look at our youngest sister, I feel such a big gap. Now her allowances are in Rs500/- or more. Than there would be top up from both of her elder ones. Some times I feel that may be we are spoiling her. Or may be already spoiled. But than, I myself do not feel the attraction for the Rs10/-. She recently gave a comment saying "he is that poor type you know" ( about one of her studious class mates). Well, are we affluent? I do not think so. Still I cannot do what I want at any point of time. But her statement got into my head. May be still there is a lot of value of the ten rupees note to the people who struggles for two time meals. She surely knows that ten rupees still can do lot, if she feels she is well off at five hundred bucks! That's time ! That's probably growing up! And I think I need to re look at myself once more!
This post is in fond memory of the Rs10/- (black, old design) note.