My first salary

I remember the first time I earned a salary. It was for being an usher for a Davis Cup tournament in Delhi - India versus Sweden (I think). This was in my second year of college, when I was 19. I made a princely sum of Rs. 150 per day (which totaled to 450 rupees in all), which coupled with a front seat row view of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi winning the doubles was quite a great reward. This being my first ever salary, I decided to treat my parents to a dinner at Vembanad Lake Resort in Kottayam (a pretty fancy place). Dinner together with a drink which my dad had, cost me 500 bucks (I remember thinking that it was lucky I had saved 50 bucks of my pocket money from last month). Thankfully, my dad offered to pay the tip to the waiter!

Karan got his first salary at the ripe old age of 5 when he is in UKG! He got it for being a "art teacher" at Doll's House (the play school where my mum teaches). As the teacher, Karan had to draw a picture for the kids to colour and make 8 identical copies of the picture (since there were 8 of them). He did quite a nice picture (unfortunately I dont have a copy with me). The picture had lots of grass and several buds and a nice little sun and was titled (not surprisingly) "buds and grass". He also graded the completed pictures ranging from "good" to "very good". Ruby aunty, the principal of Doll's House gave him 10 bucks for his efforts, which after some consideration and based on suggestions was spent on 2 sip-ups (4 bucks a piece). (Sip-ups are these cool frozen juice like thingie, which were big when I was small and cost 50 paise a piece then!)

I wonder when he will earn his next salary and when it will be Robs' and my turn to get taken out to a fancy dinner a la Karan!