My 1st encounter… with my would-be wife!!

Here are the excerpts from my Auto-biography (which would be published during my post-retirement life), which narrates the story of my 1st meeting with my wife…Here it goes:

On one gloomy day, my aunty called my mom to announce that she had one Rishta for me…My mom excitedly passed this news to me…Being busy in reading Economic Times, I just asked her with blank expressions on my face, ”Is she an MBA in Finance? Does she work in field of Finance?” Only after getting positive answers to my questions, I asked my mom to inform her to meet me at a restaurant…

Can you guess the name of that restaurant??…If you know me well, you can guess it right…Being cost-effective person, I didn’t invite her to some expensive hotel…but to Mani’s @ Matunga…an economical Udipi restaurant…

We both reached there at the same time…Because we both were late by half-an-hour…Even she was not punctual like me…We chatted on the subjects of finance and economy…and we came to the conclusion that we both were on the same wave-length…When discussion reached to the word “Marriage”…We decided to devise some Rules & Regulations for us – to have a ‘financially sound and stable’ post-marriage life…And the Treaty that we signed contained following details:

1) To produce financial details of each other viz., Pay-slip, Bank Statement, IT returns, NSC and Other Investment Certificates, Insurance Policies documents, Demat A/c Statement…(She also asked for property papers…She was the perfect choice for me!!) Only after verifying these details, our Marriage will get confirmed…

2) To go for Court Marriage…If we cut down Marriage expenses (i.e. Initial Outflow) to minimal amount, then we would be able to achieve higher IRR…

3) To share the household expenses in fixed proportion and personal expenses to be borne individually…

4) Separate books of accounts will be maintained and they will be audited every month.

5) At the end of every month, budget for the next month would be prepared. If any one of us is found spending beyond Target or investing below Target, he/she would be monetarily penalized and amount of fine will be credited to our Joint a/c. Spending and Investment targets will be revised southwards and northwards respectively…’Cost-minimization with Investment-maximization’ would be mission statement for our lives…

6) Only CNBC and NDTV Profit would be watched in our house…

7) We would subscribe to at least 3 financial newspapers and 2 business magazines…

8) Gold will be bought as an investment…not for ornamental purposes…

9) Our children would become MBAs in Finance only…and we would encourage (Read: force) them to be CFAs…

As our thoughts and future projections matched, I asked her one question…”What do you think about Marriage?”…She replied… ”Marriage is not the acquisition…it is the Merger of two lives!”…and this answer convinced me that she was the perfect choice for me…I decided to take the next step…I did put a ring (obviously not of Gold – but imitation jewellery - worth Rs.5) in Idli-sambhaar dish…which she got while finishing sambhaar…And she immediately said Yes to me!!...At the same time, she licked that sambhar dripping from the ring…just to ensure that nothing is wasted (i.e. to maximize Resource utilization) even though I had paid the bill reluctantly…I was so delighted to get such a Makkhi-choos wife (or Angoothi-choos?)…

I had always dreamt of this in my life…Aaj mera sapna poora ho gaya…