It was dad's proud moment at the beginning of every month, when, he would ask me to 'budget' the money for various household expenses. It was an elaborate process lasting an hour when we would anticipate the monthly expenses and allocate money. It was his way of teaching me money matters. It taught me very early in life that managing finance was not a smooth ride.

One of the many lessons I learnt from dad came on a cold winter evening. It was mum's birthday and dad wanted to surprise her with a present. He wanted me to go along with him and help him pick a wrist watch for mum.

We walked into a showroom and picked a classic wrist watch with a leather strap. As I marvelled the other pieces on display, my eyes fell on a watch with a black and white checked strap and a white dial. The watch I saw, looked stunning but I didn't ask dad to buy it. I knew the watch was not budgeted for. Somehow, reading my mind, dad said, he would buy it. I was thrilled at the prospect of having two watches because it was but a wild dream for a teenager 20 years ago.

As I clutched the two precious watches and mounted on dad's modest scooter, I was in for a thorough economics lecture. Dad went on to explain the difference between 'need' and 'want'. "Yes", he said, "you can have the watch. But, you should earn it!". Surely, I had not bargained for that. That moment, I was ready to give up the watch, perch on the scooter and enjoy the breeze hitting my face. Instead, I sat there, listening to why it was so important for me to know that I had to earn the money so I could cherish it even more. At 17, I was not interested to analyse if my urge to buy was 'need based'. Nevertheless, I agreed to pay a sizeable amount from my pocket money towards the watch.

It was tough times for a teenager when savings in the beaded purse to buy the latest Bollywood music album dwindled. Besides, managing an entire month on a few rupees in the pocket meant giving up on many luxuries like taking the bus, drinking the watery tea in the canteen, chewing on the concocted chocolate with coffee flavour. It also meant that the rare cinema outing with friends was now a dream and ice creams or snacks was forgotten. I remember counting every month and wondering why I would fancy a watch at such a price.

I was however allowed to wear the watch. It felt good when my friends gathered around to see the beautiful adornment around the wrist but as days went by, nobody looked at it any more. They now wondered why I stopped liking the canteen and clung to my lunch box instead.

After six tough months, when all the dues were cleared, I was happy again at having 'earned' my watch. Life was back to normal and things were looking good again.

However, the one thing I am glad about is that I never thought of borrowing money from my mum to pay dad. Of course, then, mum would have had to borrow from someone else ( perhaps my aunt) to pay me and my aunt would have taken it from my uncle and there would have been a chain. Some of these lessons are not taught but are instilled. Else credit crunch would have had its beginnings in my home 20 years ago. If only a lot more people had listened to the "annoying" lectures from their dads, things would have been very different today.

Sudha Subramanian is an independent journalist based in Dubai, UAE.