Why is this important piece of information always in print so fine that one needs a magnifying glass to decipher the same? I am referring to the terms and conditions that we are advised to read carefully before committing ourselves to any scheme, plan or purchase.
In my family, the children also had their specific set of terms for any activity, which had to be strictly adhered to. For example, we were all extremely possessive about our belongings, especially books. You could not just pick up any book that took your fancy. Permission had to be sought if it wasn’t yours. The owner would then take his or time to consider the request. Your past history would be reviewed, including your treatment of books and the length of time taken to peruse one. Then the conditions would be laid down. No taking the book out of the house or lending it to friends. No dog-earing the pages or reading while eating. Often, the person seeking permission lost interest after hearing the long list of dos and don’ts and gave up the idea of reading the book. Of course, it all depended on how badly one wanted to lay one’s hands on that particular comic or novel.
Then there were the games we played. The older siblings wrote the rule book for these, letting their imagination run wild to give themselves every advantage. Any dissent was ‘rewarded’ by exclusion from the game. Our parents were sceptical about the chances of our maintaining cordial relations and their worst fears usually turned out to be true as the game dissolved into bitter arguments followed by recrimination and accusations.
I remember playing what we called Prize Prize. We would dig into our collection of precious objects, wrap them up in newspaper (we were not allowed to touch the neatly folded gift wrapping paper) and offer these to a sibling. Now herein lay the danger. If you were in a generous mood and handed over a gift that you knew would bowl over the receiver and were given something in return that you considered a shoddy exchange, there was bound to be mayhem. You tried as far as possible to stifle your more generous impulses as you believed in a fair exchange. But if you were looking for gratitude, you would throw caution to the wind and pick gifts that you knew were coveted by the others. But, being human, you were bound to feel hard done by when your generosity was not reciprocated.
Now if it were a favourite book, one had to take precautions to ensure that there were no counter claims later, So, the first thing one did was to write the name of the new owner and also the name of the donor as well as the date. What can I say, we were a suspicious lot.
In days of yore, we had to create our own entertainment. So, we would put up plays and somehow the older siblings always landed the plum roles. The younger lot did grumble but only very softly as we knew what it was like to be excluded from group activities. And there was no way that we could complain to the parents who adopted a strict hands-off policy in this regard. If you wanted to be a part of this group, you had to accept whatever task you were assigned, however strongly you felt about your thespian talents being ignored. You resigned yourself to the ‘important ‘task’ of being responsible for the drawing of curtains or being allowed to dart on to the stage to place or remove props.
I do realise the importance of going through all the terms and conditions but do these have to run into pages and written in microscopic print?
Vanaja Rao is a freelance writer based in Hyderabad, India
