As a child, I was enamoured with the thought of carrying a wallet full of cash. But, growing up in a middle-class family in the ’70s, both the money and the wallet seemed a distant dream.
My father had a bulky wallet which had worn out with the passage of time. It had lost its sheen and one couldn’t make out whether it was originally brown or black. It was always bursting at the seams not because of the cash but due to a small phone diary and a large number of receipts besides the to-do list that he would stuff in the wallet. It used to protrude like a lump from his back pocket.
I was in Class 10 when my grandfather gifted me a wallet on my birthday. It was a rexine wallet with a photo of Zeenat Aman, a popular actress of the time, inserted in a clear pocket of the wallet. Though I had become a proud owner of the wallet, paper money was still hard to come by. Therefore, I would stuff my wallet with coins and neatly folded flyers to give it a “healthy look”. As the quality of the wallet was not that good, it soon gave away to the weight of coins and developed cracks. I tried to repair it with glue but in vain.
While on a college trip to Bombay, I bought a denim wallet. It had a sturdy pocket for coins that could be zipped without the fear of the coins falling out. As the pocket money I received during college days was a trickle, I used to fill the wallet with business cards. Once, while taking the university exam, I was searched thoroughly by the invigilator. When he reached for my wallet and peeped into it, he couldn’t help but smile and said, “You don’t have any money in your wallet but you’re carrying so many visiting cards. You certainly seem to be well-connected.” The entire class had a hearty laugh, while I was embarrassed beyond words.
{{/usCountry}}While on a college trip to Bombay, I bought a denim wallet. It had a sturdy pocket for coins that could be zipped without the fear of the coins falling out. As the pocket money I received during college days was a trickle, I used to fill the wallet with business cards. Once, while taking the university exam, I was searched thoroughly by the invigilator. When he reached for my wallet and peeped into it, he couldn’t help but smile and said, “You don’t have any money in your wallet but you’re carrying so many visiting cards. You certainly seem to be well-connected.” The entire class had a hearty laugh, while I was embarrassed beyond words.
{{/usCountry}}I had to wait till I began earning to become a proud owner of a branded leather wallet. I would stuff it with crisp currency notes of all denominations, a driving licence and a few important visiting cards. But destiny had something else in store. As I had to drive for long distances, I began experiencing pain in the right hip which would radiate to my right leg. When I consulted an orthopedician, he forbade me from keeping the wallet in the back pocket. Instead, he suggested keeping it in the front pocket of the trousers. I didn’t like the idea of a bulging front pocket so I began keeping the wallet in my office bag.
Though I still use a wallet, I notice that the younger generation has done away with the burden of carrying one. With the advent of UPI and digilocker, they don’t feel the need to have an additional leather accessory in their pockets. Another thing of utility is slowly but steadily losing its relevance in the era of the all mighty smartphone.
rajivsharma.rs201067@gmail.com
The writer is an Amritsar-based freelance contributor.