Money matters whether you matter or not. Its manipulative powers matter the most, particularly when it is not your sweat-stained money. The commiserations like 'happiness hijacked by such money is short-lived' we hear very often. Such a windfall, however, causes the loss of self-respect and freedom as collateral damage.

They were on the verge of divorce. The husband constantly contemplated suicide because the loss of self-respect — in a matrimonial relationship, measured by respect in the spouse's eyes — was shameful enough for the husband.

How was the husband's self-respect bruised? Being a government employee, life for him was just pay cheque to pay cheque. This summer, the power load-shedding got worse, and unscheduled outages turned it even worse. The neighbours started having alternative sources of electricity like solar power. Only their house was haunted by darkness at night. The wife too felt deprived whenever the neighbouring women gathered around the vegetable cart and boasted of their luxuries.

The wife's father, being a........

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