Monday, 12 August 2013

Monopoly with Raks

Monopoly is and will always be my favourite board game ever. My sister and I have played it when we were young, trying to bankrupt each other and many longer and viciously ruthless sessions with our cousins, where I became worse than a third world debt.

Needless to say, I was itching to introduce the game to raks hoping that she gets to learn how to manage, save and prudently invest money. On her fifth birthday, she got a junior monopoly game from a friend of hers. She played it a couple of times with her cousin and my mother but not with me.

And since I was on a well-deserved break from work this week, we played monopoly together for the first time... Now I am a rules follower, in case you don't know. I set up the game, sorted out the money when she said, "I am the banker," and proceeded to take all the money from my hand.

By the way, this monopoly is the kids disney princess version. So there were various shades of pink coloured cards, coins and each coin had a princess avatar picture that can be stuck on the coin.

So first we need to decide on the princess avatar. The choices were Cinderella, Jasmine, Snow White and Rapanzul. Raks stuck the avatar on each of the coins and finally decided on Snow White as she was wearing a white coloured t-shirt. And I was forced to select Jasmine.

Me: Raks we need to distribute the money

Raks: I will do that.

And she proceeded to give me one note of each denomination, so I ended with Rs. 15 precisely, while she kept the rest in her fist.

We rolled the dice which was thankfully not 'pink' and I landed on 'Prince Charming'. And while I was trying to purchase the prince with the limited cash that I had in hand, the 'banker' point blank refused to sell him. The reason being that he was not the right pair for Jasmine.

Raks: If you buy 'Prince Charming' what will I do? I am Snow White no.

According to her 'game of monopoly' each player must buy only their 'perfect pair'. So I have to roll the dice until I get Alladin or the Genie. In between, if I get a Chance card, I must pay the banker Rs. 2.

Within no time, I was bankrupt and she was happy. She said, "Don't worry amma. It's just money no. It's ok." With that she gathered up the game inside the box and went off to play with her father.

I just hope she doesn't grow up to endorse Rahul Gandhi's assertion that poverty is just a sate of mind.

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