“Daddy, how poor were we when you were a child,” asked his teenaged son, looking up from his iPad.

The father felt a sudden discomfort. Over the years he had repeatedly told his son about his struggles; how things were not easy during his childhood, how they had to stand in queues for train tickets, cycle to get the groceries, how there wasn’t any power backup at home, that entertainment was limited, and there was hardly any access to technology.

What he always seemed to gloss over was the fact that they had a car, lived in a posh locality, had an air conditioner in their drawing room when most could only manage a desert cooler, studied at a well-known public school and went for two holidays a year.

“Don’t run down your childhood daddy. You wouldn’t like it if I were to run down my childhood in front of your grandchildren.”