A Game of Monopoly

A week back, on last children's day, Mrunmay got a fantastic gift - Game of Monopoly aka Business (व्यापार). 

Mrunmay got introduced to this game through our family friend around 3-4 weeks back and in the first instance itself he fell in love with this game. He didn't want to stop that game but had to due to other plans. But since then it was a constant thing on his mind. So Meghana and I decided to gift him on the children's day and spent entire evening playing the same game. 

And that point onward, on every opportunity Mrunmay is trying everything to play this game. Given today was Saturday, and off for me, I offered him an afternoon entirely for Monopoly and he graciously accepted ;)

In last 3-4 games, Mrunmay learnt quickly how he can earn more by quickly building houses and hotels. So now his all energies are constantly focused on creating assets. Usually, Meghana and I have hit with bad luck and have ended up in spending more time in "Chance", "Community Chest" and "Jail", resulting into getting lesser assets and in turn lesser chance to earn more money.

Today was a bit different. It was Mrunmay who had to spend lot of time in "Chance" and "Community Chest". Resulting into lot of tickets with me. But none of us were in a position to build houses or hotels as none owned a single color tickets completely, which is prerequisite. Frustrated with this, we started offering tickets for sale or purchase. Again, Mrunmay was at disadvantage. He didn't have a single color with two tickets to make an offer to purchase the third one. He tried offering a single not-so-valuable card to me in exchange of 2 very valuable cards. Obviously I declined. After couple of such offers, I realized, he doesn't have much to offer and unless I take lead, no trade would happen. Although it was a disadvantage to I offered one of the best tickets (Delhi) to Mrunmay in exchange of Chennai. He was very sure that he doesn't want to sell chennai due to the high rent and high possibility of income with house and hotel on that group (Chennai, Bengaluru and Kolkata). So finally explained him how Delhi is better or at least equal to Chennai and that he should take the offer. Probably realizing that he doesn't have much to offer or may be he actually understood, he accepted the offer and we came out of deadlock situation.

The game continued.

We built houses on our respective groups (Kolkata-Chennai-Bengaluru which I owned and Delhi-Mumbai which he owned). Mrunmay quickly took it to Hotels level for both Delhi and Bengaluru and in turn went low on cash. He was yet to realize that. I was playing with my eyes on the cash and was building the houses slowly. Typically, just before he would land on one of these cities. As you might be aware, with every house, the rent goes up. These three cities are next to each other and there's high chance that anyone passing from that side of the board, would land up in one city, thereby generating rental income. 

After couple of rounds, Mrunmay went really low on cash and he landed on Chennai. The rent had grown to 900 and Mrunmay had only about 100 + some change. He started trading with me again :)

Mrunmay: Baba, can you reduce the rent for me?
Me: Why?
Mrunmay: I don't have that much money. Please... reduce it for me...
Me: Okay, but what would I get in lieu of that? Will you sell one of your tickets to me? 

Sensing the danger in selling ticket to me, he was absolutely not ready.
Me: If you don't want to sell ticket, then why should I reduce the rent?
Mrunmay: Okay, I'll reduce the rent for you when you land in Delhi (which he owned).

That was a good deal I thought.

Me: Okay. Don't pay me right now, I'll not pay when I land in Delhi.

Mrunmay: No Baba, don't make it zero. I'll pay 100.

Me: Okay, then I'll also pay 100 when I land in Delhi. (Chennai rent: 900/- Vs Delhi rent: 1250/-)

And then came the smart move:

Mrunmay: Baba, no.. not that way. Reduce 800/- for me now and I'll reduce 800/- for you when you land in Delhi ..

While a player in me was feeling lost the deal, a Father in me was happy about the way Mrunmay carved out a deal.


Dear Monopoly - you are teaching some valuable lessons to this little fella ... feeling so happy to brought you home at this stage!!