I was lucky to get a lucrative job when I came out of the university. I could not believe the amount of money I made at the end of each month. I could buy all the clothes I wanted and I did. I filled my wardrobe with all kinds of clothes that had caught my fancy.

Dev drew my attention in a meeting, where he was the last to speak but immediately got everybody to agree to a solution he proposed. He drew my attention later for a reason of another sort: he always wore white at work, and at other times invariably wore black, without exception. I asked him about this when I came to know him better.

I was tempted to ask if it wouldn’t be simpler to widen the range of colors and buy from a wider selection of clothes, but I held my breath. As the days passed, my instinctive opposition, even a little of resentment, slowly dissolved, and I began to ponder over his essential point that, to focus on what one considers important, one may have to place a couple of other things on a back burner.
I could never go back to my earlier interest in adding to my wardrobe.