Dunlop Maxply and Stainless Steel — A Powerful Lesson!

I wish you a terrific New Year in every way.

May you be healthy and prosperous and, most of all, may you become rooted in the knowledge that the only purpose of life is to become one with the Cosmic Principle.

And with that said, here is a story for you that is also a powerful lesson.

Any person of some years and knowledge of Indian middle-class life will instantly grasp what I speak about. I will explain for others, but they probably will not get the visceral understanding of the former.

I entered St. Stephen’s College in Delhi in 1967. It was the first time I was in an institution that encouraged a wide variety of sports, and I was drawn to tennis. India, in those days, was in an isolated economic bubble. Foreign goods were not openly available and were horribly expensive in the black market. Indian goods were shoddy.

My father had a pair of Dunlop Maxply tennis rackets — I almost wrote raquets! — and they were prized possessions. Each was in a press and kept oiled in a plastic bag. At the time, Dunlop Maxply was the best tennis racket you could buy. Rod Laver used one to win his first Grand Slam. You had to keep it in a press and you had to make sure that the screws on the press were tightened with the same tension. Otherwise, the racket — made of many layers of wood glued together — would warp.

There was debate about whether I should be given a Dunlop Maxply and eventually I was not. I was deemed to be not careful enough to look after it properly and that I should receive it when my game was better and I was more responsible. I was given a local made tennis racket and the shaft snapped on my second day at the court.

And my parents invested heavily in stainless steel. They bought plates, bowls, serving dishes, cooking dishes, tableware and much else. These items were valued highly. They were desirable wedding gifts and considered a storehouse of value in an inflationary world. Stainless steel dishes were almost heirlooms and passed on from mother to daughter and on to the next generation.

The world changed.

When I came to the US in 1972 Jimmy Conners was winning matches with the T 2000. It was a chromium-plated tubular steel racket. Soon other rackets made of metals like aluminum made their debut and then the first of the composite rackets that are used today. Wooden rackets like the Dunlop Maxply became quaint relics.

Consumer preferences altered.

Younger families preferred diningware from Corning. Attractively styled glass plates and aluminum cooking dishes became the vogue for young married couples. Stainless steel was for old people and fell out of favor.

When my parents left India to come and live with me in the US, I helped my father wind up their establishment in Bangalore. I gave away the Dunlop Maxply rackets and disposed of the stainless steel accumulation at pennies on the dollar.

There is a lesson for you here.

Don’t pile up possessions for ‘special occasions’ or ‘some day’.

Use the fine china. Take the protective covers off your furniture. Stop hoarding. If you have not used anything you own for two years or more, give it away.

Doing so will improve your life.

Peace!