No, this post is not another of those websites which tell you the trick of earning money. Neither is it the vedic denunciation of money.
It is a very personal account of my own experiences with money while I revolved around the sun for last 24 years. While I abhor writing personal experiences on blog for my own another personal reason, I surely think this strikes a chord with many people, and hence, is also a generic phenomenon. The trigger which got me writing this piece is here.
My earliest face off with money I can remember is trying to get a 25 paise from somewhere in my house. It used to be almost a stealing. For what? Well.. there was this ice cream guy who used to come in front of our school. Just the ice dripped in some orange or red or ping or yellow color. I could die that time to have one such. Almost every week or so I used to manage one stolen 25 paise and have that ice cream. The satisfaction it gave was amazing.
There was limited money available to us, children, at that time. There was no hotel or cinema in the town. The story of children 'seen' eating samosa in the near by dhaba was construed as 'children getting spoilt'.
But looking backwards to my dots in life, that was the happiest time in my life. The They keywords were: cricket, Beautiful weather, rain, aahat, CID, nice roads, good people, clean surrounding, cows and goats coming in the colony and we playing with them, dying to have one bite of the ice cream, homework, unit tests, hide and seek, visit to ancestral village, visiting family and friends on festivals.
25 paise per week was all it took.
Today I earn much much much more than that. In fact when i got my first salary, I didn't know what to do with 80% of it. Even with all the vagaries of the city life, a small part of my salary was enough to support my , rather lavish, lifestyle. The The keywords today are: drink, smoke, promotion, money, shares, stock, tax saving, LIC, electricity bill, air conditioner, car, petrol, Telangana, Apple, Steve jobs, LED TV, four wheel, bonus.
I am trying hard to fight off the accumulating fat, while yearning for that elusive six pack. Home made 'Achaar' has been replaced by the add-ons of the pizza but the taste remains on the tounge, not reaching the soul.
The difference as I see it is earlier most of the happiness of life was on chance based things. Cricket, rain, animals in the area and the like. The share of money in it was very small. But the second set of keywords are all based on money. We try to buy a lot of things with money. Even the rich people or at least the people like us who have sufficient money to lead a very happy life are always harping about how much they lack money. Every one wants to cover one more inch of the 'kitni zameen'
I recently saw a video circulated where people from different economic strata talked about how they would spend if they get Rs500/- Being in city, and a spendthrift that I am, I never thought that Rx500/- was enough to be so useful to people.
Opinions ranged from buying books, to new school shoes, to filling petrol in car to save it for future studies to piercing, to ration things to movies, to cricket bat, to spending on children to the amazing answer like: 'cmmon dude.. you cannot get anything in 500 rupees'
There are still a lot of people for whom it is a lot of money. But I spend it like nothing. And guess what 'it still doesnt buy me the soul stirring satisfaction of that 25 paise ice cream'.
Not without reason had someone opined:
'Do gaz zameen chahiye do gaz kafan ke baad'
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