I still remember while going to school during my IVth & Vth class, bus fare used to be ten paise. Mother used to give exactly twenty paise for to & fro fare, sometimes even she had tough time in getting the change. On those fortunate days I used to get twenty five paise coin. Remaining five paise would be my sole property for which I never used to give any account to my mother. But by the time I get the coin I used to be under tremendous stress as what to do with that money in the recess. To buy ice candy or boiled salted jujube or dried jujube powder or toffees or try my luck wait for five more paise to come my way & buy a top. Suppose I decide on saving five paise, wait for five more than till then I had terrible time in handling my priced possession. As if I have stolen the Kohinoor diamond & hiding it in my pocket. Rather tough job!
Years later when I got my first salary cheque of fourteen hundred twenty five rupees I immediately got it encashed from the bank. Carrying that money in the pocket on my rattler the Luna on the busiest & riches street of the city I felt like sailing through seventh heaven. I blew off all the money by the time I reach home getting something for all at home. I was just happy then. My happiness from those five paise & fourteen hundred twenty five rupees can not be compared with millions now. Long after I started my small business. On getting my first four figure cheque I bought a wall lamp for hundred & fifty bucks. Truly speaking I felt like becoming a rich man, though the same evening I cooked rice on kerosene stove & ate half burnt half boiled rice with curd while wife was away.
My neighbour a genius works day & night earns like hell, we all envy him for that tons of money he mints daily. Gets up early in the morning, driver comes to him in the wee hours takes him & drops him not before midnight. Sometimes he walks through the car; otherwise driver supports him to his door. Travels across the country in plane, posh cars lives rich, spends rich. Wife at home brags of her husbands’ achievements, in tender moments weeps even in public of having herself & kids to wait for to get his glimpse for days & months together. ‘Kids have forgotten how their daddy looks’ she says weeping. ‘Each time he comes with toys, sweets, imported dresses & articles, kids grab them & vanish out to show to their pals, for them father is money earner & entertainer by virtue of getting goods’. During his first hospitalization doctors said, ‘the heart is getting weaker, he must rest a bit’. I met him to convey & try to convince, he had full of future plans for earning big bucks. I came back keeping my words behind my tongue; he was a big man for me. He was right perhaps, we all love our families yet few can’t spend time enough with them. Living isn’t just working for living.
Fish eagle at the banks of Nile, I’ve seen, catches a fish enough for his days’ diet in a few minutes. Brings it back clutching in his claws on the top of rocks, dissects it & gulps it up. Rest of the day it just spreads its huge powerful wings & flies carelessly in the air, sometimes for fun sake frightening monkeys, rabbits, rats etc. on the ground. However powerful it may be eats just required & roams in air, enjoys itself.
Who knows who is right & what is right. There are men & women building empire out of scratch. Live in big cities which make them men to money minting machine. They stand in queue for everything in their lives, even after their death they are in queue to get last rituals. Few others live on the banks of rivers, in the small village & in small towns. Work at places, come home in the evening, have their share of mirth & sorrow. Yet the crazy spectral greed for money hasn’t come to their way. I’d say they live life just like fish eagle.
By
Vijay Yelmelwar
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