The whole thing is that…………….

Bollywood has given us a lot many memorable one – liners……….a few of particular interest to me in this context are –
Money Hai to Honey Hai
Paisa Bolta Hai
Sabse Bada Rupaiya

We might have used these in many of our fun – filled conversations, but is that all these lines hold? Come to think of it and I end up concluding that probably they do much more than that, in fact, they hold what might be the ultimate truth and goal of life in the current day scenario.

There was a time when I was strongly of the opinion, that money, although important is not the whole and soul of the matter. There are other things, like love, peace of mind, the company of loved ones, the satisfaction of doing what you want rather than doing things based on calculations of profit and loss, etc. that are the ones which come first in the list of must haves……and money features somewhere down the line in this list. However, with time and with the good and rude experiences of life……..my unstaggering belief in this seems to have dwindled a little.

Why?........lets see……

There’s someone who’s passionate about nature and animals. He wants to pursue a career which will allow him to make his passion his work. He conveys his thoughts to his parents………..I am sure most of us know the answer he gets…….”Are you nuts?....Where do you think that’s going to take you 10 years down the line? Don’t be stupid “. He definitely doesn’t want to be that, does he, so, there he is, a Senior Analyst in a multi-national company. And what does he get…..a handsome pay cheque for sure, the power to buy all the luxuries of life………but, at the cost of……..the time he wished to spend pursuing his unfulfilled wish to do something that deals with his passion…….or may be that smile on his daughter’s face which he wanted to see when he takes her out on a surprise visit to the ice-cream parlour on a Wednesday evening…....

And then, there is this sweet young couple, very much in love, each wanting nothing but the everlasting company of the other. Happy in their own little world of a rented 1 bhk in a metro, a two – wheeler, a job paying a decent enough salary but certainly not enough to go about collecting the many temptations and luxuries the world of today has to offer. Soon enough, they get tired of getting soaked in the rain everytime they plan a ride together on their so long good enough two – wheeler, and of having to strike off their plans for a few days off to Goa because of non- availability of the train tickets and the insufficiency of funds to get the available but expensive air tickets. So, what do you think they do………..
……..but obviously, take off in search of greener pastures in terms of the financial returns. And where do they land up………happily, in high paying jobs. But is it the happiness they were looking for……..well, they do have a flashing car parked right outside their door, and they do have the funds to get the air tickets not only to Goa, but to Europe if they wish to…………but do they have the time to even plan a drive together to some place nearby…..well sadly….not really.

Then, at one of the many traffic signals in the city, while you are seated in the auto waiting for the lights to say “Go”, you see a mother holding his son by the hand, making her way across the vehicles, tapping at the windows with her hands spread out making a desperate plea for a few pennies to be handed over. May not be a very unusual sight in our country…….which you might as well have chosen to ignore, but this time, there’s something that particularly catches your gaze. It’s the boy, following his mother…….a look at him closely, and you see scars all over his face, head, hands and on whatever more is visible, beyond the cover of his clothes. You call out to the woman and hand over a twenty rupee note to her……...and the mother looks at you hurriedly before moving on to the next vehicle, not saying much in words, but her eyes tell you………she just can’t thank you enough.

I could go on and on with many more of such encounters………..but whatever may be the scenario, there is one universal truth that lies beneath all of them………..whether we like it or not, whether we accept it or not, money does play a crucial role in life. While it is a necessity in some cases, in others it is an agent by means of which we attempt to buy happiness, all the while forgetting that happiness is not a commodity with a price tag on it.

But vain as we are……...we continue to follow the Bollywood mantra……..
“The Whole Thing Is That Ke Bhaiya Sabse Bada Rupaiya”.