I am a bit disillusioned since yesterday. While coming to the office, I thought of many ways to start and end my blog. The basic question running in my head: Is money the ‘be it all, have it all’ in today’s world? It is a never ending debate I know. There have been times I felt that yes, maybe money is the solution to everything. But on other days I have felt exactly the opposite.
The days I am on a shopping spree, I just wish I had a little extra money to buy my dream wedges or my dream aviators. A magic running shoe would also do the trick, so that I can just shove both things in my bag and speed out of the mall. Jokes apart, Naomi Klein was so right when she wrote ‘No Logo’. Even I am a self confessed ‘mall rat’, no matter how much I preach against the mall culture. Modern branding campaigns have seeped so much into our veins now that one doesn’t even realize it. For example, do you (the reader) ask details about the apparel you are buying? Just think. The fact that it is a Benetton or an Adidas is enough to have made a statement and somewhere in our conscience it registers as being good automatically. This is exactly what the world has come to. There is more and more emphasis on promoting/advertising the brand rather than the clothes. Well before I shift to an entirely new topic let me just stop here.
When I go on my field visits, I get to see the larger picture. I meet a variety of people who have so less at hand but somehow they seem to be more content. During such phases I feel that I should not be cribbing about not having this and that. It reminds me of the popular phrase which goes ‘the man who cried because he had no shoes until he saw a man who had no feet’. Being in a remote village and listening to the people shoot out their local problems with regard to the education system, the panchayats etc. and then suddenly being transported back into civilization, having popcorn and watching a new Friday release in a PVR. It results in one of the most ironic situations one could ever be in.
I guess if we keep running after material pursuits then there is no end to it. If things were different then why would the Mittals and the Ambanis of the world keep expanding their business more and more?? Money is important no doubt; it can buy you a lot of luxuries after all. But just because some person may not have the necessary finances doesn’t make him poor, does it? I may be unable to help my friends monetarily but I do give a lot in terms of my time, help when needed, hospitality, care etc. Does that make me a bad friend? I consider the villagers who show respect and care during my visits in the same esteem as those with whom I have a good time back in the city, am I wrong? Maybe I am, maybe I am right. But for now I would like to say that people minus the former aren't less important or less egoistic. It is about time some people started realizing that.
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