In most cases my parents used to relent. My dad would take me to the market and get me whatever I wanted just to keep me quiet, even though for a while only. Then I started seeing the transactions happening. I wanted something, so I fought for it and shifted the status quo a bit. Seeing the status quo shifting, my parents acted to restore the balance. But restoring the balance comes at some cost. I saw my dad giving some little pieces of green paper to the shopowner in return for my chocolate. At first I wondered, is the shopowner crazy?? Why is he giving up chocolate just for some green paper. Clearly he didn't realize the value of a bar of chocolate. Then I started realizing that for everything I wanted from the market - bicycle, toys, ice creams... - people used to ask for this green stuff they called money. My curiosity aroused, I started following this green stuff. I saw that most of the times people were happy carrying around this green stuff in their pockets. So I concluded that it's probably gives you a fun feeling to carry around this stuff in your pocket. Maybe it's more fun than even eating a chocolate!!! But I was denied this pleasure by my parents at that time, no matter how much I wailed. That made me want this green stuff even more. I even tried to make some of this green paper using my color pencils and drawing book. I kept it in my pocket for some days but didn't feel anything. No fun at all. I thought maybe it gives fun only when you carry around the real thing.
Couple of years later, when I was old enough to go to school on my own, my parents gave me my first greenback. I was so thrilled that day. I thought now I would know what all the fuss is about. My parents said the money was to be used to buy some food from the school canteen, in case I felt hungry. Well, that day I did feel hungry in school but the green stuff had become too important for me to give up just for some food. I was still waiting for the pleasure which people seemed to get by keeping it in their pockets. Couple of days passed, nothing happened. On the third day, I felt really hungry in school. I thought what the hell, maybe I'll feel the fun some other day. I went to the school canteen, and there I saw it. My favourite chocolate! I had the green stuff with me, I didn't need my dad now to get me the chocolate. I didn't think twice and gave up the green stuff for the chocolate. It felt so good. I had got my first chocolate without the help of my parents. I had become a "big boy". Then it struck me "Ah!! so people keep this green stuff in their pocket so that they may get whatever they want, whenever they want by using it." That, my friends, was one of the greatest self taught learnings I have ever had.
From that day onwards I have had it clear in my head, I want more of this green stuff. So I took whatever direction it was considered socially acceptable to get more money. When I finished school, people said do engineering from a good college, would ensure you a good career and financial stability in the future. So I did that. After engineering, my first job was a decent one, the money was not much by my today's standards but satisfied all my needs at that time. After some time I decided, I need much more money than this. So MBA was the next step. After my MBA I thought that I have got what i wanted. A job that paid good money, an amount of money with which I thought I could live happily. But soon this notion was disproved. I saw people around me earning more money. I started looking for further avenues of increasing my paycheque. I had a comfortable life and the money I was making was sufficient to sustain it. But still I wanted a job that earned me more money. I wanted to earn more money for ..........well.......... just for the sake of earning more money. Of course I had fantasies of owning a big villa in the south of France, and a yacht and all the stuff people buy with big money, but I knew it for a fact that I could still do without them.
Earning more and more money has just become a social status symbol for most of us and nothing else. We spend more time trying to earn more money than we spend to enjoy it. Sometimes I feel what is the point of earning more, if the process of earning itself denies me the time to enjoy what I have earned.
Well this doesn't mean that I am out of the race for the greenback, am still in it full throttle. But still trying to figure out why am I doing what I am doing.
P.S. Just a thought. Don't take it seriously. Am not the one to renounce everything and head towards the jungle. Or... am I?? ;)
