$$$ Money For Thought $$$

So here’s definitely a pun intended at the clichéd “food for thought”. As life progresses at a fast pace, we are constantly looking for a change- a change for the better; the best. Few of us like to tag along with the present situation and indeed a very few turn around to see the past beckoning at them.One wonders what this ‘life in the fast lane’ is all about? Starting from a rather humanly natural need of earning pennies to buy bread in the evening or to save for the rainy days, it’s become a rat-race to the top of social hierarchy. To earn as much as possible, to accumulate, by hook or by crook-any possible means available – that’s the order of the day.

Why is money running our lives- be it green or red- like a hard task master? To what end does a man or woman spend his 8+ hours at work sometimes doing overtime and mostly called on holidays to finish up some deadline? What exactly do we want? No one ever sits back to note down the priorities of life that take a back seat in the heavy bargain that is driven to attain the luxuries of life. Elaborating on the subject of luxuries if one has the newest car for his family’s comfort as a status symbol, how many hours each day does he spend in it traveling with his family? 3-4 in a week? Sometimes weekends are so hectic to drive you would rather spend it at home than trying to jostle up in the heavy traffic jam. That is also an end-product of  2 cars per family in the metropolitan.

The husband, the wife and the children have memberships of gyms and clubs and they go their at separate timings. Consequently the children have a  more outgoing and broad-minded lifestyle than the parents(family) which gives way to an ever-widening generation/communication gap . They turn to their parents for money and turn away rather defiantly if they get advice in return. They refuse to go to their relatives, attend family functions etc because all they recall their relatives with is ‘dotty aunt Zubaida’, ‘pestering cousin Saad, and the ‘boring uncle Hamid’. The couple themselves, woven into the wedlock after a love affair, see the moments of affection flying out the window as quickly as they get ready for breakfast each morning before going to their respective jobs. They have their own social circle, friends and weekend priorities ranging from an annual dinner to a colleague’s engagement ceremony. They still sleep in the same bed (probably at different times), but hardly get the time to sit together for a candle-lit dinner, watch a film snuggled in blanket on a cold night, go for a walk down the beach with a cool breeze blowing through the hairs and all the other joys life has to offer without a cent spent. But, alas they don’t get the time for it in their full-luxury accommodation with the newest gadgets to embellish their status with. They still have a hope chest filled to the brim, but it’s never opened to let a romantic dream or two see the daylight.
                                                                                                                                                                   

While far away from all this hustle bustle of life was a couple who just went on top of their single-storey cemented house to enjoy a heavenly summer downpour, with their 6 kids playing in the streets. Oblivious to the prying eyes of the neighbors they hugged each other in an eternal embrace. And in those few moments they lived another life, another lifetime…away from all the troubles that any financial insecurity threw their way. Guess they really ‘saved the best for the rainy day’- saved their joys, their romance, their love, the passion in their souls…

The elites of the city were ready to bid the highest to buy this intangible luxuries of life that they could only dream of! To sum up this whole article I would quote this beautiful sms a student of mine sent me.

‘Someone once asked an angel, “What surprises you most about mankind??”.

The angel replied “Those who lose their health to make money and then lose their money to restore their health. By thinking anxiously about the future they forget the present. Such that they neither live for the present nor for the future.”
Its time to rethink our priorities in life’!!