Dilemma of a Young Mind

In 1979, when I was travelling by a red ASTC bus, I saw an old lady was clutching a worn-out bag like a young mother keeps her newborn baby in her arms. Despite of repeated request by the conductor to place it behind her seat, she did not leave the bag till she got down from the bus. Being a young boy, I was surprised to see that scene, as most of us, having better suitcases, might be having more valuable articles than those inside the tattered bag of the old lady. It took many years to understand the intricacy of the truth behind the scene of clutching that worn bag of the old lady.

  It is a case of relative importance of a particular article or a bunch of articles for a particular person vis a vis with others. In that particular case, the contents in the bag might be quite substantial amount of her savings/ property where as, costly things in our bags quite negligible of our savings/properties. We always give importance to any of our belongings according to their relative value compared to our other belongings.

  In 2008, my daughter lost a bracelet of my wife, gifted by her mother, lost while attending a marriage, which I did not attend. My wife got very upset and scolded my daughter right and left. My brother in law informed the incident over telephone with a request not to scold my daughter. I took it very lightly considering its price /design and manufacturing material. It ensued a long debate with my wife who accused me that I am not sensitive enough to understand the emotional value of the bracelet which was given by her mother(not by my mother). She may be right, I might have reacted differently, had it been given by my late mother.

  Value of money is changing over time is a fact, but change of relative value of money is more important for an individual than the actual devaluation.

  Let me narrate an incident of my childhood. During Puja festival, I asked my father to give me char-anna( quarter of a rupee). But my father thought I was asking for four rupee. After a good scolding, (what I would do with a huge amount of Rs.4/-), he gave me Re.1/-. For me it was like reaching heaven without even climbing. What was the value of that Re.1? It may be Rs.100/- today-may be little more or little less. But even if somebody gives me Rs.1000/- today, I may not be as happy as I was on that particular day. Because relative value of that particular rupee may be of a crore today , may be even more than a crore for me.

  Now, I can understand the relative value of that worn-out bag for that old lady; it might be equivalent to a few thousand for me, few lakhs for some of my friends and few crore for a millionaire (of course in dollar terms) and few millions for a billionaire.

  How the memory of the old lady came to my mind recently? There is a news item, that NGT has decided to get rid of all old vehicles of 15 year or more, from Delhi. This news is heartbreaking for many of us due to different reasons; from financial to emotional. The news item has been accepted by my family with mixed reactions-my younger daughter is very happy with obvious reasons, my wife is neither happy nor unhappy, but somewhat concerned and me???

  I am happy that I can drive my old Rampiyari for another one year and three months. So day before yesterday, I changed my seat covers to give a surprise to my truncated family. Unfortunately it became a surprise for me only. Reaction from my wife was mute and my daughter’s reaction was, ‘Why you have changed the seat covers(sic), you could have kept for another one year(already kept for last fourteen years), in any case you have to change your car after one year!’

  None had appreciated, as their relative expectation was much higher than that of mine. I am happy that my family has higher visions than mine. I am happy that, both of them are coming from better financial backgrounds than mine; but still happier as they are accommodating me in their dreams as an integral part!!!!!

  Chapter 7: Do you have an answer?