Stories from my Forgotten Attic

Funny Money and a Lesson in Saving

2009-07-11T00:32:00.000-07:00

It's two stories this time. One of them is real world.

So there was this rich guy who made a lot of money in life and was able to keep most of it too. He had very modest tastes and would not like to spend on anything that had to be bought with money unless extremely necessary and nobody had an old one to spare. Obviously his wife wasn't very appreciative of his lifestyle but poor thing had to put up with it somehow since legal help was not easy to come by in those good old days. So all she could do was nag him from dawn to dusk and dawn again hoping that one day, he would listen and change...may be just a bit... He may not buy good clothes and ornaments for her, may not take her to Las Vegas, may not get her the latest iPhone but perhaps, some day may be .. at least take treat her to good food... for she was very fond of good food and but could get any since Mr Richy Rich thought it was extravagance.

Next door to Mr Richy Rich lived Mr and Mrs Happy Harry. HHs' were no rich. They had very limited sources of income and most of the time they just about managed to make ends meet. Knowing that there wasn't enough money to make for them in life, they believed that there is lot more to life than just money. So whatever came, they enjoyed it to hilt. Mrs HH was always seen buying trinkets around and trying different styles, not expensive of course, but colorful and catchy. And yes, they were both fond of good food. Often when Mrs RR opened her door, or window and the wind was blowing right, she would get a whiff of delicious foods coming right from the house of HHs. That always made her feel so futile, then jealous, then depressed, then mad and then furious. After all, what good was all that money she was sitting on if she could not enjoy it. And that day Mr RR would always get quite an earful and a lot more than that.

It happened once, twice, ten times, fifteen, thirty, fifty and then one day he decided that something had to be done about it. He knew ordering pizza was not a long term solution to it. And he knew what the solution was too. Only, it was going to cost a lot more than the pizza. But he thought he will go ahead. In one of those rare flashes of charity, he smiled to himself. "It's going to be fun" he said

Next Morning, when Mr HH came out to pick up the newspaper, he found a beautiful bag outside with his name on it. It was with love from some Santa Claus. He opened it and to his surprise, found that it had money in it. And it was a lot of money too. He counted the lot and found it to be $900. "Wait, where's the last hundred?" he thought. He looked around, but could not find that last hundred. But even 900 was quiet a lot of money to him. Never before had he seen so much money together. It was almost $1000. All he needed was put another $100 and it would be a Grand. One full Grand. So, next few days, he worked hard and spent less to make it one full grand. By the time it became a Grand, HH was already thinking and calculating and planning as to how long will it take to make 2 grands out of it. Or may be 10.

Mrs RR did not smell much from HHs' house afterwords. She never understood what happened but could clearly see that Mrs HH was not as happy as she used to be. "May be they have spent all their money and have not much left now" she thought..

Often when I see young people just into their new jobs and blowing money like there is no tomorrow, it reminds me of this story. And it reminds me of an acquaintance. Next story is about him.

He was young, came from a well to do family and was fond of good food and good life. He grew up in Delhi and whether he earned a hundred or a few grands, he was sure to spend it all on the good things in life.

Then one day, the company sent him on a very long assignment to a steel plant which was located a hundred miles away from civilization in the middle of nowhere. He got better salary there, plus his stay and food was taken care of by the client. It was no good food (the only place to get food there was the workers' mess) but he got used to it after a while.

So for the first time in life, he was in a situation where he had good money but most of it was no use to him. Because there was no way to spend it there. Soon he almost forgot that he was even earning something and got himself busy with work. He would not even go check whether he was getting paid regularly in later months. It lasted for more than a year and then he was called back to Delhi office after completing his assignment.

Back in Delhi, when he checked his bank balance, he was pleasantly surprised to find a lot of dough in there.

His friends found somethings changed about him after he came back. He used to get his own packed lunch from home and wore the same shirt thrice in a week. He also found ways to excuse himself from Friday eat-outs. One more thing. He begen to check his bank balance very often now. And when he did that, you could not miss that twinkle in his eyes.

Back at home, we refer to this phenomena as Ninnyannave ka Phera... or the spiral of ninety nine. Always starts with the intention of adding one more to make it hundred.. and never ends after that.

Floating with the Blanket

2009-06-28T00:21:00.000-07:00

When we started in our first job, we thought that we will have to work certain hours a day and will be paid a certain amount for that. Later sometimes, the work would not finish in those hours and we would stay longer. Which is fine once in a while, but this once in a while starts happening once too often. Initially, we question it… we are not being paid extra for this… we have people waiting at home… nobody recognizes it here so why do I put in extra… and other excuses to push off the load… but that doesn’t work and we soon get used to working late… getting work home… taking official calls at unearthly hours… working on weekends and so on. Once in a while we do ask …. where is my me-time… whatever happened to work life balance… when did I take my last long holiday… but get no straight answers and move on…

Work is one situation. There can be many… may be relationships, may be habits… or our dud investments in the market and all such situations, which we want to get away from, but can not because the situation gets better of us. The reason why we got into it in the first place is no more relevant after a point.

Today’s story touches upon the same feeling. It doesn’t offer a solution but hopefully, it will help you relate and introspect.

There was a Gurukul (Traditional Hindu convent school of the old world) in the ancient city of Rishikesh. Rishikesh is a very old city in the foothills of Himalayas on the banks of the holy river Ganga. It is famous even today for its traditional schools of Yoga, Ayurveda and other Indian streams of ancient knowledge

One day, two young students of our Gurukul were strolling at the banks of the river Ganga on their way back from the early morning class when one of them spotted what looked like a thick blanket floating in the river. He showed this to his friend and suggested… that if they could get hold of this blanket, it could be used as some protection against the biting cold winter that is characteristic of the Himalayan weather. The friend liked the idea and jumped into the river to get it.

As he approached the blanket and grabbed it, he realized that it was actually a Himalayan black bear which had fallen into the river somewhere on the higher ridges. The poor beast had given himself to his fate but was not dead yet. As this brahmachari (student of the gurukul) grabbed it, the life force in the bear thought that this is something to catch hold of and survive by, and it grabbed the brahmachari with much stronger force.

When his friend saw the brahmachari flowing in the river with the blanket, he shouted from the bank… “LEAVE THE BLANKET AND COME BACK HERE”

Last words of the brahmachari were: “ I HAVE ALREADY LEFT THE BLANKET BROTHER… IT’S NOW THE BLANKET WHICH IS NOT LEAVING ME”…
ZZZZZ
Got the idea here!!! I hope you did…

Dream a Little Dream

2009-06-21T14:34:00.000-07:00

My brother told me this story once, and this is perhaps the most inspiring story I ever heard. The references are from the Christian faith; however I am not sure if the story finds any mention in the bible. If you find a mention, please do let me know too. It’s not a story about Christianity; it is the story about faith… for faith and hope are all we have when we have nothing else…

Since I am not a Christian, and do not know much about Christianity, you will have to excuse me for any factual errors. Some of my friends have heard this story before, and to some I had promised to tell later. And to tell this story… now is the time like no better time.

It’s about three tall trees in a forest. They were tall, strong and elegant… And like all young people, they had big dreams for their future. One of them, wanted to be carved into a throne. A majestic throne that will seat the greatest and the most powerful king of the world. The other one, who always looked up to the first one, shared a similar dream.. Only in his case, it was a mighty chariot in place of a majestic throne. Third one was different from the two. He wanted to grow tall… taller then anything in the world… to be the one that every tree in the forest will respect and look up to.

One day, an innkeeper from Bethlehem came into the forest and saw the trees. He needed wood for his own purposes and had no way to know what the tree wanted, so thought nothing of cutting down the first tree. He made it into a manger and kept that manger in his stable for his horses to feed on.

Some time later, a fisherman spotted the second tree. The tree was exactly what he was looking for to make his new boat from. The fisherman genuinely needed a new boat and could not read the tree’s mind so he thanked God for and cut down the tree.

Third tree had much worse in store for him. Some people came and cut him down for no reason and left him there.

Three big trees, with three big dreams ended just like ordinary trees or perhaps even worse. But the story does not end here. It actually begins here:

One night, a carpenter and his wife came to the Bethlehem and took shelter in a stable since there was no room in the inn. The wife gave birth to a child and laid him in the manger. As shepherds came to visit the family lead by angels singing the glory to the son of God, the tree which was made into the manger had this strange feeling. Holding that small child, he silently thanked God for this miracle because he knew that today his dream had come true.

The child grew up to be a man and moved to the shores of the Sea of Galilee. He lived with peasants and fishermen there and often traveled into the sea in a boat that we talked about earlier. Every time he took that boat, the tree would weep the tears of joy and thank God for fulfilling his dream in a way he could never have imagined.

The third tree lay there in the middle of nothingness till one day; a group of people came and made him into a huge cross. What happened of the cross is known to the whole world today. And that cross became perhaps the most respected symbol of the world.

My brother stopped here to tell the moral of the story. The moral was simple. We all have our dreams. And God has a plan for us. His plans may not be the same as our dreams, but somewhere in those plans, He always keeps place for our dreams too. And if we keep the faith for long enough, we do realize sooner or later, that our dreams do come true… may be not exactly as we had thought of but often much better then that. So all we have to do is keep that faith ...... and ...... hold that dream