Reality shows are pathetic. If nothing more then they’re a simple disgrace to the little credible intelligence of the common man (AND woman) of this country. Never before, and nowhere else, we would see television trying to fool people into believing that in-serial relationships between women – over dressed, extra made up and who fully dress up while cooking lunch in kitchen as if they were going to a reception – persist on-stage during those televised, dramatized new-year bashes. Or… or… or… are they a true representation of how down have we, the citizens of this extra glorified country, let our intelligence and indulgence sink! Either ways, am no fan of TV that has stopped representing the mass of this country and has become a money spinning medium from those who have all the money to spend on things they don’t need, all the time they can’t spend with family which is thousands of miles away, and friends who don’t exist any more. However, last weekend, as I continued to peep into IPL auctions while doing something, I, for the first time, found a valuable lesson of life from a just-fully worthless waste of already scandalized electromagnetic spectrum. It was a sight of Dr. Mallaya sternly holding that betting stick in his hand as if it was a purposeful beacon to a sinking ship, an expression carved in stone on his face, and eyes firmly set on his targets. He stopped at no limits until he got his man. And price – a ridiculously high sum that could make a rickshaw valla jump in front of another rickshaw, hoping to commit suicide. Now, in that moment, I saw a businessman – a good businessman – making a huge spend on something he believed would reap him good returns. He made an investment, a really big investment when we consider things like GDP and BPL population. Call that a commitment and you won’t be wrong. Cricket is a funny game and I don’t know now, nor does he, whether it would pay off or not. But that habitual act of purposeful, unhindered spending told me his secret – if you believe something is good for ‘tomorrow’ make sure you invest good in it.
Now enough of the economics, and am no businessman, but it made me think – to me, a middle class man, and many like me – one true wealth that we have are people – people who love us, care for us, punish us when we do something wrong, raise us on our shoulders when we do something good, those who feel proud in our victories, those who secretly wipe a tear when we lose after a sincere effort… If life is IPL then none of us, absolutely none, would move through the twenty overs without one or the other of these people walking by us and unless we invest in them, they won’t hang around long enough till we reach that 120th ball.
Human beings are complicated, very, very complicated. They are good, they are bad and they are foolish. Everybody, absolutely everybody, without fail, is selfish to one extent or the other. But they are fun. They are a need of a man’s soul – that one, tiny fragment of each one of us that remains and honest and uncorrupted by unnecessary greed and useless fear. These people, they selfishly need their share of investments – time, togetherness, selflessness, protection, punishment along with joys, anger and all those emotions tightly weaved between the 206 bones of our feeble, mortal bodies. How many ‘best friends’ we haven’t met from decades after we landed up in a job and ‘just lost touch’? How many children secretly wish they were born in a friend’s family simply because their friend’s father has the time to play with them every weekend and read stories to them every night? How many loved ones we have stopped caring simply because they suddenly dropped in importance against that assignment or that ‘long term professional goal’? Any how many men, just how many of them – who found those long term goals, positions, bank balances, cars and bungalows that they yearned for all those years – feel satisfied and don’t need that ‘new and bigger’ goal to achieve?
No offence to those who believe that there is nothing wrong in going after such things – because there simply is really nothing wrong. It’s purely a matter of choice of what we prioritize in life. For those who end up prioritizing people above cement, paper and steel that can be bought, time is the only investment that they have to make. Mere minutes could ensure togetherness for years. Lastly, for those, who have a price tag for their minutes, make sure you continue to find another ‘long term goal’ and that one more ‘important assignment’ as soon as you achieve one. A time will come when you’ll need them to survive just as we do oxygen. Or, find for yourself if it is really too hard to strike that little balance between the two worlds wide apart? Either ways, people won’t wait forever.
Now enough of the economics, and am no businessman, but it made me think – to me, a middle class man, and many like me – one true wealth that we have are people – people who love us, care for us, punish us when we do something wrong, raise us on our shoulders when we do something good, those who feel proud in our victories, those who secretly wipe a tear when we lose after a sincere effort… If life is IPL then none of us, absolutely none, would move through the twenty overs without one or the other of these people walking by us and unless we invest in them, they won’t hang around long enough till we reach that 120th ball.
Human beings are complicated, very, very complicated. They are good, they are bad and they are foolish. Everybody, absolutely everybody, without fail, is selfish to one extent or the other. But they are fun. They are a need of a man’s soul – that one, tiny fragment of each one of us that remains and honest and uncorrupted by unnecessary greed and useless fear. These people, they selfishly need their share of investments – time, togetherness, selflessness, protection, punishment along with joys, anger and all those emotions tightly weaved between the 206 bones of our feeble, mortal bodies. How many ‘best friends’ we haven’t met from decades after we landed up in a job and ‘just lost touch’? How many children secretly wish they were born in a friend’s family simply because their friend’s father has the time to play with them every weekend and read stories to them every night? How many loved ones we have stopped caring simply because they suddenly dropped in importance against that assignment or that ‘long term professional goal’? Any how many men, just how many of them – who found those long term goals, positions, bank balances, cars and bungalows that they yearned for all those years – feel satisfied and don’t need that ‘new and bigger’ goal to achieve?
No offence to those who believe that there is nothing wrong in going after such things – because there simply is really nothing wrong. It’s purely a matter of choice of what we prioritize in life. For those who end up prioritizing people above cement, paper and steel that can be bought, time is the only investment that they have to make. Mere minutes could ensure togetherness for years. Lastly, for those, who have a price tag for their minutes, make sure you continue to find another ‘long term goal’ and that one more ‘important assignment’ as soon as you achieve one. A time will come when you’ll need them to survive just as we do oxygen. Or, find for yourself if it is really too hard to strike that little balance between the two worlds wide apart? Either ways, people won’t wait forever.
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