Money Matters

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Money matters. Or does it really? I suppose it does one way or the other. Those who don’t have it are a worried lot. So are those who have it in excess.

It is like the Dilli ka Ladoo. It is so famous for its taste that those who haven’t tasted it feel deprived and ashamed. It is so rich in ghee, sugar and dal that those who eat it suffer from stomach pangs. Yet I suppose stomach pangs are passing, so eating is the better option.

So with Money. Poverty is more degrading than riches, unless it is self-imposed. There are those who prefer to go without Money. These are the saints and savants. Poverty, like abstinence, is a virtue for them. They cater to their minimal physical needs by begging, literally or metaphorically. I guess the advantage of this is that you don’t have to pay Income Tax, and also avoid undesirable people like Insurance Agents (nice altruistic folks otherwise).

In the Vedas, Money is frankly extolled (there was less hypocrisy those golden days). Shree Suktam (literally: ‘Good words for Wealth’) says: “Money is Fire Power, Money is Wind Power, Money is Solar Power, Money is Wisdom Power, Money is Vital Power, Money is Brain Power….”. Also, in the Upanishads, King Janaka of Videha, who had enough Money but desired Knowledge (these are supposed to be antidotes to one another) offers his Guru Yagnyavalkya: “I give you a thousand!” At first I didn’t get ‘thousand what’? Then I gathered he was giving away a thousand Holy Cows! No wonder the Gangetic Valley is known as the Cow-Belt and Laloo Krishna its Milkman. Also, right now there is curfew and what not here in Hyderabad over matters concerning cows.

But I digress, as Aniket says. The real question is: “How much money is just about right to have?” This question is more a Personal One than a Universal One. Those who tried to give a Universal Answer and enforce it on others didn’t succeed. Typically the Soviet Regime, misunderstanding Marx, decided that Government Houses and Ration Cards should be ok for its citizens. It worked for a while before Ration Cards and Government Houses came in a variety of color schemes.

Money means many things to many. Ultimately it is supposed to measure Happiness (another weird word; there is supposed to be a GHP, Gross Happiness Product for every Nation: Bhutan, of all countries, leading currently).

Should there be a GHP for every individual, easily measurable at home, with an instrument like a digital BP apparatus? If any Company tries to design one, I suggest that the 100% Marker corresponding to the Maximum Happiness Index should be set by calibrating it on my 3-month-old granddaughter, Ishani, after she had her sleep, bath and mother’s milk. She just CROWS!!! (Just before her vaccination prick!)

When in 1965 I joined IIT KGP as an Associate Lecturer (Permanent), someone told me (I didn’t read the fine-print in the 5-page document which I had to sign…..I was in a hurry to join lest they decide to withdraw their Offer Letter) that they offered Pension to me and, after my death, to my would-be wife. Then and there I decided to burn both ends of the candle. I never regretted it fully to this day. I hate Money in the Bank. It should flow like running water. Stagnant Money, like stagnant water, breeds all kinds of diseases.

The other day I suddenly found a lakh and a half Rupees in my Pension Account. I thought there must be some mistake. But they told me that it is a genuine entry for the Arrears of the 6th Pay Commission. At once my wife and I decided to stimulate the moribund Indian Economy by spending the entire sum on ‘Travel and Living’. A few thousand Rupees were still lying around. So I decided to compile a couple of dozen blog pieces of mine accumulating over 3 years and get them printed at my own expense (stimulating the Printing Industry) in the form of a booklet. Aniket wrote a wise Foreword. My wife asked me: “To whom will you send them?” I said to my many relatives and friends. She said: “What is the use, most of them never read nor even acknowledge?”

I replied they will serve as my Life Certificates.

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