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Greed is Good! Greed is Good! Greed is Good!
That was the slogan repeatedly flashed in red by a blinking neon sign outside a famous mall in Banjara Hills in January 2008 when we shifted to a rented apartment nearby and I used to take long evening walks.
I entered that mall once out of curiosity and found that there was no place for me to sit or even stand. It was brimming with youthful customers buying everything from "Buy 2 & Get 3" suit-pieces to a "Police" brand wallet costing a cool Rs 5,000.
And one of my distant friends dealing in real estate called me once and said:
"I will get you a 2-BHK apartment in Uppal for Rs 50 lakhs. Decide quick...prices of cement and steel are shooting through the roof"
Fortunately I didn't then have even a whiff of that 50 lakhs.
For, within six months there was this world-wide recession sparked by the Americans' greed for cheap housing that they could never afford.
And that neon sign stopped flashing and those girls manning the sales counters of that mall were dozing endlessly and I could have slept on the floor of that mall hours together...no questions asked. It was as empty as a stable after the horses have bolted.
...And a year later I got a 3-BHK apartment in Chandanagar for a throwaway Rs 23.5 lakhs...my builder was begging customers for "ready cash".
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There is this popular Telugu verse:
చీమలు పెట్టిన పుట్టలు
పాముల కిరవైనయట్లు పామరుఁడుదగన్
హేమంబుఁ గూడఁ బెట్టిన
భూమీశుల పాలఁజేరు భువిలో సుమతీ!
"The mud-hills built by fervent ants get usurped by serpents. Likewise gold hoarded by the greedy poor goes to the king"
GOLD!
Gold always fascinated mankind (and womenkind). That 79th element of the Periodic Table!
Here is the first verse of Shri Suktam:
हिरण्यवर्णां हरिणीं सुवर्णरजतस्रजाम् ।
चन्द्रां हिरण्मयीं लक्ष्मीं जातवेदो म आवह ॥
तत् त्वं पूषन्नपावृणु सत्यधर्माय दृष्टये ॥
(The face of Truth is covered with a golden disk. Unveil it, O Pooshan, so that I who love the Truth may see it)
All our kids have read about the famous "goose that laid golden eggs"
Once every year, for a couple of hours, I turn into a purohit for my family, wearing silk dhoti and silk angavastram and cotton jannau (like Rahul Gandhi) and reading the Ganesh Puja's compulsory "story".
And I smile within myself when I come to the prodigious Syamantak Mani:
"Wherever the jewel remained, it would produce for the keeper eight bhāras of gold daily. ("Four rice grains are called one guñjā; five guñjās, one paṇa; eight paṇas, one karṣa; four karṣas, one pala; and one hundred palas, one tulā. Twenty tulās make up one bhāra.") Since there are about 3,700 grains of rice in an ounce, the Syamantaka jewel was producing approximately 170 pounds of gold every day. It was also the source of the dazzling appearance of the Sun God."
Come on!
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What about CASH?
In 2015, I got a call from my sister at Nellore that my mother, on her death bed, had sold our ancestral home in Gudur and got a whopping Rs 43 lakhs (all of it in cash...jet black). And that she was donating Rs 3 lakhs to Sri Ramanasramam as per my earlier wish. And that she had decided to give Rs 20 lakhs cash to her six daughters. And that the remaining Rs 20 lakhs cash was lying in a suitcase in the form of Rs 1000 notes. And that I should travel to Nellore pronto and take delivery of that suitcase and carry it with me to my flat in Hyderabad and ENJOY.
Since I am born lazy I declined the sumptuous offer politely.
And I was told later that all that cash was converted into gold ornaments and my mother distributed them to her daughters, granddaughters, and my D-i- L, and little Ishani...her own daughter-in-law having reached heaven by then carrying her tiny gold nose stud along with her.
https://gpsastry.blogspot.com/2014/08/nastalgia.html
Eminently sensible!
For, within a year, there was this Modiji's famous Demonetisation; and being lazy, I would have lost all that cash.
The other day I read that a poor farmer lost his lifetime savings of Rs 50 lakhs that he had kept safely in cash in his trunk, to termites (white ants).
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But cash also has its uses:
This Columbian drug-lord, Escobar, was on the run from police and was hiding for a night in a cave along with his kid-daughter whom he loved more than his cash.
Apparently the night got bitterly cold and his tiny tot was collapsing from "hypothermia" (like that kid who died in Texas recently from severe cold).
And then Escobar pulled out a million dollars in currency notes from his briefcase and burnt them one by one throughout the night and kept his daughter warm.
He couldn't have burned that gold or smart phones or 2-BHK apartments in Uppal :)
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Our Vedic ancestors valued progeny as much as gold. Here is the lead verse of a famous Rik recited daily in front of sages and saints (from: Kaivalyopanishad):
न कर्मणा न प्रजया धनेन त्यागेनैके अमृतत्वमानशुः।
परेण नाकं निहितं गुहायां विभ्राजते यद्यतयो विशन्ति ॥
Our last Nizam: Mir Osman Ali Khan Siddqi Bahadur had least 149 children ONLY.
There was this Punch Cartoon in the 1960s:
A young American Embassy employee in Cairo was visiting the maternity hospital to have a look at his newborn kid. All the newborn kids were kept in an exhibition hall in cribs...rows upon rows.
He located his kid in the 5th row.
And saw a Sultan in his flowing robes standing by his side and watching his progeny.
The American asked:
"Which one is yours?"
"The first four rows"
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All of our kids know all about King Midas.
Six years ago I was blogging a series of stories titled: "Tweaked Tales for Smart Kids"
Here is an excerpt:
Ishani asked:
"But tell me granpa...when King Midas was hungry and touched the rice in his plate for his dinner that week, all that rice should have turned into gold which he couldn't eat, no way. Also, when his cute little daughter ran to embrace him, she too would have turned into lifeless gold, no?"
"No...King Midas used his leather gloves before eating his food and touching his daughter"
"I see...but his leather gloves too must have turned into gold and made it impossible for him to use them since gold doesn't bend, no?"
"No...they were fake leather made in Hyderabad under the 'Make in India' scheme"
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Finally, about Greed, there is this lead verse from the lead Upanishad (Ishopanishad):
ईशावास्यमिदँ सर्वं यत्किञ्च जगत्यां जगत् ।
तेन त्यक्तेन भुञ्जीथा मा गृधः कस्यस्विद्धनम् ।।
"Know that all this, whatsoever moves in this moving world is enveloped by God. Therefore renounce and enjoy without coveting what belongs to others"
ॐ पूर्णमदः पूर्णमिदं पूर्णात्पूर्णमुदच्यते ।
पूर्णस्य पूर्णमादाय पूर्णमेवावशिष्यते ॥
ॐ शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिः ॥
Amen!
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