Money matters

Well, well, well. This internship is turning out to be quite a learning experience! There have been so many firsts already. For the first time, I’m living in a flat with 2 other MS employees, for the first time I’m cooking for myself and more importantly, likely it, and for the first time yesterday, I had a 3 course meal at a 5 star hotel’s restaurant. Now, how’s that for firsts! But as usual this stupid conscience of mine (or do i mean my brain...inconsequential anyway) always ends up noticing the wrong things and brings in an element of sadness into all things I do, no matter how grand. Last night was a great experience in terms of the people I saw, in terms of the food I ate, in terms of the way I was treated and served but still there was a feeling of detachment that justwouldn’t let go of me. I saw a glimpse of money in everything around and not just any money…BIG money, from the cars that people drove up in, to the clothes they wore, to the food they ordered, and even, to the way they talked. It all reeked of wealth and money. I realized that I do not belong to this world…yet! This thought made me question myself, “Do I really ever want to belong to this place?” I’m not saying all those people weren’t good and kind souls or that it was in any way bad for them to be splurging like this but do ‘I’ want to have all that and lead that kind of a lifestyle? The answer even surprised ME! I realized that I DO NOT want that life of money and style. I really don’t. There should always be certain things in life that are a luxury. Its only then that you value their true worth, else the term luxury itself loses its meaning if one endeavors to make it commonplace which we all are hell bent on doing in each of our individual lives. When we say we want to reach for the stars, all we actually mean is that we want to dine in fancy restaurants, wear stylish clothes and mingle with rich people. But those are not the kind of stars I’ve always wanted to reach for. My stars were oh-so-different. I always envisaged a life for myself that had just enough of everything – love, happiness, success and a small sprinkling of disappointment evenly spread over it all, just to keep me on my feet and grounded, always. Also, because its only through the disappointments that I can truly appreciate the other blessings in my life. And money ALWAYS corrupts. There is no limit to how much a human being can get used to. The level of satisfaction is individual specific. So, it’s for each one of us to decide what’s “enough’ for us. People who choose to run after money all their lives aren’t the ones to be pitied, the real unfortunate ones are those who never knew that they had another choice!