So, I did something stupid yesterday – before you continue reading, I'm warning you, do NOT judge me – and, of course, it got me thinking. Well, here goes.
My family was in town and I was staying with them somewhat far off from the city. My brother and I decided to go out and get dinner for our parents because the restaurant wasn't willing to home deliver. So, he took Rs. 1000 from my mother and entrusted the two notes to me for safekeeping. Of course, he was functioning on the belief that I am responsible and trustworthy.
Functioning on the same belief, I took the money, folded it and kept it in my back pocket (my pants didn't have front pockets) with my phone, and constantly checked to make sure it was there. We set off and everything was fine. Money and phone were safe, until (you saw that coming didn't you?)... Well, until my dad decided to call me because he needed us to get something else for him. So, I felt my phone vibrating and I took it out of my pocket, making sure that the money stayed in place. I spoke to him and slid the phone back into my pocket when I felt something move. I checked my pocket for the money, and, you guessed it... it wasn't there. I checked and rechecked, hoping to magically make it appear with my mind. Of course, it didn't. So, while panicking, I told my brother that I couldn't find the money and to stop the bike. He all but stared at me in disbelief (he needed to keep his eyes on the road).
I told him to stop the bike and park somewhere and that I'd go check on the road and get the money. I walked up and down the span we'd covered, on the side of the road we'd been riding on, three times. I even searched in the plants growing in the median with the torch on my phone. I'm pretty sure the people driving past thought I was crazy. I panicked more and more, desperate to find the money, knowing that my parents would kill me if they found out I lost Rs.1000 because it flew out of my pocket. You must realise how stupid that sounds. I was ready to search EVERYWHERE possible to find that money and I even told my brother that it could have flown to the other side of the road and that we ought to search there too.
That's when he said, "Those two pieces of paper could have flown anywhere by now," and that we wouldn't be able to find it. Although at the time I was too paranoid about finding the money, the thought struck me and stayed in the back of my mind about how much importance we place in bits of paper. But I'll get to that in a bit.
We crossed the road and my brother said that we'd search that stretch and if we couldn't find it we'd go back. Having almost given up, I agreed. I lit up the road with my make do torch, and we saw a bit of paper. I ran to it and found one note and a little further down, the other one. Yes, we actually found money that I'd lost to the wind. I told my brother not mention the incident to my parents. He laughed and agreed. It's already that time when I can look back and laugh at my (very) stupid mistake, so if they read this blog post they'll know and it's okay. But, more important is what came out of that whole experience, apart from my brother not giving me the money to keep the next time we went on food getting errands.
Despite a friend of mine repeatedly saying and living the belief that money is just paper, and despite earlier thoughts that we're all too driven by money that it pretty much rules over our very existence, running in desperation after bits of paper late in the night struck a different chord in me. Money isn't just paper. It's paper that's given way too much value. Moreover, it's what makes us assign value to everything else in our lives. It's what makes having a Rs.10 chocolate more extravagant –for some people – than a Rs.5 one. I'm sure that if ten rupee notes had flown out of pocket I wouldn't have stopped to search for them. I probably would have made someone really lucky if I hadn't found the 500 rupee notes, but it makes me wonder why we've all come to a stage where pieces of paper with numbers on them can determine how fortunate we are.
My family was in town and I was staying with them somewhat far off from the city. My brother and I decided to go out and get dinner for our parents because the restaurant wasn't willing to home deliver. So, he took Rs. 1000 from my mother and entrusted the two notes to me for safekeeping. Of course, he was functioning on the belief that I am responsible and trustworthy.
Functioning on the same belief, I took the money, folded it and kept it in my back pocket (my pants didn't have front pockets) with my phone, and constantly checked to make sure it was there. We set off and everything was fine. Money and phone were safe, until (you saw that coming didn't you?)... Well, until my dad decided to call me because he needed us to get something else for him. So, I felt my phone vibrating and I took it out of my pocket, making sure that the money stayed in place. I spoke to him and slid the phone back into my pocket when I felt something move. I checked my pocket for the money, and, you guessed it... it wasn't there. I checked and rechecked, hoping to magically make it appear with my mind. Of course, it didn't. So, while panicking, I told my brother that I couldn't find the money and to stop the bike. He all but stared at me in disbelief (he needed to keep his eyes on the road).
I told him to stop the bike and park somewhere and that I'd go check on the road and get the money. I walked up and down the span we'd covered, on the side of the road we'd been riding on, three times. I even searched in the plants growing in the median with the torch on my phone. I'm pretty sure the people driving past thought I was crazy. I panicked more and more, desperate to find the money, knowing that my parents would kill me if they found out I lost Rs.1000 because it flew out of my pocket. You must realise how stupid that sounds. I was ready to search EVERYWHERE possible to find that money and I even told my brother that it could have flown to the other side of the road and that we ought to search there too.
That's when he said, "Those two pieces of paper could have flown anywhere by now," and that we wouldn't be able to find it. Although at the time I was too paranoid about finding the money, the thought struck me and stayed in the back of my mind about how much importance we place in bits of paper. But I'll get to that in a bit.
We crossed the road and my brother said that we'd search that stretch and if we couldn't find it we'd go back. Having almost given up, I agreed. I lit up the road with my make do torch, and we saw a bit of paper. I ran to it and found one note and a little further down, the other one. Yes, we actually found money that I'd lost to the wind. I told my brother not mention the incident to my parents. He laughed and agreed. It's already that time when I can look back and laugh at my (very) stupid mistake, so if they read this blog post they'll know and it's okay. But, more important is what came out of that whole experience, apart from my brother not giving me the money to keep the next time we went on food getting errands.
Despite a friend of mine repeatedly saying and living the belief that money is just paper, and despite earlier thoughts that we're all too driven by money that it pretty much rules over our very existence, running in desperation after bits of paper late in the night struck a different chord in me. Money isn't just paper. It's paper that's given way too much value. Moreover, it's what makes us assign value to everything else in our lives. It's what makes having a Rs.10 chocolate more extravagant –for some people – than a Rs.5 one. I'm sure that if ten rupee notes had flown out of pocket I wouldn't have stopped to search for them. I probably would have made someone really lucky if I hadn't found the 500 rupee notes, but it makes me wonder why we've all come to a stage where pieces of paper with numbers on them can determine how fortunate we are.
No comments:
Post a Comment