DOLLAR BUG!

I must say, that I was bitten with this DOLLAR BUG! Do not ask me why, but initially last year it did not seem to make a huge difference. But everything changed over the summer. This DOLLAR bug just overtook me. There was this insane urge in me to make huge amounts of money. What was I trying to prove? I was not doing anything novel. Hoards of individuals around me are doing the same. I could feel the arrogance in me growing each and every day. I do not have a reason for this to. Life was satisfactory enough. Or was it? Slowly seeds of doubt started sprouting in my thought process. Where was this mad, insane, stupid drive from? And then one day a friend of mine did ask me a question that sent my thought process into an overdrive! “Yaen daa, nambaloda appa, amma, elaarum car, mobile, A.C oda daan vaazhndaangalaa?” Here’s the translation. My friend pointed to me that our ancestors-parents, grandparents-did not have a mobile phone or an air conditioned car for their convenience. After all, a dollar bill is still a simple paper for which we end up cutting a tree. Yes I admit that these cars, mobiles etc do make our life all the more comfortable (and who does not want to be more comfortable?). That being the case, does it mean that our ancestors did not lead a comfortable life? A guy who was more than comfortable driving his dad’s scooter (note the point, even the scooter was not his!) now craves for a life with a laptop, a mobile, an air conditioned apartment and so on. I was deeply ashamed at my attitude. Nothing changes in life. We come into this world with nothing. But we leave this world rich not with dollar bills, but with values, leaving a trail of our acts. And these acts would determine if we deserve to be remembered or if we do not. Money, and materialistic comforts are commodities of life which do smoothen the process of living, but it does not mean that an individual cannot live without them.