How much...(Murugaraj thanks for reminding me these words)

I often wondered as a child what I would do if I ever got hold of a suitcase filled with currency notes. I had a lot of ideas for the same. A lot of thoughts came rushing by to my rescue. The first thought that crossed my mind was buying a snazzy bike. Though I could never make up my mind between Ducati, CBR and Harley to name a few. Anyways I did have a plan for that suitcase filled with notes. Later as years passed by I could think of many ideas. The bike gradually gave way to more jazzed up cars like Ferrari, Lamborghini or the cute little Beetle (or beatle).
So one of these days I decided to jot down my feelings for the suitcase full of notes and suddenly I think I was at loss of an idea that could sweep me of my feet. Maybe I would buy a Car naah not the Ferrari but a more suttle one maybe Swift or maybe I20 or maybe even a Corolla. The mathematical devil within me laughed loudly at me and said “Are u nuts? Why would anyone leave that kind of suitcase?”, “What currency would that be?”, “What denomination of notes would that be-10’s 100’s 500’s or if lady luck is smiling on me maybe 1000’s?” Suddenly my brain for some odd reason started to question me more “What would be the size of suitcase”. “Would that be as big as those “American Tourists- The bag which was synonymous with offshore travel in urban India” or would that be a smaller laptop sized bag”
While my train of thoughts ran with a lot of speed. I decided to pull back on my thought spree and do a Root Cause Analysis (yeah. When did I become so detail oriented was I really becoming obsessed with detailing or secretly within deep down my heart I had “Grown Up”. The child within screamed so much that it broke all decibel levels. Yes I guess all of us have grown quite old.
Anyways seems we are deviating from the “How Much” topic again. So a thought that crossed my mind was my dad’s voice (also Nadir’s dad’s words) “A Boy attains the title of a gentleman once he constructs a house of his own. The house should not come from his inheritance.” Hmm maybe they are right so without any sense of Realty market I plunged to know rates of the same. Vivek Sharma Ji my revered friend of many years laughed aloud on hearing the fact that I wanted to buy a house. He asked me if I had a figure in mind. I thought maybe 50 lakhs is good money and that is the maximum a suitcase can hold. So out came my prompt reply “Panditji (Yeah that’s what I call Vikki boy) I guess 50 lakhs”. Another question from vivek “What is the size of house do I think I would be able to buy.”. I thought maybe dad’s 6000 Sq Ft property had lost its sheen so gave him a careless answer I guess anything between 10k Sq Ft to 15 k Sq Ft.
Vivek burst into peals of laughter. It seemed as if it was not vivek but Waqt itself which was laughing at me. He told me I would get a similar house in at least more than 2 crore rupees. Phew I thought I would never be able to achieve that target. Again I thought buying a good car would make more sense to me rather than buying a house. So i googled and found (http://www.mercedes-benz.co.in/content/india/mpc/mpc_india_website/enng/home_mpc/passengercars/home/new_cars/models/s-class/w221.html) which clearly showed my dream car was at least 2 suitcases away .
Dejected by these sudden thoughts I suddenly thought of the wonderful days I had in my childhood when I was a kid. Never ever would I think of these nuances a home,a car everything seemed so simple. If you ever wanted an ice cream all I had to do was behave myself well and accompany grandpa on his evening walks. When I wanted a new videogame all I had to do was give a reassurance to mummy that I would behave myself and agree to keep my books in order. When I wanted expensive shoes (yes trust me guys a 3000 rupee shoe was considered expensive in Cirsa 1999) all I had to do was cry in front of papa once and lo the shoes were mine. Maybe things were simple for all of us in those days. Maybe we have matured and that is creating a lot of hurdles in our path to satisfaction. And maybe we should all start looking at things in a different light altogether. I don’t know did things like owning a mansion (Yes I realize 10k Sq Ft big house is a mansion and not a home)., Owning a swanky S class, Buying a vertu phone, wearing Gucci, Prada, D & G, Calvin Klein (chams I remember this from your collection ) become a symbol of well being.
I guess we should all strive for bigger objectives in life some simplicity in life is needed in order to be happy. How often have we all tried to spend some time with our Grandparents or maybe water plants at our home . Or maybe call all old friends for a Sunday afternoon cricket match. Life is really a synonym for change with each passing day we strive to achieve more and more but I guess this would all prove to be futile when one fine day we sit back at the age of 6o and suddenly see our next generation struggling for the same goals as we are right now. A house ,A car and good clothes might showcase prosperity to some extent but it definitely is not a guarantee for peace of mind .I think I would not like to see my younger generation to strive for a bigger car and a bigger house but maybe I would like to see them all together on each Saturday night Dinner with family. Think about it friends maybe all this mayhem for achievement is driving us to a pursuit of Unhappyness.