"MERE BAAP KE PAAS BAHUT PAISA HAIN".
This is the common statement heard in most indian families. What exactly does this statement mean to any reader? How often has one come across such a statement? Well, this is a remark that is easily interpretted as,"My father has lots of money", which further can be decoded as,"I now need to just relax with this huge fortune for the rest of my life". The next point is where exactly have we heard this line? It comes from the group of the rich, inflated egotist, the elite, the ostentatious, pompous and supercilious children of the creme of society, who have more money than simple intellect. These are the children who are spoiled from their infancy. The very first line the new-born child hears from his father is, "Beta, Main Hoon Na". The innocent child who is yet to get accustomed to the new environment, looks deep into his father's eyes and lets out a wail, " Oh No, not again. I may have landed on the wrong planet". He is yet to comprehend the entire meaning of the line, which means a solid assurance that his father is always there through thick and thin.
This is a common phenomenon which is not an exaggeration. How often have children been drilled to assume the fact that even after they have attained adulthood, they have a father to spoon-feed them for everything. When will we teach our children to be morally responsible for the consequences of each action, whether right or wrong, stand-up for the sins committed by them, and be head-strong in their right decisions? The manner in which the above statement is made about a prosperous father, is enough to give anyone a lot of thinking. The father on his part is to be blamed for the consequences. In his indulgence to keep his children in extreme comfort and happiness, he fails to turn them into responsible citizens and adults which is not going to help the child in any way in the future. Has the son ever thought for a moment," Yes, my father has sacrificed so much for me, just to keep me happy. Why should I not take over and contribute something in the way of my achievements towards the society?" A father is a father no doubt, but what has the son done to this world? Has anyone ever given a thought to that? And it is this same father who always comes to the rescue of his wayward son who has committed a serious crime, by bailing him out with his flashy hard cash. This very son also has the audacity to tell the law, "Do you know, who my father is?"
I quote a few lines from STERNE which says: " If thou art rich, then show the greatness of thy soul, in the meekness of thy conversation, condescend to men of low estate, support the distressed, and patronize the neglected". Be great in all your accomplishments in the right manner. I hope and pray that if each rich man made an honest man of himself, we may be very sure that there is one rascal less in this world. Don't you agree?
EMERSON, was right when he penned his thoughts and said, "Man was born to be rich, or he grows rich by the use of his faculties, by the union of thought with nature. Property is an intellectual production. The game requires coolness, right reasoning, promptness, and patience in the players. Cultivated labour drives out the brute labour". We have come across children of these rich, prosperous people who so often sneer at people and their peers little realizing how in reality they are poor in being a genius.
HAZLITT mentions that the most insignificant people are the most apt to sneer at others. They are safe from reprisals, and have no hope of rising in their own esteem but by lowering that of their neighbours. We have seen so many snobs who have so often held their nose high in the air and are so very pretentious in all their actions and words. The higher they try to elevate themselves the greater is the clarity in the incompatiblity of their very positions in life. Our society keeps under-going changes perpetually. It is barbarous with inhumanity, on all sides, at the same time it is very civilized with each new generation of intellectuals, it is very rich with its traditional, cultural, and economic prosperity, it is scientific as we see the changes all around us, but this change doe not seem to be gathering momentum.
The reason is that for everything that is given, something is taken back. New skills are acquired by the society but old aptitudes are lost. The civilized man has managed to build an automobile, or an aircraft, but has lost the use of his feet; he has a fine Rolex watch, but just cannot tell the hour by the rising or the setting sun. I recollect a saying in my school days, in the course of my studies, quoted by Mrs. SIGOURNEY: "To attain excellence in society an assemblage of qualifications is requisite: disciplined intellect, to think clearly, and to clothe thought with propriety and elegance; knowledge of human nature, to suit subject to character; true politeness, to prevent giving pain; a deep sense of morality, to preserve the dignity of speech; and a spirit of benevolence, to neutralize its asperities, and sanctify its powers".
We may be living in the trend-setting elite corner of the city, but we do have to keep reminding ourselves that there is an over-crowded squalid neighbourhood near our dwelling. Why do you think I say this? Because God the Almighty, keeps reminding us from time to time that once upon a time, we too rose in life (to stand where we are today), the same way - from 'Rags to Riches', so if we do not keep a check on our morality, (which is a total sum of our chastity, decency, ethics, integrity, justice, principles in life, our rationality and uprightness), we are likely to be dumped by the force of the Almighty, once again to the same sqalid place, to get our home-work done, all from A to Z.
I would like to end on a note by Augur and Colton: " Give me neither poverty nor riches"; and this will ever be the prayer of the wise. Our incomes should be like our shoes: if too small, they will gall and pinch us, but if too large, they will cause us to stumble and to trip. But wealth, after all, is a relative thing, since he that has little, and wants less, is richer than he that has much, but wants more. True contentment depends not upon what we have; a tub was large enough for Diogenes, but a world was too little for Alexander.
This is the common statement heard in most indian families. What exactly does this statement mean to any reader? How often has one come across such a statement? Well, this is a remark that is easily interpretted as,"My father has lots of money", which further can be decoded as,"I now need to just relax with this huge fortune for the rest of my life". The next point is where exactly have we heard this line? It comes from the group of the rich, inflated egotist, the elite, the ostentatious, pompous and supercilious children of the creme of society, who have more money than simple intellect. These are the children who are spoiled from their infancy. The very first line the new-born child hears from his father is, "Beta, Main Hoon Na". The innocent child who is yet to get accustomed to the new environment, looks deep into his father's eyes and lets out a wail, " Oh No, not again. I may have landed on the wrong planet". He is yet to comprehend the entire meaning of the line, which means a solid assurance that his father is always there through thick and thin.
This is a common phenomenon which is not an exaggeration. How often have children been drilled to assume the fact that even after they have attained adulthood, they have a father to spoon-feed them for everything. When will we teach our children to be morally responsible for the consequences of each action, whether right or wrong, stand-up for the sins committed by them, and be head-strong in their right decisions? The manner in which the above statement is made about a prosperous father, is enough to give anyone a lot of thinking. The father on his part is to be blamed for the consequences. In his indulgence to keep his children in extreme comfort and happiness, he fails to turn them into responsible citizens and adults which is not going to help the child in any way in the future. Has the son ever thought for a moment," Yes, my father has sacrificed so much for me, just to keep me happy. Why should I not take over and contribute something in the way of my achievements towards the society?" A father is a father no doubt, but what has the son done to this world? Has anyone ever given a thought to that? And it is this same father who always comes to the rescue of his wayward son who has committed a serious crime, by bailing him out with his flashy hard cash. This very son also has the audacity to tell the law, "Do you know, who my father is?"
I quote a few lines from STERNE which says: " If thou art rich, then show the greatness of thy soul, in the meekness of thy conversation, condescend to men of low estate, support the distressed, and patronize the neglected". Be great in all your accomplishments in the right manner. I hope and pray that if each rich man made an honest man of himself, we may be very sure that there is one rascal less in this world. Don't you agree?
EMERSON, was right when he penned his thoughts and said, "Man was born to be rich, or he grows rich by the use of his faculties, by the union of thought with nature. Property is an intellectual production. The game requires coolness, right reasoning, promptness, and patience in the players. Cultivated labour drives out the brute labour". We have come across children of these rich, prosperous people who so often sneer at people and their peers little realizing how in reality they are poor in being a genius.
HAZLITT mentions that the most insignificant people are the most apt to sneer at others. They are safe from reprisals, and have no hope of rising in their own esteem but by lowering that of their neighbours. We have seen so many snobs who have so often held their nose high in the air and are so very pretentious in all their actions and words. The higher they try to elevate themselves the greater is the clarity in the incompatiblity of their very positions in life. Our society keeps under-going changes perpetually. It is barbarous with inhumanity, on all sides, at the same time it is very civilized with each new generation of intellectuals, it is very rich with its traditional, cultural, and economic prosperity, it is scientific as we see the changes all around us, but this change doe not seem to be gathering momentum.
The reason is that for everything that is given, something is taken back. New skills are acquired by the society but old aptitudes are lost. The civilized man has managed to build an automobile, or an aircraft, but has lost the use of his feet; he has a fine Rolex watch, but just cannot tell the hour by the rising or the setting sun. I recollect a saying in my school days, in the course of my studies, quoted by Mrs. SIGOURNEY: "To attain excellence in society an assemblage of qualifications is requisite: disciplined intellect, to think clearly, and to clothe thought with propriety and elegance; knowledge of human nature, to suit subject to character; true politeness, to prevent giving pain; a deep sense of morality, to preserve the dignity of speech; and a spirit of benevolence, to neutralize its asperities, and sanctify its powers".
We may be living in the trend-setting elite corner of the city, but we do have to keep reminding ourselves that there is an over-crowded squalid neighbourhood near our dwelling. Why do you think I say this? Because God the Almighty, keeps reminding us from time to time that once upon a time, we too rose in life (to stand where we are today), the same way - from 'Rags to Riches', so if we do not keep a check on our morality, (which is a total sum of our chastity, decency, ethics, integrity, justice, principles in life, our rationality and uprightness), we are likely to be dumped by the force of the Almighty, once again to the same sqalid place, to get our home-work done, all from A to Z.
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