Story of money

When I was in 5th, 6th standard, my class teacher used to get a salary of 300 Rs per month. I remember once him flashing 3 new 100 rupees note in front of me with a proud mentioning of his salary. The senior most teacher was getting paid 550. You can guess about the rest. I knew from my civics book that President of India is the top most authority of the country and he gets paid 15 k per month. My neigbourhood barber used to get paid 1 rupee 50 paise for my haircut, that too after a lot of scolding from my m'om that he hasn't done it right. The icecream with cocunut was 10 paise and w/o coconut 5 paise. The guy who used to sell it could make 7 to 10 rupees a day in the peak season. Yet they were all happy. So I never felt that money is too important a factor in life.

As I grow up and we shifted to Delhi, I saw that people have more money than what I thought is required. They even have washing machine, car and vcer. It took me a while to realize that they actually need it to live comfortably. Moreover my school fee there was almost double the monthly sal of my class teacher, and milk was costly too. So I had to revise my view on importance of money a little bit accordingly.

When I joined college and stayed in hostel, my monthly expense was between 1500 to 2000. An extra 200 or 300 bucks were luxary as I could buy a jeans or t-shirt from tank road. That time I thought 5k should be a decent amount for a person to live a comfortable life.

I heard people saying that Govt. jobs are best paying and most secured. Moreover you don't have to worry about work. But whenever I had a chance to interact with such people in different offices, I developed a sort of disliking for their profession and a pity for them because they had lost their relatedness to others, in order to keep themselves in the rat race just to get few extra bucks in bribe.

I started my career with a pay of 8k, out of which I was getting only 5 in hand; but I was able to save substaintial amount. An extra 3k, and a subsequent hike was a sweet dream going to be true after 6 months. Life was beautiful even then with the same level of comfort feeling. 25 k was the max I could think that I should earn after years in order to have a sense of fulfillment in my career and to do everything I want to do in life.

Now when I have excelled in my field and getting paid much more than what I really can spend, I am still poised with the same problem. To what extent I should run after money. Now I understand the question is not how much I do need, but more like how much am I worth for, and the striving always has been to increase the worth for self.

Whatever way it'll go in future, one thing I've seen that mind has the amazing capability to stretch and shrink itself to give you the same level of comfort and joy, irrespective of how fat or thin is your pay cheque. The only thing that matters and vary with individuals is the duration in which it's able to adopt. Signing off with these thoughts....