the answer

Few days ago,a 'then' best friend of mine, asked me "what makes me happy. Real -real happy?"

I paused a bit, and said "MONEY".

Well, my pause wasn't for to think of the answer. I was quite certain about it. My pause, however, was to think, if saying so would create a bad impression of me in her mind.

Money is ultimately what we all struggling for.  Yet explicit love for it is thought by many as negative. Love for work/ profession is considered as 'Passion' , but love for money is thought as 'Greed'. And of course, Passion stands at a higher moral ground than Greed.

Whatever, I risked to say so, for my love for it mattered me more.

On a one (un) fine day, I added a new rule to my diary," To  prefer  money to people". Maybe I was a bit frustrated on that day. But somewhere deep in my heart I always believed that I would be really happy to find an exception to this rule. But as it turned out, it was the most absolute rule since the 3 rules that Newton founded in the eighteenth century.

The reason to it is that we all are 

Humans. And humans are punished by the nature with an useless gland in their body.  Emotional Gland!

These glands, which are usually left untraced by any radio waves, results in various emotions including but not exhaustive : love,pain, anger,joy and in some people, EGO!

These emotions further lead to expectations. And expectations if not met, hurts.

You never expect from others to move mountains. Your expectations maybe as decent as a simple text asking if you are fine, a simple Good night wish which not just makes your night good but perhaps also makes your day worth. It can be a simple song that you share, the happiest/saddest moment of your day  or else a simple 'best luck' to cheer you up when the other things least work.

You may think of all these as little lovely gestures that you expect from restricted few. But irrespective of  what you think of them,  to others they maybe "TIRING".

Well if you are ever hurt with the unmet expectations, it totally is your fault. because  it's you who expected from wrong people.

Maybe that's the reason WHY SOME PEOPLE ARE TOO WISE TO HAVE ONLY EXPECTATION : NO EXPECTATIONS !!! 

Well coming back to money, you can always expect from it. And it will always buy its worth (& if economy is set in deflation, it will even buy more than its worth)

So lesson number #1:

"It's better to expect from money in your pocket than people in your heart."

Money never disrespect you. It never hurts you. Neither does it punishes you for the mistakes you didn't make.

And as the Rule of Capitalism says, the more you have it, the more you will make it. Good enough. Ain't it ???

Well I won't coin any further lessons as lesson number #1 is more than sufficient to have the worldly wisdom.

I would just say that Greed, for the lack of better word, is GOOD! 

amidst the crowd....

Fading winter breeze, little bit of  sunshine, February is really a month for a day like Valentine to match perfectly.Its finally the time of new year when the 'New Year Party Hangover' is over.You are done with sending new year wishes or making up 'Resolutions' & look forward to 'ACTUALLY-DO-SOMETHING' with it. But then before you could start with the 'ACTUALLY DOING' part,you realize that its February-The Valentine Month.

For the commited peoples its the time to think of some crazy idea which would make the day 'THE DAY'. For the others not attached,Valentine’s Day is simply a reminder of their single status.

Falling under the second category (as I have ever been ) ,I was flying on my bike to the office, late as usual.The speciality of the traffic signals (if you haven't realized it ) is that they totally know if you are late.And if you happen to be so,they will all stare  red at you. After 120 seconds of eternity, the signal finally turned green.But still it took longer than usual for the traffic to clear.
As I went a bit ahead,I realized that some car (the driver of which perhaps was getting late for THE  special day) has hit a dog dead.The body of the dog was lying in the middle of the road and people maneuvered their vehicles from the sideways.And as I was about to do the same,I saw some 10-12 year old kid who was pouring some water into the dogs mouth,standing there in the middle of the street.Me, you or anyone else would have thought the dog to be dead and moved on.But the kid refused to do so.I don't know if he knew the dog is dead or not,he decided to take an effort in case it is not.At the risk of appearing insane , he decided to do so,as it would matter to someone.Maybe this was the way he chose to show love on this valentine.
I thought of asking the kid if it was his dog,but then, does it even matter ???

The crowd continued to move from the sideways, as always.
But what I felt happy to see,was that, amidst the crowd, there was a human !!!

not a happy journey...

Today morning, I left early from home to catch a bus to Pune. A stranger aunty in her mid 50s sat besides me.Waking up early morning I was still sleepy and decided to catch some sleep in the  journey.But the aunty besides me started conversation and inquired about me,where I was going,the route the bus was going by,and the sequence of stops the bus would stop by....Just to complete my counterpart for the conversation I inquired where was she going.
"Pune",she said.
And I worried that if she was going to keep talking till Pune (& not let me sleep).

She also complained about her ill health and I tried to show some sympathy.
She finally asked me if I could call her daughter from my cell and i said "Sure", wondering if atleast I could escape from the conversation after the call.

Few seconds after the call she rolled over my shoulder.
I jumped into my seat to find her unconscious.Eyes closed.
I called the driver and told him to take the bus to some hospital.The hospital was five kms away.I checked her pulse rate.It was almost nil.
We arrived at the hospital just to find that the doctor was out on vacation.The bus headed to the other hospital.

All the fellow passengers helped to take aunty to the hospital.
The doctor examined her and asserted that she had a heart attack.

I redialed the no. which she had previously dialed from my cell.And told her daughter about the incident along with the address of the hospital she was admitted to.

My hands shivered as I talked with her. "Don't worry,she will be alright", a fellow passenger said to me looking me panicked.
"Ya, I pray the same" I said.

Our panic-stricken bus left for the rest of the journey as I sat alone on my seat.

The doctor called me few minutes later and said "She is no more".

RIP