What is Money?

Hello Readers

Hope you all are doing well.

“I had one idea that never changed in my mind—that you should use your wealth to help people.”

- Chuck Feeney (Charles Francis "Chuck" Feeney is an Irish-American businessman and philanthropist and the founder of The Atlantic Philanthropies, one of the largest private foundations in the world. Courtesy WIKIPEDIA)

There are millions of signals around your head. Still, you need to pay money to catch those signals, for those signals to be useful to you, example your cell phone, TV and so on.

So all of you are ready to welcome 2019 I guess! Well you are ready or not here it comes, today wanted to discuss with all of you of this one invention of man which is the most unique and complex amoung what the entire human race has invented!

Well while you are making guesses, I will make it easy, it is known by many names some people call it greenback, pesos, rupees, dollars the list is endless.

Why do think I wanted to discuss the vitamin-M today?

From the time I started writing blogs four years ago, I have time and again tried to stress the point of money and materialism, how the generations and the value systems have changed when compared to the time where values carried more prominence than cash.

I wanted to think and share as well discuss with all of you today actually what is money meant for, what can it give us and why this world sometimes turns into a broken crystal glass of countless pieces which differentiates people base on their net worth?

Human beings who started like nomads quickly grew smarter and smarter over centuries and in this course of time invented countless things which are useful in the fields of arts, literature science and commerce.

Today the whole world works on various business cycles except few philanthropic organisations to which money doesn’t matter, they are again a few.

So it is always money exchanged for goods or services, I hope the majority of you would agree with this.

Have we thought what is the use of money and any suitable method how we can actually use money may be more than just for exchange of goods and services?

What I mean by using the money for more than just an exchange of goods and services is just not randomly donating it.

Chuck Feeney- one of the greatest philanthropists of our time
Image courtesy: google images

We have to use it for a cause, for example, to promote the culture of our country may be helping a poor kid in his education, starting a trust or a foundation where the needy can be taken care of.

Money is according to me just an enabler for you to get what you wish to, that is primary and trivial or the basic requirement, but if you want to think big and move towards a higher level valued thought process. Here I mean your thought of giving back to society you need to use your money something other than for our own pleasures and enjoyment is what I feel.

There would be a time in everyone's life when we wanted to grow old fast and have money to spend because that day your parent or guardian refused to buy you that thing which you were fond of, there are instances where my own friends bought that toy or some stationary even after they grew up.

But we all know how deeply we miss those days of carefree, responsibility-free life where we hardly knew what money was.

The crux is that all through your life be in that mode only, where you hardly give importance to money, I am not telling you to become a stingy lad or a lavish person, just be productive about money and always give more importance to relations, family, your values and character more than money.

Thanks a lot for your time, have a successful year ahead.

Helios

The chosen ones

Hello readers

Hope you all are doing well.

If a system is too materialistic and generating unnecessary waste the first step is to work on reducing the waste and the second is to correct this system.

-Anonymous 

I was just thinking how fortunate we all are? Yes, fortunate because seriously I am telling you we are fortunate!

I did not repeat that word 3 times just to make this blog interesting or surprising to you. But I just realized how well supported we are from the people around us who have been there in our ups and downs.

Of course, I agree this entire society would not be behind your back to help you, but I am talking about few people who help us when we are in need of help, but the question is how many have we helped in return?

Recently I had been to a marriage of one of my relatives; definitely, Indian traditional marriages are very complex in their rituals and their culture.

Even in these modern times too, that tradition is still seen, ok next when we come to the feast part of this occasion, I observed there is an industry which has been created to make this occasion a success.

The chefs, the catering arrangements flower decorators, photographers and so on.

But there is a hitch, even though we celebrate a man’s oath to take care of women and same with a woman who pledges to take care of a man as a big festival, are we lost too much into it and losing the meaning of it?

This is just my opinion we have lost to understand the meaning of culture and everything is running like an industry and we are behaving like just we are at our jobs robotic!

All the marriages are now being photographed with studio settings! Drone photography, and crane cameras and each marriage party is competitive with the technology used therein lighting, photography and recently a new jibe “candid photography” and uploading the same to youtube? come on where is the privacy?  I am not debating on the success of these marriages as it is a personal life of two people, of course, Indian marriages are the most successful in the world  and it has been documented in the WHO (world health organization) but my concern is can we think a little bit before we just spend loads on material and manpower .

I have taken comments from people saying a person marries only once so that is the reason for the celebratory nature of this function I understand that!

But you would be shocked to know that there are hundreds of tonnes of plastic and paper waste which are being generated due to marriages, where is the control on this by the government?

I tell you these are smallest of things which contribute to the natural hazards relating to pollution because there are so many marriages which take place and these small pockets of waste snowball into a mammoth godown of waste which we depend on the municipality to clear.

Food wastage

I have written about food wastage before, but with particular to marriages I see people are in such a sick mentality and think as if they have some sworn right to eat what they want and trash the rest, have you realized how much effort it takes to produce that one grain of rice or that one slice of the vegetable or fruit? you trashed.

Please think about society and the poorer classes who are still waiting to eat a morsel and the environment which we pollute since our birth thinking we superior in the evolution! 

So we are chosen ones! Who has been blessed with best we can have but still why do we crib? Think about it for wasting food or because we enjoy too much and chose to crib or pastime.

Let’s start helping the have-nots around us and experience  the joy of giving and compassion

Thanks for your time, please let me know your feedback in the comment box.

Helios

Better Late Than Never.

Hello readers

Hope you all are doing well.

Nature has been very considerate to us even though we are exploiting it.

I would like to recall,  a great movie called shawshank redemption where we can  all understand the true meaning of hope, Red whose character is a Irish prisoner who was booked for murder is having an argument about hope with his dear friend and cellmate Andy Dufresne  who is also booked for murder.

Andy says hope is that one thing that no one can take from you, so Red replies , hope is a crazy thing and continues by saying it make you go crazy, and he just closes the conversation  with anger.

But by the time the movie ends  Red says "hope is a beautiful thing"

So what led to his sudden agreement with the latter?  Well it was his own experience which made him feel that.

So realisations are very much important in life, you know people always keep saying Better late than never, now why do they say that? Because some mistake that they did gives them the pinch to say that.

Back to the movie, when Red finishes his term in the department of corrections, he was very low in spirits to live that life of freedom as most of his life he  had spent in prison.

But he was bound to a promise that he made to his friend Andy that he will go to a particular place, so finally he keeps up his promise and finds some money some essentials and directions to meet Andy they and he  makes it to the destination,  the movie ends with a happy reunion.

From this movie we can understand the value of hope, friendship, how to be street smart and so on.

This movie has always been my favourite so I always love to narrate this story.

I feel our generations are getting  lost in the illusion of accomplishments, desire and materialism, I have spoken about all the three in many blogs, but I wanted to emphasis on this again because, recently I read a mail which was about the last conversation of Mr Steve Jobs, yes the same person who gave this world  the ‘Iphone’ !  We all consider him as the great modern inventor which of course he is, but how many of us know he died a bad death suffering from a rare type of cancer?

I have heard some speeches and interviews of Mr.Jobs, god he is so motivating! I thank him for that.

But according to him he realised some truths late in life, well here it is the full letter written by Mr Steve Jobs , I quote:

“I have come to the pinnacle of success in business. In the eyes of others, my life has been the symbol of success. However, apart from work, I have little joy. Finally, my wealth is simply a fact to which I am accustomed. At this time, lying on the hospital bed and remembering all my life, I realize that all the accolades and riches of which I was once so proud, have become insignificant with my imminent death. In the dark, when I look at green lights, of the equipment for artificial respiration and feel the buzz of their mechanical sounds, I can feel the breath of my approaching death looming over me.

Only now do I understand that once you accumulate enough money for the rest of your life, you have to pursue objectives that are not related to wealth. It should be something more important: For example, stories of love, art, dreams of my childhood. No, stop pursuing wealth, it can only make a person into a twisted being, just like me.

God has made us one way, we can feel the love in the heart of each of us, and not illusions built by fame or money, like I made in my life, I cannot take them with me. I can only take with me the memories that were strengthened by love. This is the true wealth that will follow you; will accompany you, he will give strength and light to go ahead.

Love can travel thousands of miles and so life has no limits. Move to where you want to go. Strive to reach the goals you want to achieve. Everything is in your heart and in your hands.

What is the world's most expensive bed? The hospital bed. You, if you have money, you can hire someone to drive your car, but you cannot hire someone to take your illness that is killing you. Material things lost can be found. But one thing you can never find when you lose: life. Whatever stage of life where we are right now, at the end we will have to face the day when the curtain falls.

Please treasure your family love, love for your spouse, and love for your friends. Treat everyone well and stay friendly with your neighbours.”

At-least can we now realize the value of life and be balanced towards our families and our work or whatever you’re doing in life, the faster you understand this message the best it is for you, please stop realizing late .

I thank my Uncle for forwarding me that beautiful mail.

Thanks for your time. Hope you guys will be the change.