A business tycoon in China passed away some time back leaving behind a fortune of $1.9 billion in the Bank. The widow remarried his young & handsome chauffeur. On the wedding night, the chauffeur told his wife: “all the while, I thought that I was working for the Boss… it is only now that I realize that my boss was all the time working for me!!!”
Closer to home, Salu worked for a bar & restaurant in Margao, ever since he lost his parents and became orphaned. His Patrao, with whom he also stayed with, got the maximum work extracted out of him and paid him a pittance. Some days back, I was pleasantly surprised to see a rather prosperous looking Salu sitting on the cash counter and issuing orders to his staff. On inquiry, I found out that Salu has married his late Patrao’s only daughter!
Life is like that, you never know who is working for whom… Never the less, there are no short cuts to tasting the sweet fruit of success (maynat ka fal) even if your Boss happens to have a pretty daughter!
When we cross over to the other side, we leave behind most of what we have earned/ looted and yet when we are living we don’t have enough money to spend. Most of us live stubbornly poor in order to die rich. We slog like donkeys, jump like monkeys and fight like cocks all day long without making time even to stand and stare at the marvelous world God has created. We rob and cheat to amass wealth. We don’t have anything to share with the poor. We avoid looking at our neighbours standing at the bus stop while driving in our BMW. Politicians in our country rob the public treasury way beyond the needs of their children and grandchildren to salt away the loot in distant Swiss banks. God alone knows and time alone will tell what eventually will happen to this ill gotten wealth but never the less, the moolah keeps piling up.
If you ever ask forever-busy bodies why they slog so much for money, the standard reply is that they are doing so for the welfare and well-being of their children. The children themselves often grumble and wonder why Papa and Mama are so busy making money and never have any time for them… In many cases its pure greed and given half a chance they would not leave anything for anybody while departing from this world. Greed keeps men forever poor!
Our ingress into this world is naked and bare. Our progress through this world is trouble and care. Our egress from the world, nobody knows when and where: but if we do well here, we shall do well there. It doesn`t really matter who is working for whom as long as we live well. A rich man without charity is a rogue and perhaps it would not be too difficult to proof that he is also a fool.
