The Free World ……..
It was the busy day, as usual, with the uneasy uncertainty but was finding something was missing from my life. Early morning I woke up with the plans of money left at the end of the month. The payments, next month’s EMI of home loan, vacation tour which was overdue for more than two years were all weighing heavily on my mind. As usual there was huge mismatch in the plans and wallet size, the must category spending on food, clothing, some out of necessity, other out of prestige were all set to flatten the wallet. I got up, completed the routine, tea, newspaper, shaving, bathing, formals and finally perfume to make others feel pleasant and comfortable, very much ritualistically. Waited for the taxi, boarded one, was engrossed in the planning of the work in the office that day, even forgot the traffic blues. Got down at the office, turned to the building and started moving, ohhh… suddenly realized, the taxi fare….., I didn’t pay the fare, had absolutely forgotten, turned around to see the taxi slowly moving to disappear. He didn’t demand the due? He too forgot? I yelled at the taxi to pay his due. Tried to take out the wallet out of pocket but failed. My hand was desperately searching all possibilities, I was very much uncomfortable. To my utter shock it was not in place, did I lose it? No I left it at home. In just a flash my honesty faded, did not want the driver to come and demand the fare, the embarrassment, I wanted to avoid, the prestige that was at stake, I wanted to save; honesty, integrity…….. didn’t have any option. A beggar with starved child was on the other side, she was coming to me, my favourite, a BMW zoomed in between, I turned back faster, started walking briskly.
Suddenly I remembered that I kept the ATM cum debit card in the bag along with some documents. I heaved a sigh of relief that I had not run out of cash. Anytime I could purchase with choice, pay for object of desire. Just remembered, the last date for the payment of car loan EMI was a day away, it was just a consolation but had to pay for the diamond ring that I booked for birthday surprise. The balance and out of balance budget pushed me in despair. I started to move in the direction of known ATM to check and get some cash. To my surprise it wasn’t there. Where had it gone? …….
I entered the office and immediately lost in the world that was dead in files, alive in policies, active in implementation, bustling with humanity, busy in monetary considerations, directed towards profits, balance sheet was supreme. Saturated at the end of the long day, I somehow finished the work, went to cafeteria nearby, had a coffee, pulled the card to pay, nobody was there to receive. Initial morals on don’t take anything for free turned into an opportunity to get it free, it gave concealed smile on my face. I swiftly moved away. I was steadily moving towards home. I was feeling the comfort of getting free services from taxi, didn’t have to pay for the coffee, the missing ATM automatically saved the purse.
I was irresistibly thinking, was the day a luckier one for me that I didn’t pay a rupee for the services. Immoral…..??? come on …. That’s luck man. Why not try for something else. Anything big…..no, its risky… what if luck runs out ….. would surely land me in huge embarrassment … may be in jail ….. a breaking news of white collared thief being caught ……. I shrugged in the chill. Smaller one……., vegetable vendors, grocery shop … let’s try. In any case I had to get those in accordance with the home minister’s order. It would have been a disaster, had I forgotten. I just went to buy needed items, fresh vegetables, came to the counter, to my disbelief nobody was there. I waited , then thought , why search for him…? Today, my luckier day, why spoil it? Gone in seconds, was I.
Can I make the day the luckiest one? A thought just went through. It seemed nobody was interested in taking money. I should have taken lot of other things I might need in future from the shop, thought I. After all what was the guarantee that tomorrow would be same. I was getting anxious to try other things. I immediately called the bank services even though it was 7.00pm, fortunately he was available. I started enquiring about the EMI. The reply exploded in my mind. “Sir, you don’t have to pay any more……. The world has changed.” Untamed shock wave in mind triggered another. It took a while to calm down.
At home waiting for the coveted sleep, the events of the day made me forget even my family. Everybody was asleep. I was thoroughly woken in my conscience. It was feeling of, delight, great delight………. Plus in the remote corner of heart ……. A guilt, desperately trying to survive … the burden of the luckiest day. Its survival was giving me moral sting, non venomous, serene …I didn’t pay, was I opportunistic? It made me restless, the sleep was shying away. In the calm cool night when the world had a deep sleep, the whirlwind in me took me to different world.
Is it possible? Our day begins with the planning of saving and spending money, we work not because we like but to make money, we seek pleasure in making money more often than in using, money puts us in comfort, lack of it we are worried , it gives us status, creates divide in society, categorizes us as haves and have-nots , invites us to higher level, we strive for it, work hard for it, it still remains elusive, ever short of our greed but is it enough for our need?…….. May be, yes. We have problems of plenty at affluent societies but starvation at deprived. The basis of denial … money, only money. We have the food, over eaten, wasted , rotting in storages and starvation deaths due to lack of purchasing power, …. no money. We are happy with home, car and all the luxuries but tense due to EMI. Our entire world revolves around money. From womb to tomb we travel on and with money. But is it the money we actually need? Is it not the medium only to get what we need. Just a broker. Are we so heavily dependent on broker that it is dictating terms to us? Is it our world or of money? If it is ours, can we make it free from the shackles of it?
If we have a world without money then will we really work only for pleasure, will we get good services travel, medical…… at no cost. Hospitals, huge farms, stores, nice homes but no banks, no loans, no credit cards, …….no printed pieces of paper…. Happiness all around ….? What about human temptations, greed…., can we control them? Will we work when there will be no monetary gains? What will push us, motivate us to reach to higher platform and fundamentally will there be any higher platform? If at all, on what basis? Money takes away our peace but can the world live, work without money peacefully or brute force will rule and we will go to our primitive stage? I realized there are more questions than answers. How funny is it, we seek answer in money for every problem but have no answers to problems due to money.
At global level the human greed has taken over all the resources, putting the entire humanity in grave danger. We are surely going to consume all the resources. Can we make a world better place with no discrimination, no deprivation, acceptance of interdependency for survival, food for all, no wastage of limited resources, no to environmental exploitation, nobody will die of starvation and nobody will waste food. All will work for the common good of humanity.
Is it feasible? Doesn’t matter. All great souls who founded religions, who selflessly worked for the people, devoted whole life for the betterment of humanity never thought about the feasibility of their actions, thoughts. They simply worked. Any proposal that sincerely wants to create peaceful space for humanity must be welcome for beauty lies in peace, serenity.
A world fairer, free, sustainable ……. We all need … Do we need money for it? Why think of its feasibility, lets accept it as an attempt to elevate ourselves to higher moral platform.
The whirlwind subsided. I was at peace with myself. I fell asleep.
Was that a dream? ……. I don’t know.
Was that a dream? ……. I don’t know.
*** This is written on a link send to me by Sharat Prasad, my student, on Free World Charter. He wanted me to comment on it. I settled for a blog. I am sharing this link with all of you. Thank you Sharat for sharing and wanting me to write on it. The Free World Charter proposes a world free of money. Rather than just analyzing, I tried to write differently. For details you can log on to their site.***
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