Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Love thy neighbour

My nose is a little pink. My fingernails purple. Yes, I played Holi today!

I know many of you didn't. Kuch log kehte hain, "I'm allergic to colour". Others feel "Gosh... too old for this". Many, including me, long for the good old days when we played Holi with our chaddi-buddies. What's the fun in chasing a neighbour you barely know with water balloons?

More of us need to find out - like I did. I think Holi is the one festival which gives us all an excuse to be kids again. And I might be imagining it, but I think the few adults who came out to play Holi this year in my building had a lot more enthusiasm than previous years.

And this might be stretching it but perhaps it is a sign of the times. As a cousin who is an investment banker with not too much work at hand these days observed over dinner last night,"Facebook is exploding... Everyone has so much free time!"

Even the gosh-do-I-really-need-to-connect-with-KG-classmate types are getting onto the bandwagon and discovering they're lovin' it.

The long and short of it is, recession is not a nice thing. Most people I know are worried... "Foreign banks will soon start downsizing", says one batchmate. "Wish I had never taken such a big home loan," mutters another.

From manufacturing to media, we're slowly seeing not just a freeze on pay but salary cuts.

And yet, I think there is a valuable lesson in it for all of us. Too much of our happiness had got hinged to the ability to spend money. Too little came from spending time with the folks we love and live with.

As Suze Orman would say,"People first, then money, then things." If takes a crisis to understand the truth in that simple statement - so be it!

8 comments:

  1. oh u put the spirit of holi so nicely there...

    glad u had a good holi

    ReplyDelete
  2. happy holi and very nice ending to sum up whole post.

    ReplyDelete
  3. such a sweet blog!!
    U r the best ever writer Rashmi!!
    :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. >> Too much of our happiness had got hinged to the ability to spend money. Too little came from spending time with the folks we love and live with.

    spot on. hitting nail on head.

    90% of happiness (FALSE) come now from spending money. 10 years back, 90% of happiness (TRUE) used to come from friends/family. how much I wish I can rewind time and go back to those old days.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Currently, for a 21 to 24 yr old youth 90% happiness comes from getting admitted into top 10 or a dream b-school...remaining 10% from booze :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. How many can afford to be happy?
    N I though Happiness was bein happy with things that you do without with.
    An Irony of sorts..

    ReplyDelete
  7. Too much of our happiness had got hinged to the ability to spend money. - Damn, you hit the nail on the head.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Dear Rashmi,
    I am looking for some good potential sites like yours for link exchange. I reviewed your
    site and found that, in SEO perspective your site is Perfect. Also, this would
    be a great resource for my visitors.
    I would request you to consider adding our website in your links.

    The site I would like to suggest for inclusion is..

    http://www.forexfreedownload.com



    Here is the detail of the site..
    Title : Forex Download
    Description : An automated forex trading software for all forex trading needs.
    Url: http://www.forexfreedownload.com

    Your links will be added here after your approval.
    http://forexfreedownload.com/forex-download.htm

    I assure you both of us would be equally benefitted by this linking method.

    Thank you very much for your time and support. I look forward to hear from you soon!

    Best Regards,
    Lucky
    luckyking05@gmail.com

    ReplyDelete

Disqus for Youth Curry - Insight on Indian Youth