A five hundred rupee note: There was an important meeting in the office at ten, and I was already getting late. Traffic in Bangalore is unpredictable, and I better be rushing, to be on time for the meeting. As the vacation was on going for the kids, I was spending time with the kids in the morning. I got down from the lift in the basement, and was walking towards my car in the parking area, and I almost missed it. Next to the door opening to the basement car park, near the big green dust bin, was lying this five hundred rupee note. I hesitated for a minute, looked around to see if anyone was around, and quickly picked it up. An old, soiled, five hundred rupee note. As I quickly slipped it into my shirt pocket, I couldn’t help smiling. As I was driving to the office, I started wondering who would have lost this five hundred rupee note. One of the residents might have unknowingly dropped it, while clearing some unwanted receipts and bills in the dustbin. Or was it dropped by the car washing boy, or one of those housekeeping staff? Should I be returning this to the society office, so that it be returned to its owner? I thought a while about returning this to the society office, and finally decided not to. I found this note, and so it now belonged to me. May be I could pick up two packets of Ice cream while returning home tonight, and surprise my family. Or maybe I shouldn’t be spending this, and must keep it safely. Who knows, it might bring some luck! Or I could buy some lottery tickets with this money when I am in Kerala. Or I could donate it to a temple. I couldn’t really find an answer to what I should do with this five hundred rupee note. This was the first time, I was finding some money like this, and that made it tougher. I was also wondering if finding that five hundred rupee note made me happy. May be not, I thought. Today, a five hundred rupee note do not make a big difference to me. It used to, once upon a time. For many years. For most part of my life. But not today. May be if I had found a hundred thousand rupees, or a million rupees, that would have made a difference, that would have made me happy? I had reached the man signal at Marathahalli by this time, and there was heavy traffic near the signal than usual. I should have started a few minutes early, I thought. As I was waiting for the signal to turn green, this old woman approached my car, softly knocked on the window, and raised both hands towards me. I tried ignoring her, turning my head to the other side, and started glancing at the passengers in the car next to me. But the old woman refused to go. She continued to stand near the car, and continued pleading for some money. In a moment’s impulse, I opened the car window, and took out that five hundred rupee note, and gave it to that woman. I could see a disbelief first in her eyes for a few seconds, and then I saw her eyes filling up, and a weird smile spreading on her face. She then carefully kept the five hundred rupee note in her torn cloth bag and raised both her hands. By this time, the signal had turned green, I ignored her act, and quickly closed the car window and started driving. As I driving, I was seeing clearly the difference that five hundred rupee note made to that old woman. I did smile for a moment when I picked up that note from the basement, but that was possibly because I found something that didn’t belong to me. Not because I was happy. But I could see clearly that the same five hundred rupee note made that old woman happy. A happiness and a joy even I could experience. I also suddenly remembered another five hundred rupee note that would have made a woman happy many years ago. That was when a young engineer fresh out of college, after getting his first salary of two thousand and eight hundred rupees, sent a money order of five hundred rupees from a post office near Tarapur, near Mumbai where he was posted on his first assignment to this woman. I could imagine, that days later, in a small town in Kerala, a woman collecting this five hundred rupees from the postman, her eyes filling up, and a weird smile spreading on her face. I had never thought of this before, but today as I was driving to the office, I could clearly imagine this. As I was entering the car park, I thought to myself, money can bring happiness. A five hundred rupee note can bring happiness to a person. It did happen many years ago. It happened today, again. As I got down from the car, for a few moments I looked around the ground. Is there another five hundred rupee note lying around? I smiled, as I couldn’t find one. As I was walking into the office building, I asked myself, What were I searching, for those few moments? A five hundred rupee note? Or happiness itself? (ajithnambiar.wordpress)
Posted on: Fri, 03 Oct 2014 05:13:04 +0000
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