Most Indian kids have grown up by listening to stories told by grandparents and they are stories about great kings, evil witches, families, farmers and so on.
You've most probably heard about the story on the Candy Jar. A monkey or a boy tries grabbing too many candies from the jar and dropping all of them inside. The story on greed? Of course you must have heard it, in some form of the other.
So, here's my story, and it relates heavily to the current scene in India. I'm not a huge fan of every kind of chocolate out there but I like the occasional bite. So, there's this series of Chocolates that Nestle markets as the Quality Street. It's a collection of chocolates, toffees and candies.
My sister and I had them when we were in England and they were quite common there. In India, Cadbury, dominates every brick and mortar store and so, we always had a small packet or a big box of Quality Streets when we had a generous relative or a friend coming from abroad.
My sister and I have different chocolate tastes. And why shouldn't we. We hardly look like each other. Kidding.
I personally love the chocolate strawberry delight and the orange delight. It's a thin chocolate coated mint and fruit flavoured chocolate that is sour and sweet to taste. I've been in love with Strawberry Delight since ages. My sister and I would occasionally squabble and leap at the last one. Life went on in its fast pace. In Jan 2017, my sister moved to the US for her education and I was the only warrior at home to conquer the Strawberry Delights.
Let's quickly get back to November 2016. Honourable PM of India, Narendra Modiji, announced a Demonetisation drive and declared old Indian currencies of denominations 500 and 1000 to be invalid from a date in the future.
And by January end, I requested a dear family friend of ours to bring me a packet of Quality Street. Quality Street packets are variable. Some may have 3 Tofees and 7 Candies, while some could have just 1.
When I got my share of Quality Streets, all for me, it had 6 Strawberry Delights and 5 Orange Delights and I was delighted and pleasantly amused.
I ate my favourite, the first day itself. And thought it'd keep the Delights secure at the bottom of the packet so my dear family wouldn't stumble and swallow those delicious pieces of fine chocolate.
Life got busy, like it always does, and I totally forgot about my Sugar Love and didn't get that feeling of popping in a delight in my mouth every now and then, until a few days back.
I decided to empty the packet and see how many delights I had left. And I was really happy to see atleast 10 of my favourite flavours still in stock for me to devour! I picked up my Strawberry Delight and took the wrapper off with a lot of ❤️. And I closed my eyes and sniffed the sour cream and strawberry essence before biting it. And when I moved for the bite, I almost spit it out! The chocolate had hardened! It was almost as hard as a rock! And I was shocked!
A quick trip to Google Revealed the Nougat inside the candy hardens in tropical climates and that pretty much explained why the candy was inedible! It upset me a bit, but it was an important message! I waited and waited, and hoarded the best chocolates of the lot, only to boast about having them all along, and in the process, I lost the ability to enjoy them. Had I eaten them, shared them with everyone, they could have made everyone else really happy! The good news is I still have 6 of them that aren't hard as a stone, but the time's definitely running out for them!
So, moral of the story : Hoarding and being greedy brought me to a point where I had nothing left anymore!
'Enjoy the little pleasures, as and when they come! Don't wait to celebrate everything together! You never know if, when or how you'd get to celebrate again!' In light of the demonetisation, it's pretty much the same story! Everyone who had money in cash (pretty much the way 80% of Indians dealt with transactions), suddenly couldn't do anything with the money anymore.
The bundles that were stashed away in #Swiss Banks and shady lockers, and the bundles of the hard working who only earned in cash and stored them for use whenever, suddenly became fuels for bonfires! The money that could have been used to go see the world, to help uplift lives, spent on luxuries suddenly became a liability people never foresaw!
Greed never does anyone any good. Maybe it is a beautiful feeling for a short while, but it never stays! There's a certain satisfaction in living the moment and postponing or holding back on those emotions or events rarely does anyone any good!
So, the story our grandparents told us when we were little, the one on candies and cookie jars, is truly an inspirational one for all of us in our lives!
