Lifestyle ?

It was yet another weekend in Chennai, was travelling in an auto. Driver was in 50s and a respectable elderly muslim to look. Journey was for almost an hour, so he slowly started talking on condition of Arcot road. Then, as I expected, slowly turned towards my work and sal. As always I told am a software engineer, getting far less than deserving pay :) Immediate response was "I think you are from outside chennai...no chennai brought up person talks as soft as you"...Since I had heard this comment from lot of people earlier, just warded off with a smile. Then he showed his real intention of asking the question...He started saying : Thambi (brother), My son works in a call center. He is getting around 25000 in hand every month. Was a good muslim till that job, used to pray 5 times a day and was regularly going to mosque. Once he saw this salary, he started questioning me how much I earn every day. "Inshah Allah, if I earn 300 a day, I will go home, what ever is the time. Even if I get a savari (trip)after that I don't take it. Allah says earn for your livelihood, don't be jealous." But my son has started spending ruthlessly. He has 3 credit cards...I really don't know what he is spending on....He wears a 3000 shoe and got a bike for 60000...I was rather surprised to see a true muslim, speaking all their custom values ! He told many things more, but I don't want to pen all. I could see a helplessness in his tone for not able to contain his son. Money topples Many !!

In my office cab I have a mallu friend, who is a technical recruiter for my company. Usually I sleep my way back to home in the evening. That day, I didn't. Topic was rather controversial, which big-wig in which company is screwing up teams for their individual appraisals & promotions...when I told him some info regarding my personal experiences, he shared a dream project in a PC giant company, which got screwed up just because the head got promoted. Believe me, if it had come out, numerous rural schools in India would have got much more computers for the students. Wary of this I told him about a person whom I know, who spends in lacs every year, thought his salary is far below that, all by taking loans. He told me - "Palani, depends on LIFESTYLE of people. I will compare two people, you will understand world better. One guy, who is a chief senior architect, getting more than 40 - 50 lacs per year, in a famous chipset company, wears a kurta, jeans and slipper to his office. I got backlashed. On other hand, one person who is getting 15k per month, has RX100 bike and a Blackberry phone. Its all how you want to live rather than how much you earn." I could correlate people with lower salaries falling pray to posh life. Probably a psychological way of saying world, see I have got things, which I didn't have before - Exhibitionism !!

Was talking to my father on something, when he told a very old incident...When Sivanthi Adithan, a power person in TN congress was asked, "You always travel in ambassdor car, but your son uses BMW?", the reply was, "Am son of a farmer, but he is son of a billionaire". Money and fame has made him so humble to tell this, when he was at the peak of his life.

Personally I like Mukesh Ambani - The richest Indian, King of an Empire, when the properties of his intestate father was shared, had enough grip to seize Lion's share in Reliance empire, and of course, these are mere speculations written in Tamil magazines, but I still like them :) India - Australia QF tensions where at the peak in Motera and suddenly when Indians started hitting, I could see a lady who was repeatedly shown in TV...momentarily sight told me who she was - Nita Ambani - Queen of Reliance empire, owner of Mumbai Indians and what more ! There she was, shouting, jumping, laughing, giggling, talking to people around, of course big-shots, but still, she was making the air lively in Motera. This requires lot of courage and self-confidence. Standing before 30000 people, without bothering what will they say about. Even Mukesh was standing behind her, but it was mere enjoyment what they were looking for.

For the first time, felt in my life, as if am loosing smaller and meager happiness, in the blanket of tradition-ism.

My lifestyle should change - uh ?