THE other day an employee of mine showed me his phone worth a huge amount. “But that’s a costly phone!” I said. “With my credit card sir!” he said. And today, that’s what I see; with no money in the wallet but with a piece of plastic in hand more and more are moving from shop to shop and buying more than they can afford.
That phone, that fancy car, that jewellery shine out for all to see. On a hot sunny day in the city of Chennai, a tall coconut tree was on fire. The fire brigade rushed to the spot and put out the fire, but not before the tree had burned to the ground. The firemen looked at the smouldering tree and wondered how it had been set ablaze. It was then they saw the ruined crow’s nest lying in the middle of the burning branches and in the nest a short length of rope. A rope with one end glowing, generally used by customers for lighting their cigarettes and bidis. A method that persists till today of a bit of rope outside the cigarette shop with which smoker lights his king size, menthol tipped or filter cancer stick.
A crow seeing the red ember outside shop thought that it would do well in the nest it was building and carried the burning rope into its home. It realised only too late that there was fire and destruction in that golden glow! How many of us carry that credit card home, and finally bring ruin to those very homes!
During the Second World War, in a German town, a fire broke out in a readymade garment store. The fire brigade of that town consisted of women since all the men were at the war front. When they rushed to the store with their firefighting equipment, the women thought they would spoil the beautiful garments if they directed water and foam upon them. So, they began pulling out the clothes from inside the store. The fire spread fast and not only burnt out the whole stock but destroyed the full building. The gold they saw in fancy bra, and panty hose brought destruction. They tried to save expensive clothing and lost all!We try to keep our fancy garnishing; expensive phones, extravagant parties, swanky limos and pretentious penthouses all paid with the card, and even grab every bill that the waiter places before fellow eaters, hoping all will notice the ease, the flourish of the pulling out of our glowing card. T’is later when banks demand their pound of flesh, when loan sharks, their wad of notes, we perceive too late, the card’s golden glow can cause a fiery inferno that reduces everything including each of us into ashes..!
