Poverty in Plenty

Poverty in Plenty

 

  In our surroundings we see people who have more of everything than anyone else has it. They have bungalows, cars, jewels, furniture, gold-ornaments, property, money and more and more such things. Along with that they have more books in book-shelf on 'how to be happy'. Though they are not contented. Happiness can never subsist in material things.

   Rabindranath Tagore says in a poem, a little child, sitting in the dust, playing with a broken-twig is extremely happy and contented than anybody else.

   In this context, I could recall the story which I had taught once to my students in Second P U class while teaching exercises in English Work Book.

  There was a very wealthy man. His little son enjoyed the comforts of their lovely mansion. The wealthy man took his son through a very poor village to spend a day to give him a feeling of what poverty is.

 When they returned, father asked his son what he saw.

  The boy said, " Dad, I see, we eat packaged food and canned stuff, they grow their own vegetables and eat fresh, we have chandeliers for light and decoration but they sleep under the starlit skies, we have two highbred dogs, they have dogs all over the village barking at us strangers, we have a swimming-pool and they have an ever-flowing river, we have computer games and they have children who spring about and play around with each other, we hardly know anybody in the neighbor but they seem to know the names of everybody in the village, we have no time to talk to each other but those parents spend so much time with their children. I realized indeed, how poor we are dad very poor when we are compared to them"  The wealthy man hugged his little son as his heart struck a chord.

 

 There are people who have possessions but are not happy and there are those people who hardly have much but are happy and content in life.

 Sometimes we too experience poverty in the midst of plenty.

  Hence it's better to be happy with what we have not craving for the things what we don't have.

                                                                               
                                                                                  Indu Naik                 .