The RICH

Money Matters !?!

Money, money, money, Must be funny…. Always sunny, in the rich man’s world

All of us want to be an Uncle Scrooge who would dive into a pool of gold shellings every now and then………..We want a plush bungalow , a sparkling limousine with a chauffeur waiting for us at our doorstep, a heavy mahogany maingate that could be opened by two or three burly gate keepers…………A laptop on our lap top, a sleek Blackberrry in the pocket , a ring shining in our finger with a huge diamond studded in it………the list just goes on and on!!!

Residence Antillia, named after a mythical, phantom island somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean, costing $1 billion would be the most expensive home on the face of the planet. At 173 meters tall residence, for a family of six, will be the equivalent of a 60-storeyed building. The first six floors are reserved for parking. The seventh floor is for car servicing and maintenance. The eighth floor houses a mini-theatre. Then there's a health club, a gym and a swimming pool. Two floors are reserved for the family's guests. Four floors above the guest floors are family floors all with a superb view of the Arabian Sea. On top of everything are three helipads. A staff of 600 is expected to care for the family and their family home. This is just a brief description of Mukesh Ambani’s new residence. This is what money can do even if it can’t buy me love.

Who is the richest man in the world? Bill Gates or Warren Buffet? Who is the richest Indian? Laxmi Mittal, Mukesh Ambani or Anil Ambani? The networth of Anil is Rs 1,768.97 billion and that of Mukesh is Rs 2,009.61 billion. Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries became a $100 billion company (the entire Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) is capitalized at $65 billion). The two Ambani brothers can buy 100 percent of every company listed on the Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) and would still be left with $30 billion to spare. The four richest Indians can buy up all goods and services produced over a year by 169 million Pakistanis and still be left with $60 billion to spare. The four richest Indians are now richer than the forty richest Chinese. If Reliance Power had closed around Rs.500 levels, then the junior Ambani would have been the richest Indian. At Rs.900, he would have been the richest in the world. I googled ‘importance of money’ and got 13,100,000 hits.

These all are money matters. But does money matter?

Magazines like FORBES have been busy tracking the richest and have made a bounty for themselves as well. Haven't you come across such stories in the newspaper far more than often? What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you read such titles? If you ask me the same question, I really don't care who the richest INDIAN or richest person living is. Why should we? Are they going to give us our share for the fact that we have been directly or indirectly responsible for them being so rich? For me, what matters most is that how many people have they made rich while they were growing and making it to the richie rich list? How many lives have they influenced? How many people including the stakeholders, shareholders, clients, and its employees have benefited? The most important question is that has the common man and the country benefited? In doing so, have they done it in an ethical manner? Karl Marx rightly said, "All capitalist profit is ultimately derived from the exploitation of the worker." We need more people who redistribute their profits, do charity and a lot for the society; not just for the sake of it or for getting tax benefits but because they think they own a lot to the society and know their basics right.

Money can buy the best doctor but not health. Money can prolong your life but cannot save you from death. While it cannot change you, it can change your face. However, for the have-nots, money can give a better means of living and can do ‘miracles’ for them. (atleast they believe so). You may call me old fashioned when I say that ‘lesser is the money that you own, happier you are’. Notice when I say ‘own’ because you won’t notice when money will disown you. That is a fact. Money will respect you only if you respect it. But don’t be ‘penny wise and pound foolish.’

Now imagine life without money. We would be in ‘barter’ era. Imagine someone selling four pieces of silicon wafer for a piece of sandwiched transistor or someone selling twin tub for SOI. Can’t imagine that, right? It’s weird, right? Life too, would be weird without money.

Money can give you all the material things you wish. But the list of such things is endless. Even if you had all the things that you could possibly buy with money, you would still desire something which money can’t buy. In short, you would still be empty. When we were born, we didn’t have anything and when we die we won’t take anything. However some people still wish to ‘die rich’. We are not satisfied with what we have; we don’t know exactly what we want and as a result we are never satisfied. Remember that man created money and not vice-versa. Think about all such things. Think and make a difference.