do dooni chaar

I heard someone saying awhile back that absolute poverty is better than relative poverty. For the benefit of those with a non-economic background and/or lack of basic common sense, absolute poverty means not being able to afford a certain basic minimum standard of living, while relative poverty means being less rich in comparison with someone else. In simple terms, if you are spending your days on the road hunting for free food and shelter (and obviously not reading this blog) then you fall under absolute poverty and if you are born with a silver spoon in your mouth and a silver plate under your ass, while someone else is born with a golden spoon and a golden plate under his ass, then you're relatively poor to him/her i.e. relative poverty.

Even though it is not alien technology, I did spend 3 years of college studying Economics and not completely spending time chasing after the fairer sex, as many would think; I do know my economics definitions.

Coming back to the 2 mentioned terms, no sooner did the uttered statement hit my ear drums than the economics loving machinery in my head went on trials to test the validity of the statement. Briefly, the conclusion printed itself out and I realized that this it was probably the simplest yet the wittiest of economic theories I had come across.

The funny thing about money is that you never know how poor you are till you start earning. This being primarily because when you reach the stage when your bank account and what goes into it is more important than your hairdo and what colored jeans you're wearing, you also reach the stage when the priority status of your bank account and the brand of your jeans become equally important. With earnings, however marginal they might be come along expenses.

Having recently entered into this earning-spending stage, I realized it was easier to start looking at Wonder Woman for assets other than just her Golden Lasso than it is when the prize tag attached to that lasso and other things alike becomes visible.

Desires, wants and needs, all have a bar-code sticker attached to it. Though I would love to believe that the later one realizes this the better it is, it will be a distant pipe dream to do so. Like puberty, this also hits when you is not fully equipped. Besides the instilled feeling of pride of making it out completely on your own, versus the sting of breaking even in the bank account initially month after month, the proud feeling for most of us fortunate ones still overcomes the latter.

One can be a timid sheep against the mighty shepherd economy and run on the principle of 'though shall not want'; but as the sun sets, though shall still need and that can nobody run away from. Being a few steps ahead of the threshold of this stage, my ill-experienced foresight suggests that the only formula which would work is to make sure that this doesn't become a vicious systemic cycle. Thus giving a shut-eye to the means and earning a quick rupee here or there doesn't seem that bad an idea for now.

The only flipside to those certain days when I sit and scan the partially sorry state of my bank accounts is that at least now I know why on those certain evenings dad was unusually grumpy after checking his daily stack of mails; a stack which was mostly filled with payment notifications from various utility providers or how we know them as bills. After having my gears grinded by these similar bill days, I know now why even awesome exam results and successfully masqueraded study hours didn't go too far in getting his jolly self back.

Just like any other social or interpersonal aspect of life, one is in the strongest suite when he/she has nothing to lose. Simply taking it ahead from there, provided that you can charm yourself into getting a free meal twice daily as well as some shelter and clothes, being absolutely poor and having nothing to lose sounds much better than being relatively poor.