Kya 'fayda' - Two foreigners(britons as I later found out) backpacking drew me and my freind's attention as we were standing by a chai shop. Swirling his tea he smirked ..'saale c*&*@# , pata nahin inko kya fayda milta hai ..ghar baar chod ke yahan khaak chaan rahen hai'..'kya fayda'!!
This brought me up to another convo I had with a classmate when I was in IIT. I was pretty excited about a C++ class which was being offered as a part of the extra classes(for a nominal fee). He came up to me and asked innocently"Why are you taking this class? Isse kya fayda hoga?"
Cut to today. We were discussing which cycle is the best to buy. One of my friends made a very patronising remark that all said and done , no foreign made cycle could compare with Indian make ones for Indian conditions. I kind of chided him and said this was not so. The quality and construction of companies like Cannondale were far more superior..especially when you are in mountains or on rough terrains. He blurted out.."First you spend 18k on a cycle and then you take it to a mountain ..Kya fayda?"
Kya Fayda? Whats the profit? Hmm....he had a point!! Why climb mountains? Why river raft? Why read non-syllabii books? Why paint? Why write? Why learn 'non-work' software? Why travel? ..kya fayda?
True ..very true !
Kya fayda?I am not singling out my freind because I have heard this asked in a lot of places , by a lot of 'well meaning' people.
To question this we must understand the defination of fayda ! Fayda or profit means quite different things to different people,depending upon the status they occupy. We Indians(most of us billion strong) are at a such low level of existence that our Profit defination stops at monetary paradigm. We are so obsessed with money that even when we have plenty of it we really do not have the ability to think beyond it.
Thus we have rich houses and shabby public places. We live in dirt because we cannot understand the concept of cleanliness. We are religious but rarely spiritual, thats because a mind that stops at only money cant see the difference between the two. Places like puri and haridwar are living examples. We pay lip service to anti corruption drives , yet love taking a small bribe here and there. Because we cannot grow up to understand the concept of honesty.
All our extensive knowledge was of no use against foreign invaders because we never understood the concept of pride, shame and ego. We only understood money. And that was the only thing we got.
So, of course, those two foreigners collecting experiences and knowledge of a different land, enriching their memory and taking back valuable thoughts, were on a profitless mission.
No money=No Fayda
Sadly he forgot one important thing , despite such blatant stupidity , these people (400 of them) managed to rule over a million of us for quite some time.
But then is there any importance of asking such a question? Nope ! Kya fayda!!
PS: This is a work in progress, I intend adding a few more thoughts !!
This brought me up to another convo I had with a classmate when I was in IIT. I was pretty excited about a C++ class which was being offered as a part of the extra classes(for a nominal fee). He came up to me and asked innocently"Why are you taking this class? Isse kya fayda hoga?"
Cut to today. We were discussing which cycle is the best to buy. One of my friends made a very patronising remark that all said and done , no foreign made cycle could compare with Indian make ones for Indian conditions. I kind of chided him and said this was not so. The quality and construction of companies like Cannondale were far more superior..especially when you are in mountains or on rough terrains. He blurted out.."First you spend 18k on a cycle and then you take it to a mountain ..Kya fayda?"
Kya Fayda? Whats the profit? Hmm....he had a point!! Why climb mountains? Why river raft? Why read non-syllabii books? Why paint? Why write? Why learn 'non-work' software? Why travel? ..kya fayda?
True ..very true !
Kya fayda?I am not singling out my freind because I have heard this asked in a lot of places , by a lot of 'well meaning' people.
To question this we must understand the defination of fayda ! Fayda or profit means quite different things to different people,depending upon the status they occupy. We Indians(most of us billion strong) are at a such low level of existence that our Profit defination stops at monetary paradigm. We are so obsessed with money that even when we have plenty of it we really do not have the ability to think beyond it.
Thus we have rich houses and shabby public places. We live in dirt because we cannot understand the concept of cleanliness. We are religious but rarely spiritual, thats because a mind that stops at only money cant see the difference between the two. Places like puri and haridwar are living examples. We pay lip service to anti corruption drives , yet love taking a small bribe here and there. Because we cannot grow up to understand the concept of honesty.
All our extensive knowledge was of no use against foreign invaders because we never understood the concept of pride, shame and ego. We only understood money. And that was the only thing we got.
So, of course, those two foreigners collecting experiences and knowledge of a different land, enriching their memory and taking back valuable thoughts, were on a profitless mission.
No money=No Fayda
Sadly he forgot one important thing , despite such blatant stupidity , these people (400 of them) managed to rule over a million of us for quite some time.
But then is there any importance of asking such a question? Nope ! Kya fayda!!
PS: This is a work in progress, I intend adding a few more thoughts !!
No comments:
Post a Comment