WHY CAN'T WE TALK ABOUT MONETIZATION?






I am yet to come across some sensible thoughts of wisdom amidst all this polarized arguments for and against demonetization in our country. Frankly, the focus should have been on monetization and not on demonetization. If all our lives, we have focused on amassing wealth with the hope that a day would come when we would be secure and free, we a have simply lived a life of illusion… For, we have been blind to the truth that our true security never depended on our fat bank balance but on our deeply-felt knowledge that we could do without it… We have been fooling ourselves with the illusion, that living in our big mansions and riding in our fancy cars would make us happier… What has been happening is this: we have been constantly living in fear of losing all that one day!

Is there any meaning to our life if we cannot sleep soundly on our million-rupee worth beds? Sleep is kingly when it simply comes! The rest, as they say, is all a ‘story’ – a fairy-tale!

“How do you manage in this cash crunch?” I asked, last evening, one of my friends who has a family of five, including two young college-goings kids.

“I have asked my wife to prepare simple meals for some days, and I have asked my children to commute only by BEST or train… if necessary, walk. And, I myself have kept it to my needs,” my friend explained to me calmly. He added, “We have suddenly realized the value of small notes!”

Many years ago, when I was struggling to make my place in the big city, I had picked on the roadside an old copy of Napoleon Hill’s classic, “Think and Grow Rich’. This book had really changed my life… given me hope… rather, the practical wisdom: That, all of us, on this planet, have only two things from which we can earn money… We sell our goods (merchandise) or we sell our services. It was such a simple yet profound wisdom… “Hey,” I remember jumping, “I know how to teach… So, can’t I go door-to-door and sell my service of teaching?”

I got up and did it, right then and there… I have never looked back since then  Yes, what ‘Think and Grow Rich’ did to me was to help me monetize my talent of teaching…

And, now I am 58. Almost after 36 years of teaching, I do go through the same familiar fear and anxiety: will I be able to earn through teaching?

“No dad, you shouldn’t,” some days ago, my young son counseled me, “What you should do now is to monetize your writings… and do it exactly the way you had done decades ago when you were young.”

I not only felt confident listening to my son’s counsel, but I smiled happily in my heart!

All fears are baseless… If I am not exaggerating.

Notes of any denomination – 500, 1,000, 2,000, 5,000 or 10,000 – are simply pieces of paper. The more we place our security and happiness on them, the more we shall remain terrified and worried. It is time to realize the value of simplicity and tenacity… It is time to believe in our hidden potentials and talents…. What we are good at. And, above all, it is time to go about monetizing it, with loads of self-trust, dignity and pride…

And, yes, I don’t mind doing it, all over again… taking my talent to sell door-to-door…

Hello, can any power on earth ‘demonetize’ that?

GERALD D’CUNHA
Pic.: Sheela Krishnamony

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