“Are we rich or poor? My son asked me yesterday,” Swami said while having his coffee the other day. Jigneshbhai and I were engrossed in the muffin at that time.
Jigneshbhai looked up with a smile and asked, “What did you tell him then?”
“I didn’t answer. I appeared to be busy,” Swami replied.
“Hmm. Was he satisfied?” Jigneshbhai poked.
Swami himself didn’t look satisfied, so it seemed like there was no question of his son being satisfied.
“Well, he is used to black and white answers, so I am expecting this question to pop up again soon,” Swami replied, with a fair presence of a worried frown on his forehead.
“Hmm.., but even you are used to black and white answers, isn’t it?” Jigneshbhai queried Swami. “That’s why you aren’t satisfied with my answers most of the time and keep asking questions. Now it’s your turn to be at the receiving end,” Jigneshbhai teased Swami, enjoying the fun with a twinkle in his eye.
Swami went silent and changed his focus to the coffee and muffin in hand. That was easier to handle than both his son’s and Jigneshbhai’s questions. But the thoughts hadn’t gone away. Therefore, after a few moments of silence, he spoke.
“But then what do I tell him? Are we rich or poor?” Swami remarked with exasperation.
I could understand his situation. It wasn’t an easy question to wriggle out of. I myself dreaded such a question. I hoped that Jigneshbhai came up with a solution.
“Maybe you can ask him another question,” Jigneshbhai began what seemed like a solution to Swami’s quandary.
“A counter question? Like?” Swami asked in all eagerness.
“Like are you tall or short?”
“And then?”
“Or dark or fair?”
“How will that help?”
“Or strong or weak? Is there an answer to that?” Jigneshbhai suggested questions that didn’t light any spark in Swami’s eyes.
“Oh that’s just side tracking. He still hasn’t got the answer to whether we are rich or poor!” Swami remarked, dismissing Jigneshbhai and his idea of counter questions.
“Hmm..,” Jigneshbhai sighed. After a few moments of sipping into his coffee, he picked up his muffin.
“So what do you feel about it yourself?” he asked.
“About what?” Swami asked a counter question this time.
“About whether you are rich or poor?” Jigneshbhai clarified.
“Well, I don’t need much. I think I am ok,” Swami said.
“Till someone richer turns up? Like Raichand?” Jigneshbhai teased Swami again. I felt he held a mirror in front of Swami.
“Oh, that’s irrelevant. I don’t want to be rich by doing things like Raichand,” Swami said with a touch of aggression.
“Then tell him that,” Jigneshbhai suggested.
“But it still doesn’t answer the question of rich or poor?” Swami persisted with the original question.
“So again, what do you feel about it?” Jigneshbhai returned to his earlier question.
“Honestly, I think it is irrelevant,” Swami replied.
“Well, then tell him that it’s irrelevant,” Jigneshbhai pounced on Swami’s answer.
“But that’s not enough. He keeps asking,” Swami replied in dismay. “And he keeps forming opinions based on what his friends do,” Swami spoke his heart out this time.
“What do I tell him then? Are we rich or poor?” Swami had reached the limits of his patience today, and so repeated the question again. But he was only getting more questions rather than clear answers from Jigneshbhai. We sat in silence for a few moments, now focusing on the coffee.
It was definitely not an easy quandary with a one-time fix. I looked at Jigneshbhai and even he seemed to have run out of any easy answers.
Jigneshbhai did not get any satisfactory nod from Swami today. In such times, the best thing to do, as always, is to turn our attention to the things in hand – that is the coffee and the muffins. And that’s what we did for a while.
Swami reconciled to the realisation that there were some questions that even Jigneshbhai couldn’t answer.
It was then that I saw the wealthy old man at the table next to ours. I saw him walking towards us. I thought that he will come up with something to solve Swami’s quandary.
But it was clear that even he was not in a mood to provide clear answers in black and white to Swami today. He left us with more food for thought when he said, “Think as if you are rich, but live as if you is poor.”
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