A Rs.10 Note That Made Me Rich

It was a fine Wednesday evening in the town of Coimbatore. I and my brother were on our way to a shop at the end of the town. Though our father had been to that shop many times to repair our watches, this was the first time we were visiting that shop. The shop was located under a small staircase of a house. The place was enough for a showcase full of watches, a table where the watches could be repaired, and a small TV. There sat an old man in his 60s, adjusting his specs and changing the channels. He was said to be known all across the town, as the shop has been there for more than 2 decades.

As soon as we parked our bike in front of the shop, and headed towards him, his gloomy eyes, that seemed to see and notice everything, turned towards us. With a pleasant smile (that extended up to all the way to his eyes) he welcomed us with the words - "Vaanga izham raththangala" (which means - welcome young blood). That genuinely put a smile on our face and made us feel as if we had known each other for years together.

I gave him the watch which had the strap dismantled, because of the broken spring bar (the spring that attaches the strap to the watch's head). "Let me have a look, son" - he said with his feeble voice, as he gently took the watch from our hands. He then wide opened his eyes, gave it a careful look, and said, "Ah! That's shouldn't be a problem. But I wanna know who was the mischievous one to break this". I and my brother I laughed, pointing fingers at each other.

The old man then turned around his stool and used took out an old dusted box, filled with spring bars. He then carefully picked three from the lot so as to choose the best one that fits my watch. Within a span of 3 minutes, he repaired the watch and turned around to my brother and said - "Here, take it, my son. Does it look the way, it was before you broke it ?", with the duchenne smile on his face.

And then, when we ask him, about how much he would charge for it, he stood up and patted on our shoulders, telling that the smile on our face when we received the watch, was the price. He then came out of his shop and then walked to our bike and swayed his hands for a bye, till will left his sight.

From that point, till the time I reached my home, a wave of thoughts rushed in my mind.

" How more confusing could a society be. We have a large majority of us, who earn a minimum salary of 20k to 30k INR a month. We find so many of us bargaining with auto-rickshaws, street-side vendors, vegetable vendors, door to door salesman, for an amount as less as 10 bucks. We've seen people even indulging in arguments for the same.

Why is it that a person argues to spend a mere 0.01% of his salary with a person who is probably earning to have his meal for that day. What is it that triggers us to argue or debate for the Rs.10. Is it the thought that we are getting fooled by paying extra money than what it actually costs?

Is it the thought that the Rs.10 makes him richer than what he deserves to be ? or is it a thought that you'll become poorer by Rs.10?

The old man at the watch shop hardly earned 80 to 100 bucks a day. So refusing to get 10 bucks from us was like giving away one-tenth of his earnings for the day. Do we actually get richer by that 10 bucks that we bargain for? Does that really give us the happiness that we all live for ? Then how is it that the old man feels happy about not getting the amount. Is it that, we, the "socially educated and literate middle-class people", have a wrong understanding of what happiness is about? Is it that all of us run so busily that we tend to forget what real happiness means?

That day, I realized that happiness was not something that we get. Happiness is what we get when giving someone happiness. The satisfaction of making a person happy is the best way to realize your inner happiness. When the old man refused to get Rs.10, we understood that he was far richer than what we thought. Rich in thoughts, rich in wisdom, rich by heart, and most importantly rich in happiness. He had everything that money could never ever get him.