Save from 'Saving'...

'Save' is the call God specially inscribes in the Indian psyche at the time of 'formation'. I have grown up ... or rather still growing up hearing this 'call'. At times I listen and follow, more often ignore it... after all its purely a matter of convenience!... As long as I can remember, I have been given this call of 'Save.... ' innumerable times. They might have started it long before that but probably I don't remember things that old or I was not big enough to understand that... I still remember my mom advising me continuously to 'save' almost everything for my younger brother... be it the chocolate, ice-cream or some pretty ordinary things... May be the advise to 'save something for somebody' is a way of communicating the closeness one has (or should have) with the person for whom one is advised to save... that might be the reason my mom never advised me to save anything for पड़ोस वाली आंटी कि पप्पी. I started saving a lot of big & small things for my brother and finally started taking a lot of pride in that ... expressing 'ये मेरा भाई है '. Be it my toys, my chocolates, my marbles, my tiffin-box, my pencil-sharpeners... anybody who was exclusively authorised to use it was my younger brother. I thought I was 'saving' enough...

... then in KG2, when I was asked by Lily Mam to sit next to Roopa Mishra on the very first day, I started feeling as if an access to Roopa will invariably have to be through me... I used to 'save' the adjoining seat for her in the Auto and some biscuits & gajak for her in my tiffin-box... Surprisingly, nobody ever asked me to 'save' these things for Roopa... Wrong, it was my instinct which was instructing me this time. It continued for some 3 months then Lily Mam, after probably noticing that I was 'saving' a bit too much for her, asked Roopa to sit with Ajay Jain and Chhidrup was seated next to me... me & Chhidrup hardly saved anything for each other after that!... Then during my adolescent years, my dad often used to convey his displeasure on putting on the best shirts & denims without a reason or an occasion... he would often suggest 'Why not save a few good shirts for special occasions, festivals, parties etc?'... Thank God, the 'instructions' gradually changed to 'suggestions'... but he also continued with 'Save time, time is money'... I often used to scoff it off with '... if time is Money, then Chouksey uncle who is a time-keeper with Ordnance Factory must be a very rich man!'... could never really understand 'How to SAVE time'... mostly I have believed, you cannot SAVE time- you can only properly utilize it. But, then again, proper utilization of time is relative. I often thought that while in college I was best utilizing my Fridays by seeing first-day-first-shows of all Sanjay Dutt's movies, but my parents never seemed to agree. Likewise, I advocated ultimate utilization of a Sunday by getting up after 9 in the morning, then watching BR Chopra's Mahabharat with breakfast... or having a brunch with 'Rajani'... then passing the whole day watching TV or listening to Music... my parents continued advocating 'Save time, it will pay you in the long run'.... I hardly listened and often argued '... यही तो उम्र है मस्ती करने की, बुढ़ापे में कौन मस्ती करेगा... ' the rebellious sort in me was completely against 'saving' of any type whatsoever...later in my college years, my parents advised me to save money while in hostel... I did save a bit... but... then splurged it on completely useless & worthless things... the tendency of 'Saving' had still not crept into me.

Getting into a job opens up a lot many avenues for oneself ... it also opens up a lot many avenues for multitude of advisors... your Boss, who has been waiting for all these years to share (bombard) his wealth of knowledge, finds an avenue and pours the essence advising you to save for the future, for a flat, for a car, for a family etc. The Administration Manager advises you to use email & SAVE paper, at the bottom of his signature in the mails you find the irritating 'Print this mail only if necessary'. Then there are so called investment advisors who come up with funny examples & reasons for you to invest & SAVE. They invariably start with 'I pray to God for your long & healthy life BUT... suppose....'... and then they will present the worst possible scenarios with your life... will scare the life out of you... all this in order to make you save something... last time I argued with an 'advisor' - "When I am not going to be there, you are gonna pay my nominees a huge sum of money!... they may not care a heck, having received the windfall.... and therefore may blow it up in a couple of months. How will you ensure that the money I am saving shall be utilised 'properly'? " The advisor had no reply to my logic... I further argued, "what's the point in saving for others' future at the cost of my present?...मैं अभी मर-मर के save करूँ और लोग  मेरे पीछे ऐश करें... जिसको ऐश करना होगा वो अपना कमाएगा और ऐश करेगा.."... I continued "... the moment we started following the Darwin's 'Survival of the fittest' principle, a lot many pains & obligations will get eliminated on their own!"... He might have been stunned on my views & approach... but so was I (as if I had propounded a new principle contrary to the theory of Insurance or rather contrary to the theory of high value Insurance availed by paying HUGE premium).... but, then there are emotions... 'Saving' has to come out of emotions not just for the sake of it... why otherwise I would have saved a seat & my lunch for Roopa when nobody asked me to and when Roopa didn't save anything at all for me ??...

'Saving' is one of the few traits that everyone wants others to develop instead of inculcating themselves. It has lead to many a disasters. The Project Tiger started by the Indian Government in 1972 is a case in point where the Govt wanted all of us to save Tigers through print and AV campaigns but didn't do much themselves. Same is the case with our politicians who keep on advising all of us to save Electricity but their own unpaid bills run into lakhs of rupees. Everybody who advises should be leading by examples. Things may then start moving in the right direction. A group of youngsters embarked on a campaign for cleaning & saving Yamuna (River) last year set an example of how you can go all the way from Mumbai to save Yamuna at Delhi, have a blast on the way (in train), loads of fun in Delhi, countless photographs & subsequent activity on facebook and still achieve a bit, not to forget the tonnes of enjoyment both for themselves & (probably) for Yamuna!!

The crux of the matter is STOP advising me to SAVE paper, electricity, fuel, power, energy, environment, rivers (Yamuna included), Nilgiri Tahr, Indian Wild Ass ... and the whole of Earth. On the contrary, I beg to be saved from ever advising Politicians, poking relatives, uninvited advisors, Happy-to-help telecallers, ever ready consultants and self-proclaimed guides...

... so what if only 1411 Tigers are left in the wild... there is only one of my kind left in the whole world... SAVE ME