Live In Present-Turn 99

By Mohit Khandelwal

Most of you already seem confused about Turn-99. Aren’t you? If yes, then have patience I will explain what my today’s article is all about. First of all I just want to say, please try to live in the present without predicting the future. What is in future? Let the suspense remain. Now before starting my today’s blog, I just want to ask how many of you want money, how many of you want luxury cars, how many of you want spacious bungalows, how many of you want luxury life? I think mostly all of us want these but at what cost. I have heard in my school days that once you get good marks in 10th your struggle will be over. As a child I believed that. In grade 12, again I heard the same that if you get good marks in class 12th your struggle will be over. At that time also I believed the same. When my school got over, a new struggle of Professional Studies came into my life. Now professional studies are completed and goals well achieved. But, now the tussle to earn lots of money and a lead a luxurious life has started. In short, Struggle will never come to an end, it is eternal. But, what I can do here is that I can make my present healthy and wealthy for a good future. The desire of our life makes us forget the greatest of losses. We are ignoring our happiness, our joy for the sake of future. If still it is not clear than let me tell you a short story:

Once there was a King, he was immensely powerful, rich & prosperous. His kingdom had all the ultra modern facilities that are needed. But, despite his entire kingdom he was neither happy nor pleased of what he had. He wanted much more than what he had to satisfy his greed. He wanted to rule over the world to satisfy his never ending wants. Once during his visit to the kingdom with his Minister, he found a poor family of farmers comprising 3 persons at the outskirts of kingdom. The poor family was very happy and enjoying their lifestyle. They were smiling and taking care of each other. They were actually living their present regardless of future worries.

The king asked his minister “I am the king of this kingdom despite of this I am not happy. I have all the things with which anyone can lead a prosperous and happy life. But, they don’t even have a proper home. They are living in a hut still they seem to be very happy”. The minister replied, “Dear Almighty, they are happy because they are not aware about Turn-99. King replied, ‘turn 99, what’s that?’ The Minister replied, ‘Almighty, turn 99 is that turn which can spoil the good life too”. King replied,” can you please elaborate”? The minister said sir, “I’ll keep 99 coins of gold in front of the door of the farmer and you just wait for 6 months. You will come to know how 99 coins can spoil the life of family playing hand in hand”. The king gave his consent for keeping 99 gold coins before the door of the farmer.

Next day, early in the morning the minister kept 99 gold coins as per their plan. In the morning, when the farmer got up he found a packet of coins. He was surprised to see the packets of coins. He searched nearby to see whether someone is searching for coins or not. After a few hours of search he couldn’t find anyone. So he decided to keep all the coins with him. He entered in his hut & started counting the coins. He counted the coins and found 99 coins only. He again counted the coin as he was thinking that there might be some counting mistake. He again counted but again found the same result again it was 99. He tried it several times but result was the same. He was now asking himself, whether he was very excited or the person who left this packet was an idiot who had left 99 coins only. So he decided to call his wife. He told the whole story to his wife and asked his wife to count the same. The wife was happy and started counting the coins. But, there was no change in the result. Still it was 99 gold coins. Farmer said to his wife, “Are you crazy or insane? Do the counting properly. The farmer’s wife said, “I am neither crazy nor mad. These are 99 in numbers. The farmer called his son and asked him to count the coins which were there in the packet. The son started counting but the result was same. Count was 99. The farmer yelled at his son and his wife, and asked them to find the one coin. He said,”It must be there.... search it properly. No one can keep odd number of coins in a packet. It should be 100 coins. One is misplaced somewhere, go and search properly”. But no coin was found anywhere. Now, we all can easily relate this situation to what we would have done in this situation if we were at his place. Yeah, most of us will say that we will find one coin or we will work extra to complete that set of 100 coins. The farmer did the same instead of enjoying life with 99 coins he started to complete his set of 100 coins. Now all the fun, joy, happiness they used to enjoy was ruined and vanished completely. The farmer lost his hunger, his happiness, his satisfaction due to that one missing coin. His wife asked him, “Dear Husband, why are we wasting our time in search of 1 coin. Can’t we enjoy our life with 99 coins?” The farmed face turned red in rage on fire. He screamed at his wife”, Are you dumb? I am trying harder to complete the set of 100 coins and you want to spend these 99 coins”. Farmer wife was smart and intelligent, so she decided to spend 10 coins on food, dresses and jewellery. Farmer kept on counting the coins regularly and on that evening he found that 10 coins were missing. Now he had to work more to get 11 coins to get his set completed. He called his wife and asked, “Where are the coins? The wife replied that she has spent on Food, dresses and jewellery”. After knowing the reason for the10 coins which were spent by her, he evicted her and his son from home. Farmer wife begged him and said, “Please don’t do this, where we will go”? But the farmer didn’t listen to her and shut the door. Poor wife left the home with his son. But after so many efforts the farmer was unable to complete the sets of 100 coins. Instead of getting coins he lost everything, he lost his wife, his son, his happiness and joy etc.

Now after 6 months the king and his minister visited the same place and found everything has changed. Now no one was there, nothing seemed to be good. They went to the farmer’s hut and asked the farmer, what all had happened with him in last 6 months. Farmer had grown old due to worries and his health suffered lot during the last 6 months. He was very ill and his health had suffered a lot during the last 6 months. The farmer told the entire story to them and told that he has lost each and every thing he was having in the last 6 months due to his stubborn behaviour.

The king and the minister came out from the hut. King told his minister one coin has changed the entire life of that poor farmer. He was so happy before 6 months but due to this turn 99 his entire life changed.

Now, we can relate this story with our life. The king is our soul which is very much powerful, rich and prosperous. Minister is that feeling of jealousy that may turn our life in any direction it may take you to the right turn or wrong turn. As in this Minister has taken the right direction from King’s point of view that we should be happy with what we have but spoiled the life of farmer. Farmer is obviously us who want to collect lots of money, luxury for the future. God knows for whom we want to collect and when we will spend the resources available with us for betterment of our life and opportunities. Farmer wife is that person who enters our life as an opportunity and just wants us to lead a better life with proper planning and execution. But, due to our fake ego and negative attitude we don’t want that person to be in our life who teaches us how to live a better life.

I am not saying that we should not think of the future. I am just saying that instead of worrying about the future we should live in our present and enjoy the resources which god has given to us. God never gives resources in excess nor in shortage. He gives the best resources to us. It’s on us to you how to utilise these resources.

It’s just my opinion to live in the present without getting dizzy in Turn -99. Decision will always be yours.

Thanks

By Mohit Khandelwal