Rich and Poor

“Why are some rich and some poor?, I asked my dad.
“Well, I don’t know son. Maybe because for one to be rich, the other has to be poor. You can’t have it both ways in a society”.
“Who decides who gets to be rich and who gets to be poor”?
“God, I would say”.
“Well, why can’t he make everyone rich, so everyone can be happy?”, I asked in a confused tone.
“Because that’s just the way it is, son. It’s a two way street. One wouldn’t exist without the other. It’s like, you are asking, why does the sun have to set? Why can’t it be day or night always? It’s just can’t, son. That’s how it works.”
I pouted.
“It’s time for your speech sir”.
My personal assistant woke me up from my reminiscence of my dad’s words. It’s been 30 years since I had that conversation with my dad. I’ve come a long way since then. He handed me a script as I prepared to speak.
“Keep it. I changed my mind”, I told him.
I’ve been chosen as the best businessman in the country for this year. As it goes with all the award ceremonies, I’ve to give a speech. And the topic’s supposed to be interesting. I wanted to speak about business start ups but I changed my mind. Well, what I am going to speak may not be interesting, but sure as hell important. I stood up to the podium confidently. I started my speech.

“I own a MNC (multinational corporation). I earn millions. I live a very happy, comfortable, luxurious and a healthy life. I’ve got a tremendous beach house with amazing views. But, the view is both amazing and stressing.”
“Just opposite my fancy house, lives a family of 3 people, who had actually lived under the poverty line. The man is a fisherman and the woman does house works to earn money. After I moved in here, I gave the woman a permanent job at my house.”
“Are you happy now”?, I asked her one day when she was working at my home.
“For what, sir?”
“Because you are out of poverty now. I give you enough money as your salary to run a decent lifestyle. So, are you glad your life is better now?”.
“No, sir. I am not”, she replied in a worried manner.
“What? Why not?. Is the money not good enough”?
“It’s not about the money sir. We are not the only poor people out there. There are 100’s and 1000’s of people who live on the street every day. All they want is 3 meals a day. They work on daily wage jobs where they may not even be given the minimum wage as it is sanctioned by the law. I know 100’s of family like that. I got help. But what about them?”.
“Well, are you at least not happy for yourself?”, I asked her.
“I don’t want to be just happy for myself sir. I will be happy when every family out there gets the necessary help they need. I do my bit like you do, and I hope more people reach out to help”.
I was puzzled. “You do your bit? How?”.
“The salary you give me sir. I split it into three equal amounts and give to the three families I know.”, she smiled proudly.
"I simply nodded and smiled at her. It’s incidents like this which help me realize that poor people have more humanity than the rich ones in the society. Poor people tend to care about those around them, while the well settled ones are focused on themselves. This lady, who was on the verge of poverty line, was not flattered with the salary I gave her. Rather, she decided to split it and help out others. It doesn’t matter how many zeros you have in your salary. If you don’t have the heart to help a needy person, you are still poor. My dad told me God decides who gets to be rich, and who gets to be poor. I disagree with that now. I say, it’s we, the people in the society who decide it. If the rich sector can’t bat a eye on the less fortunate sector, it’s not long before our society falls apart. And remember, the chain is only as strong as the weakest link. It doesn’t matter if a country has 100’s of Billionaires, it will still fail one day, and it will fail hard.”
“To my final note, I will call it a night by saying that, we better look after every sector of our society, and stop discriminating based on the social status. The day is not long away, where the society is going to fall because the rich kept getting richer and poor kept getting poorer. Let’s hope that humanity still exists and it doesn’t come with money.”

I stepped down from the podium, and felt satisfied. I hope I had made a change in at least one person in that room.