Treasure Hunt

Don't we all love one! I still remember days gone by, where we used to either setup Treasure Hunts or Participate in one, trying to figure out where the clues are.. Of course, it was a Merry Go Round across various places, finding clues leading to the next. And before you know, you have spent a good part of your Friday or Sunday Weekend participating in one, to end with a prize voucher.. Of course, you had a good part of the tour running along with friends, each trying to outwit one another just to get that first prize... At the end, all in good fun, followed by a good meal. Simple, Right?

So, quite impressed and amused to read the story in the +The Times of India about the Gold Rush at Unnao. A seer's dream of 10,000 tonnes of GOLD to be given to India as a gift to make it a world power. Obviously in trying economic times, this seemed like a boon and the Gold Hunt was on.

Nation wide derides, jeers, political believers, political stunt callers, back trackers, of course we saw the works. The BJP calling is a stunt, backing out because the Sadhu challenged Narendra Modi and he suddenly called him a visionary. Of course, one can term it as an outcome of Election times, and no political bureaucrat worth his or her salt, would have wanted to come out a cropper.

Two weeks later, huge resources spent, a whole lot of grave diggers taking part, the findings so far have come out a blank. Political parties backing off, not wanting to take any fall outs from a possible excavation failure. Of course, if it does come that we find a few tonnes of Gold, surely, every one would take part in the credit, and who knows, where the Gold would end up to.

What's my point? Similar to life in many a case. We hear about a miracle that can happen. Riches that can be had overnight, with limited work (Akshay Khanna got duped recently). There is easy money to be made. There is Gold hidden under our ancestral property. There is wealth hidden in the ancient walls of our ancestral house.. And we take every opportunity that we can and have to get that extra money / Gold, that is supposedly ours and we can get it for free.

True, the generations past, had huge reserves of Gold, however as today, the Gold that was with our Maharajah's was probably a 100 times more than what our politicians have today. True they amassed, but then they also had morals, that they had to take care of their people. You would not hear of a Rajah running away to Switzerland, simply because his enemies were coming. The question though remains.. Is that Gold still available? Did our forefathers leave tonnes for our use? Did the looters not loot every penny that we had before they left?

A similar thought expressed in a Blog - Gold Rush and also my second and probably more relevant question that comes to mind. Would we have been a better off civilization / country / people, had we had our riches still to ourselves? Would the greed that the average common man built in himself, been subsided? Would we have been a better world?

Why can we simply not curb our desires and be happy in what we are and we have? Is that too much to ask??