Material world

I was at a family function. I was with my younger cousin Ananya. When both of us had been sharing life updates with each other, we were briefly joined by one of my elder cousins Tanuja. Tanuja had sat with us, before she was called by one of our aunts. Before leaving Tanuja had handed her handbag and phone to me, "please keep these with you till I return".

While I kept her handbag on my lap and her phone in my hand my cousin Ananya was staring at both of these items. Ananya was definitely impressed with the designer handbag and the latest phone that Tanuja had. I saw the sparkle in Ananya eyes and had to ask her, "amazing right?"

" Yes I loved the handbag. Plus the latest model of the phone. Tanuja didi must be wealthy," Ananya said with an awe.

" Definitely Tanuja didi is wealthy. She started her consultancy from scratch and within few years it has been doing wonders. For work ethic and ambitions took her to the place where she is right now. It is definitely praiseworthy," I was really proud of my cousin who had built a business on her own. To me this is what a woman empowerment looked like.

"Didi I also want a designer bag like her. A new phone like her. But dad never agrees," Ananya said with disappointment.

" Tanuja didi earned enough to buy these luxury things. You too would be able to buy these things when you start working. Your dad is right not to not spend so much money on such material things right now," I was trying to make Ananya understand.

"Didi not you too. Dad tell me the same thing. He tells me buy those things when you start working. You all working people think the same way. My friends have at least one designer handbag. They have the latest phones. But here I am stuck with the phone model that was released two years ago and a handbag brought from Amazon. You guys don't understand I need to keep up with my friends," Ananya was really annoyed by that time.

"Well I believe your friends are wealthy. I too have handbags from Amazon. I don't have any designer handbags. My phone is 5 years old and I am planning to use it till the time it functions. Trends will come and go. But we cannot waste our money on such trends," I was trying to make Ananya understand.

"Tell me something. You have money in your hands. You do not have to ask anybody for money. Do you not feel like buying a designer handbag or latest phone? You have the freedom to buy anything you want with your own money but I rarely see you with anything that is trending," Ananya asked me a question that made me think. When I was ready I respond to my younger cousin, "that is correct. I have the freedom to spend does not mean I should misuse that freedom. I would rather keep my money for securing the future instead of spending it on a trendy designer handbag which will be out of trend in the next week. Instead of impressing others I would rather save it for myself. I go with functions rather than trends. When you will start earning I believe you would understand that yourself. For now I can only tell you one thing: don't run behind labels because some other label can anytime win the race making your label invalid" I smiled at Ananya.

That moment I realised that how the young generation has thoughts about designer things, labels, and trends. I thank my stars that I was born and raised in a generation when being stingy was the greatest virtue. I am glad that I was not of a generation where labels held the importance than people.