Sunday, November 30, 2008

A part of all you earn is yours to keep!

It was cold and dark when I reached home yesterday. My aunt had been ringing me up so many times as a sign that the table is ready for dinner. That was an unusual time for me to be home. I used to come home between 6:10 to 6:30 in the evening. But last night, I was not able to get a lift on time. Our carlift arrived 20 minutes late and the road was very congested. There was a car accident in the roundabout going to Deira. One Mercedes Benz hit the Ford Focus that made the latter bumped on the edge of the roundabout.
As I opened the gate my attention was caught by a strange thing lying on the ground. It was dark and the outside light was still swithched off to keep our flat unnoticed by the DM people. I was curious so I bent down to get the thing and inspected it. I was disappointed to find out that it was just a book - a thin, yellow pocket book of 300 pages to my estimate. I thought I could stumble on something significant enough. Books, magazines, pocketbooks, newspapers are daily trashes the street cleaners in Dubai complain everyday. To them, these are all unrecyclable materials that give them nothing but headaches. Not even one company in Dubai buys used papers for reuse unlike in some parts of the world where used papers are collected and processed into new materials.
But as I read the title of the book I felt a bit of curiosity. So I took it with me. After our dinner I gave a glimpse of its foreword and continued on chapter I. I did not exactly know what happened, the book cover was not that good but the contents were very interesting. It was a story about the Babylonians, the rich people in the ancient times. This book reveals the secret on how the King acquired wealth, how his money earn more and more. The only secret which he heartily followed and wanted to share to his children, to his grand and great grand children is this: A part of all you earn is yours to keep! On this principle, he elaborated that at least one-tenth of our income must be saved before anything else. One-tenth and this must be strictly followed. This must be set aside and must be used wisely so that this will earn a profit.
As I finished reading the first chapter, I examined myself. How many years have I wasted? I've been earning but did not try to save like the Babylonians. If I did apply the principle of the Babylonians as my mother told me when I was young maybe I have a fat purse now. But what else can I do? Time had passed. But it's not yet too late. Considering the condition of the world economy which is about to collapse, it must be imperative for us to exactly inculcate into our minds the teachings of the Babylonians. Save first.

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