Rising above the odds for brighter side

if you are born poor, it's not your fault, but if you die poor, it's your fault. (well known quote)

Merriam-Webster dictionary defines poverty as, the state of one who lacks a usual or socially acceptable amount of money or material possessions.

In my personal opinion, if one can't afford the most basic necessities, like food, basic clothing and liveable shelter, than one is poor, regardless of their comparative income levels. Let's just begin with, I was born in family with more than one sibling. My father was the sole bread earner, due to size of our family then, which was composed of grand parents, parents and kids, we were living on super tight budget. On top of that, during those days, many families had to restart life from scratch after independence in 1947. There were disease outbreaks in 1970's which put extra pressure on many families due to illness. 

I remember, my mother used to track all expenses every day, our family income was technically one-third or fourth, of the minimum living cost. There was huge trust and affection in the commmunity, hence for some years, the monthly payments would get rotated, milkman, grain seller, grocery merchant, bike repair shop etc, would get paid in alternating months or credit period would go longer. Although utilities had to be paid in time, to get water and electricity at home. This went for long, until I landed my first job. Thanks to my first boss, for that most important first break, unfortunately cancer had impacted one of our member then, so every penny mattered.

Since second grade, I had started to see the pain, of not having enough to pay bills, even though one may have moderate income, but family size would further reduce value of money. Our family had welcoming heart, we lived in one rented home, like more than 14 years, as our location was very social, we had many guest, there was sense of joy in meeting and greeting, guests would be treated well. On the other hand, there were more than few incidents, that had knocked me down, I remember one of our family acquaintance insulted and pushed me, even though I went as a messenger to alert him, during minor emergency of his family member, which was few blocks away. There was another situation, our guest had scooter locked and parked outside our home, some kids kick started scooter, that used to be fun, I went running, to off it, but it was mis perceived as me, I got banged really bad. There were numerous situations like this, that were making my aspirations stronger to overcome these kind of experiences.

Then there used to be times, some of our near relatives would be kind to pass on an old TV or small furniture or shoes to us and some others distant relatives would intentionally pass-on worst rejected things to us, so we couldn't see and think beyond our means. They would laugh, humiliate or ensure we stayed in so called orthodox-fence (self coined term). But my parents had faith, and cheerful appproach always, they had earned regard around the local community, while kids were learning and gradually excelling.

My parents also had great friends, specially father had, seven to ten amazing friends, I salute them even today. They would stand by him, during thick and thin. What an amazing group it was, they would never let him fail. Not only that, all these neighborhood merchants would stand by my parents too, not letting them fail or suffer. In reciprocation we always kept our commitments and paid the dues.

It was inspiring to see all that, on the other hand, I was noticing limits on buying power, even though, those gaps were being quickly closed. Similarly, those second class, dumpster type things were also deeply making me think harder. By the middle school, I had made a goal to make everyone around me, to be self sufficient and "to not beg or borrow" (my self coined motto). Ofcourse here, I am talking in family context, and not referring to business investment borrowing or financing.

Does scarcity or poverty, have any positives ? Yes it does to some extent, but those aren't sustainable at all.

With COVID-19, as the rug got pulled from under the pillars of global economy, many families around the world will be feeling the pain, as not everyone can be millionaire or billionaire, even though there may be enough wealth to equally spread in the World, but human life for thousands of years has been hierachical in economical and influential aspects. It is almost like Sunset and Sunrise, both exist for a living earth.

No doubt, poverty may bring families together, closer, sometimes improve relationships, make someone more humble, some may feel content with very little things, life has to offer.

But there is much darker side, when things are extreme, the buying power definitely matters, while needing medical care, higher education, transportation to move, or having a family life event, not having hygienic living conditions, or non-harmful food and weather proof covering, or not being able to buy a balloon for a child. I don't think anyone would like to be panhandling. 

Thanks to all the volunteering organizations, who help the hungry and the ones who are trying to solve global poverty problems.

As decades passed, our family grew and integrated with new amazing other families, thanks to them, things keep evovling. I am not an economist, so don't know deep economic theories, but one thing is crystal clear for sure, poverty is never good for anyone, we can all strive to constructively increase our buying power as a consumer, and thrive for good health, self respect and perhaps for the acts of kindness, help others rise above their adversity.