Till Debt Do Us Apart
Bob wanted to be debt-free and he made it possible. Yet, he accumulated some debts which can never be repaid or closed.
Bob’s parents had always taught him not to borrow unless it is absolutely necessary. He took it rather seriously and always tried to live within his means. It has not been easy and particularly difficult to deny himself the pleasure of buying things of his choice, say a nice shirt or a music system which he so badly wanted to have. With a mediocre salary and a family to support, he rather bottled his dream of having a Hi-Fi music system to enjoy his favourite music.
Over the years, it became a religion to Bob, “never borrow and never be in debt”. Fortunately or unfortunately, he has not been one of the most individuals who are always in some debt. But what is wrong with debt? After all, the entire banking system thrives on debt in the modern economy. At an individual level, one pays off and takes another debt and then it becomes a habit, always living beyond one’s means. Bob did not find it acceptable. During this cycle of borrowed pleasure (not happiness), if the person loses his job or becomes sick and unable to pay his mortgage, the problem becomes huge, so huge that he can be thrown into the street and it can lead to a destitute life. Bob recalls with a shudder what happened in the sub-prime crisis of the US in 2008, which shook the entire world down; well, almost.
It took Bob nearly five years to save money little by little to buy his dream music system. Being a fan of classical music, Bob is now able to listen to his favourite pieces, such as Chopin’s Nocturne, Mozart’s Symphony number 40, Beethoven’s Symphony number 4 and so on. When night falls and the neighbourhood becomes silent, Bob is immersed in timeless music, enjoying his glass of wine. These are his moments of true happiness. After all, he lives in his own house, has no mortgage, no bank official chasing him to pay his monthly instalment and no notices of default. He had worked quite hard to stay that way. In fact, he has just one credit card to facilitate his financial transactions during emergencies. His difficult journey has brought him lasting peace of mind, so rare to achieve. So, Bob is a happy person in every sense.
Is Bob truly a debt-free person? Apparently yes but not in reality.
When Bob was in the final years of high school, he was a little weak in Mathematics. Although his grade in school was within the top ten, it was certainly not enough to crack the competitive entrance exams to get into an Engineering or Physics major in college. Bob needed tuition but his father could not afford it. In his school, there was a young guest maths teacher, as the regular one went on a long leave. Quite strangely, one afternoon, the young guest teacher asked Bob to meet him after the class was over. This he did and the teacher told him that while his basics were clear, he needed coaching to realise his full potential; he asked him to come to his home over the weekend.
Thus started his ascent. Every weekend the kind young man spent an hour or more, teaching Bob the secrets of scoring high — through practice and diligently perfecting his answers. Bob’s score improved dramatically and he became so good in maths that it became fairly easy for him to crack the entrance exams and get into one of the best Engineering Colleges. The young teacher did not take a penny for private tuition given for a year.
Bob is indeed deeply indebted to the teacher’s kind help but he is not even able to contact him. All he knows is that his Maths Guru later went to the University of Sorbonne in France to do his doctoral work and taught there. Bob remembers him with profound gratitude but could never contact him. Bob remains in debt to this day.
During his professional engineering career, Bob travelled widely in connection with his assignments, working in several countries. During one of these, he was required to visit the site of a proposed port and oil tanker terminal on the east coast of India. He was then all of forty, energetic, always looking positive and get going. On a fine January morning, he arrived at the site — a small fishing port in a natural harbour on the Bay of Bengal, which is known for occasional cyclones and storms. But on that day the weather was brilliant, with a clear blue sky, sunny and light breeze. Everything looked perfect for a visit to the bay area. With two of his colleagues and one representative of the Oil Company, he and his team set out on two-row boats.
The visit was almost getting over when the oil company guy wanted to have some drinking water. There was some bottled drinking water in the other boat. The energetic boatman from the other boat threw the bottle with some gusto towards Bob’s boat. His boatman stood up and swerved towards the right to catch the flying bottle. The boat careened. Bob and the oil company guy fell into the water. Bob did not know how to swim.
The next few minutes were a struggle for survival from drowning and certain death. Bob went straight down with the impact of falling. With field shoes, trousers and camera swung around his neck, Bob felt much heavier than himself and desperately tried to hold his breath, bobbing up to just get some air and going down again. This happened with frightening repetitions until his limbs were about to give up. Death was within handshaking distance and perhaps just a few seconds away. He seemed to hear a faint call from his father whom he lost several years ago as if saying “Don’t gulp water my boy…. Hold your breath”. Bob tried one last time as his dead father implored him from some unknown heaven.
Suddenly Bob found someone approaching him from his right side. He caught Bob’s right shoulder and kept swimming. Within a few metres, the oil guy was in sight. He approached him too. On his left, Bob found a floating plastic chair and just clung to it. His saviour surged towards the oil guy and caught hold of him. Within a few seconds, the saviour brought both towards the boat which had seemed so far away from a little while ago. Both were rescued.
But who was the saviour? Must be one of the boatmen for sure! No, it was the chauffeur of the car which brought them from the airport that very morning to the port site. He had got into the second boat just to have a joy ride! The oil guy had gulped much water and was unconscious when he was lifted into the boat. In the frantic effort to resuscitate him, Bob had to quickly get back to the hotel to arrange for an ambulance. Eventually, everything went well, the oil guy survived after a couple of days of hospitalisation.
(To read the full story of the survival from drowning, go to https://readmedium.com/one-fine-morning-death-came-to-shake-hands-with-me-f002efb70a68)
Bob is deeply indebted to the extra-ordinary and brave chauffeur who saved his life and the life of the other guy, risking his own life. In the whirlwind of events, Bob could not get the chauffeur’s contact details, nor could he get an opportunity to at least thank him profusely and do something in return. Bob remains in debt, a perpetual debt for his saviour.
Off late, when Bob is alone and immersed in his thoughts, he looks back on his life and tries to make a balance sheet of his life. He often feels that the account of his life’s journey resembles a corporate annual report — building his assets, accumulating his debts and liabilities, achieving his accomplishments and living with his shortcomings. He is most satisfied with the outcome of all these efforts to build his life and arrive at where he is today.
Strangely, it strikes him that unlike a debt-free financial statement, which it should have been in his case, Bob notices that much debt has accumulated in the book of his life. There are many of them in addition to these two life-changing events. Curiously, he incurred these debts involuntarily from people, whom he met unexpectedly. These acts of kindness profoundly changed his life, when he least expected them to happen. Yet these continued to happen throughout his life. As the night falls, everything becomes quiet, keeping Bob wide awake in his thoughts while lying in bed. In the stillness of the night, he wonders whether he would ever be able to pay these debts off, if at all.
Perhaps he never will.
Author’s Note:
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