Newport in Rhode Island is a beautiful place. Situated by the Atlantic Ocean it offers visitors with frames for perfect pictures. It also houses some stunning mansions. I had never heard of Newport before, but was the recipient of the large heartedness of Issac Simon, my brother-in-law who not only suggested the trip but even offered to take us on the eighty-five mile drive to the mansion town. The drive, one of the many such, he graciously hosted so far, was beautiful from the word go with the fall painting the entire route with colours, I had seen never before.
With tickets in hand, we actually walked into a piece of American history. Ahead of its times, each room stood out well appointed carefully planned and exquisitely executed. In fact, everything about the mansion was bathed in audacious opulence and grandeur, all funded by slices from the immense riches the individual had amassed over his lifetime. We spent almost three hours within, what was once, someone’s summer house, admiring each inch of space and every piece on display. To top it all, the Atlantic Ocean right outside the mansion premises gave it a touch of magic. I walked out of the mansion in awe of the owners and headed for the blue expanse of Atlantic ocean.
The wind was picking up and I started feeling cold
even through the bright sun. As I gathered my jacket closer, and turned around
to look at the grand mansion, a sudden thought occurred to me; how are their descendants living now? Are they
still rich and living like their ancestors ?
One of the first things I did, on my return, was to search
for details. I was surprised to find that the wealth they had once amassed,
barring few patches of comfort, had all but been either diluted or squandered away. What a tragedy! What about other rich families of the yore?
I searched for other known rich families across the world.
The story wasn’t much different. Almost all of them had their wealth either
completely wiped out or they were just pale shadows of their glorious past. It then occurred to me that it was not just rich
families! Great empires, kingdoms and organisations were no different!
Is descent then the inevitable
next, after the ascent?
I recall my elders talking of the four-stage cycle of ‘rags, riches and back'. Depending on the diligence exercised by individuals in the family or those in control, the cycle may gather or lose momentum. However, the cycle, according to the elders, is inevitable.
Starting from abject poverty, the
poor (‘Daridran', in my native language Malayalam) spends his life in misery.
His children having seen, experienced and driven by poverty dream of better life. They, with fire in their bellies, strive with
all their might to change their state of existence. They essentially live out
their life in hard-work accumulating wealth slowly. They are mostly misers (‘Lubdhan’)
and seldom spend anything on themselves.
Having seen what the parents have gone through and inheriting the seed capital and better footing, a lubdhan's children continue to work hard and soon become rich (Dhanikan). Born into affluence and plenty, children of the dhanikan have no clue of the hard ways the family had come through and therefore have no qualms about splurging and squandering their inheritance. This is the generation of the prodigals (Dhoorthan).
With
floodgates open, wealth flows out of family vaults and soon they fall
on hard times completing the cycle. Children of the Dhoorthan inherit empty
vaults and debts and soon are divested of anything that is left over. They soon
become Daridrans! The cycle is completed.
Despite this universal truth being known by everyone, the cycle continues to play out, day in and day
out across the world. Each stage, however, could accommodate more than one generation depending
on diligence applied.
The same principle applies to emperors, kings and family run
institutions. We have learnt of ancient civilizations and their magnificent
existence. What happened to them? Why did they vanish? Did this cycle-rule apply
to them too?
A close look at our self, our family or even the
organization that we work for could reveal the stage we are at in the cycle. It
would then be natural to ask; can we
prevent the downward arm of the cycle from befalling upon us and our family?
To my mind, it all depends on how much of our hunger for
growth we can pass on to our next generation and how much we have insulated them
from realities of life. In the garb of making things easy for our progenies, we
tend to insulate them from the rough and tough of life and end up making them
unfit and inadequate to face challenges of life. We end up extinguishing the
fire within their bellies rather than fuelling it. Our misplaced love end up depriving them
of opportunities to attempt, fail, learn and then relaunch themselves. In other
words the current generation has a strong influence in what the next is up to.
Most of us, irrespective of where we are in the cycle, believe
that we have come up the hard way. We tend to exaggerate our sufferings and
discount what we got. Many believe that it is their divine duty to provide their
progenies with whatever they were denied or couldn’t afford. In the process they create the next generation
that, might or might not, have an idea of the cost or price of their possessions
but they certainly have no clue about its value. Even
those in the splurge mode do find ways to lament their lack of avenues and
resources.
It is for us to decide weather to accelerate the growth
phase or let a freefall occur. But first let us check where we are? That calls
for real introspection.
