99 curse

 I woke up this morning, to see my follower numbers had increased in the past few hours, but ‘not wow, 299, but why is it only 299?’

I was reminded of a story in Hindi, that I had read most probably in Chanda mama, a children’s magazine, enjoyed by adults as well, titled ‘Ninyanve Ka Pher’

A poor person who was quite satisfied with just a few rupees who could earn or was handed out, one day finds a little purse in his house, thrown by someone through the broken window.

And there in the purse were a few shining golden coins, yes, may be 100 rupees. He sat down to count one, two, three, twenty, forty five, 78, 89, and then 99. He looked under the purse, swept his floor a few times, looking for the one coin, the 100th one, which he expected to be there somewhere and that he might have missed in his counting.

Everyday he started thinking about the missing coin, and was in a foul mood, and angry, he became suspicious of his neighbour, and was short with his wife, had a quarrel with his brother, basically he was suddenly dissatisfied with everything around him. He was always thinking:

“I just want one more gold coin, and that would be it. I’ll be happy and everything would be great again”.

He eventually went crazy in this ninanve ka pher, the curse of the ninety-nine.

Yes, it starts like this, in our lives too. Everything, we want, we start with one desire, one need, a little, and then more, till nothing satisfies us.