CREATING PERSONAL MUSEUMS

CREATING PERSONAL MUSEUMS

By

VIKRAM KARVE

Every time I relocate I am amazed at the things we have accumulated.

We try to get rid of everything, except books. I don't know why but I love to hoard books. 

Look around you – don’t you see people accumulating and hoarding things they never use, maybe anything, like money, possessions, paintings, books, clothes, shoes, artefacts, stamps, coins, just about anything, and they take delight in looking at their “museums” once in a while and then putting them away once again. 

Well, I cannot resist telling them, and you, and me, this Mulla Nasrudin Story.

 

Mulla Nasrudin relocated to a new town.

In this town there was a tradition.

People saved their money and with their money they purchased gold coins.

When they had enough gold coins to fill up an earthenware pot, they bought an earthenware pot,filled it with gold coins, sealed it and then theyburied the pot full of gold in their gardens in a secret spot.

Once a year, they dug up the vessels from their secret hidden spots, opened the seals, checked their gold coins, resealed the pots and then buried them again at another secret spot in their gardens.

When the Nasrudin learned about this practice, he found an earthenware pot, and in full public view, he filled the pot with stones, dug a hole in the centre of the road and started burying his pot full of stones.

“Nasrudin, that is not the proper way,” said the townsfolk, “You are supposed to fill the pot with gold, not stones.”

“Dear friends,” Nasrudin laughed, “as long as you are not going to spend it, what difference does it make if it is gold or stones...?”

VIKRAM KARVE