Dear Friend,
Happy new year to you. Hope you are doing well. Its long time since I wrote a letter, so forgive me if my handwriting is illegible. ( due to emails, I hardly write on paper these days, and I am sure we are in the same boat).
The reason I write this letter is today I achieved on MS what I have always wanted. I became a pauper today. Yes, I know you wont belive me, so I have attached my bank statements, which show all my transactions so far. Do you see the the balance ZERO hightlighted inred in one of the attached pics? I still cant belive I have achieved it, so I keep pinching myself once every 5mins. ;-)
The joy I feel right now is immense. I feel so light, I feel I have no burden to carry. All these days MS activities generated a lot of futilepoints, but due to lack of time I cudnt spend it as much as I wud have liked. I felt like a ghost keeping watch over some useless wealth. Also me being not a emosanal person, I never went into gifting frenzy driven by feelings. But for the trusted feed gossip that tells me "xyz has gifted 123 item to abc" or my own gift alerts, I wudnt even remember I had something called MS points.
evenutally I had resort to namesake contests to spend my accumulated points. Also festive occasions helped me unload much of them. Finally the hour had to come, and it came today. At 11.03am on 5th January 2010, after sending couple of gifts I noticed I had only 85 points left. The human nature in me said "dont spend, save for urself" - but I had decided to overcome it, instead I spent those 85 in gifting a MSian & chose to become a pauper. I hate the fact that writing this & further MSing will take me back to the vicious cycle - of gathering MS points unwares. I Wish Faisal gives me some kind of VRS, where in I can be active on site, but none of my activities here shud generate points for me. I wish to remain a permanent resident pauper here.
From the expression one your face now, I know you are calling me insane, mad, fool. But I say Thank you, I like it this way. You know I have many times been a pauper in real life & I know how good it is. They say "jab dil tha bhara, jeb tha khaali, jab jeb tha bhara, Dil khaali khaali". I was so free when I had no money, as my money increased so did my worries increase, so did my forehead increase !! ;-) Now I am afraid of death not bcos I fear death, but bcos I worry who gets my money after my death! Same way with these MS points, without them I can die peacefully, with them one always have to worry, wat happens to my points once I leave ( both MS & world!) ;-)
Also when I have points & dont gift people, I feel guilty at my lethargy, without points in my kitty, I dont have to feel guilty about my lethargy!( in either case, I cant leave my lethargy lol ). Also I have realised only a pauper is free in the real sense. A papuper can be fearless, for he has nothing to lose. Only a pauper can place his full faith in God, as he himself has nothing of his own to put his trust in. So I would rather be a MS pauper than earn these points, unless Faisal has plans of converting points to Rupees, for example 1 MS point = 1 Rupees! ;-) I bet he wont do that, because he doesnt want to experience the joy of being a pauper!
Let me know your thoughts on this when you get time. Hope you write to be back using Inland letters of Indian Postal service. Dont worry about the cost, it wont make you pauper, instead it will help the postal dept avoid being a pauper themselves.I will be waiting for your reply & before I finish again new year wishes to you and your family. Please share with them this good news, that an aam aadmi is experience intense joy at being a pauper. I really wished you could join in my hour of joy, by hosting a party!( pauper cant host, u see!!) ;-)
God Bless Us
Yours Properly err I mean Pauper-ly
Aam Aadmi
End Quote: Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper.
