In a small town near Nalgonda, there lived a cloth merchant named Ramachandraiah. He had been running the same shop for thirty years. A wife, two children, a house of his own, no debts, and enough income to get through the month comfortably.
One day his son Sharath said,
“Dad, how long are we going to continue with this shop? We should put up a big showroom right next to it. AC, glass front, new furniture... our level has to go up.”
Ramachandraiah smiled.
“We’re getting enough for our needs, aren’t we?”
“That’s the problem with your generation, Dad. If you keep saying ‘enough for our needs,’ there’ll be no growth in life.”
Those words stayed in Ramachandraiah’s mind.
Within three months, he demolished the old shop and built a new showroom.
The showroom became bigger.
But so did the debt.
“If we open one more branch, this debt will be cleared,” Sharath said.
The second branch came.
Then the third.
Every time he opened a branch, Sharath said the same thing.
“This is the last one, Dad. After this, we’re settled.”
But that “last one” never came.
-On the day the third branch opened, all the town elders were invited. Garlands, band, photographs, sweets... Sharath was moving around excitedly.
-After everyone left at night, he sat alone inside the empty showroom.
-His father came and asked, “What happened, son?”
-“Nothing, Dad...”
-“Then why are you sitting like this?”
Sharath remained silent for a while.
-“Dad... I should be very happy today, right? But I’m thinking about how much tomorrow’s sales will be.”
Ramachandraiah said nothing.
The opening day was over.
But Sharath had not really lived that day either.
One day Sharath came home and said,
“Dad, let’s open a showroom in Hyderabad. That’s where the real growth is.”
Ramachandraiah remained silent for a while.
“Is it wrong to be happy with what we already have?”
Sharath smiled.
“We should be happy, Dad. But we shouldn’t stop moving forward.”
They sold the old farmland to build the Hyderabad showroom.
The business ran well for two years.
Now Sharath had another desire.
“Our brand should cross the borders of the state.”
By then, the conversations at home had changed.
“Is this enough?”
“It would be nice if we had a little more.”
“He has three cars. We have only two.”
“They bought a new villa.”
“Our children should study in an even better school.”
“Our name should become bigger.”
The moment one desire was fulfilled, another was born.
And once that was fulfilled, another one.
No matter how much they earned, something always seemed to be missing at home.
-One day Sharath got the idea of building a new house.
-“The house we have now is quite good,” said his wife, Sowjanya.
-“Being good isn’t enough. It should match our status.”
-Three years later, a three-storey house stood there.
-On the housewarming day, all the relatives came.
-“Wow! What a house!”
-“Building a house like this in Hyderabad is no small thing!”
-Pride was clearly visible on Sharath’s face.
-That night, after everyone had left, Sowjanya asked him a question.
-“Why do we need such a big house?”
Sharath had no immediate answer.
-She continued,
-“There are five of us. This house has twenty rooms. We use only four every day. For the rest, we need a maid to clean them, money for maintenance, money for electricity, money for taxes...”
-Sharath became irritated.
-“Then what do you want me to do?”
-“Nothing. I’m only asking you to think once. Did we build this house? Or has the house put us to work looking after it?”
-He didn’t like what she said.
-But whether we like the truth or not, truth remains truth.
-The house was an asset.
-At the same time, it was also a responsibility.
-The bigger house brought bigger expenses. The bigger business brought bigger problems.
-Ramachandraiah smiled and said,
-“Sharath... behind every asset there is its own work. We think we own it. Sometimes it starts owning us.”
-Sharath said nothing.
-There was something like an old saying hidden in his father’s words:
“What you think is an asset can take very little time to become a responsibility.”
-The house became bigger.
-The business became bigger.
-The files in the locker became thicker.
-Registration papers, share papers, loan documents, insurance papers, tax papers...
-One day, looking at all those papers jokingly, Sharath told his wife,
-“If we have so many papers, we must be very rich!”
-Sowjanya smiled.
-“The papers have increased. Has peace increased?”
-Again, there was no answer.
---
-One day his father spoke very directly.
-“Sharath, a man spends twenty years of his most energetic and enthusiastic adult life building a big house or a big business. Why? Some of it is genuinely for the children’s needs. But many times there is another desire hiding behind it — ‘Everyone should know who I am.’”
-Sharath looked at his father. His father continued.
-“A big house increases our name. A big business increases our name. But just because our name has become bigger, have we really become bigger?”
-Ramachandraiah paused and said,
“There is a saying in the world.
It is called POP — Problems Of Plenty.”
-If the problems that come from having no money are one kind,
-the problems that come after having plenty of money, property and business are another kind.
-Where should we keep it?
-How do we protect it?
-Whose name should it be in?
-Who should receive it?
-How do we reduce the taxes?
-How do we maintain it?
-Who will look after the business?
-After I am gone, will the children divide everything properly, or will they fight?
-What if there is a quarrel among the brothers?
-As wealth increases, the questions around it increase too.
-We should stop and ask ourselves:
“Am I accumulating wealth? Or am I giving my life away just to protect the wealth I have accumulated?”
-“The papers in the locker have increased. But has stillness increased inside the person? That is the real calculation.”
-Those words struck Sharath deeply.
---
Once, Sharath’s daughter asked him to attend a programme at her school.
“Dad, you must come this time. I’m going to speak on stage.”
“I’ll definitely come.”
That morning, a major client called.
Another meeting in the afternoon.
The deal had to be finalised in the evening.
Sharath couldn’t make it to his daughter’s programme.
By the time he came home at night, the girl was asleep.
-On the table, he noticed a small piece of paper she had written.
“Dad didn’t come. But I spoke very well.”
-Sharath held that paper in his hand and sat there for a long time.
-He didn’t stop working the next day either.
-Because he had one belief:
“If I work hard now, later I can spend plenty of time with the children.”
-That “later” never came.
---
One Sunday, Ramachandraiah went alone to his old town.
There he saw Mallayya sitting at a small tea stall.
“Oh, Ramachandraiah garu! After so many years!”
They had tea together.
Mallayya asked,
“How is your shop?”
“It has now become a big chain of shops.”
“Oh! You have grown so much.”
Ramachandraiah didn’t smile.
“Mallayya... how much have you grown?”
Mallayya thought for a moment.
“Me? I make tea in the morning. Go home in the evening. Sometimes I take my grandson and sit near the lake. That’s all.”
“What more do you want?”
Mallayya put his tea glass down and said,
“That’s the thing, son... I don’t know what more I want.”
Ramachandraiah fell silent.
-A little later, Mallayya smiled and said,
-“Do you remember when you first started your shop here? You used to calculate the day’s sales and go home in the evening. Now you deal with crores. But the peace I used to see on your face then... I don’t see it now.”
-Ramachandraiah looked up.
-“That’s true, Mallayya. Back then I had less. But whatever I had felt enough.”
---
That night he spoke to his son.
“Sharath... since when have we been earning?”
“Why, Dad?”
“I don’t know. But do you know since when we have been postponing our life?”
Sharath said nothing.
Ramachandraiah continued.
“First we thought we would be happy if the shop became bigger. Then three shops. Then Hyderabad. Now the whole state. Tomorrow the country. Where do we stop?”
Sharath said softly,
“If we stop, we’ll fall behind.”
“Behind whom?”
Sharath had no answer.
-That night Sharath couldn’t sleep.
-He looked back at his life.
-Small shop → big shop → three branches → Hyderabad → the state...
-On every step, he heard the same word.
-“A little more.”
-Suddenly it struck him — he wasn’t climbing the steps. The steps were climbing him.
-He picked up his phone and looked at his calendar.
-There wasn’t a single full day free in the next three months to spend with his family.
-He closed the calendar.
The next day he set out to finalise a major deal.
Halfway there, he stopped the car and simply sat there for a long time.
Messages kept coming on his phone.
“Confirm the deal.”
“Send the expansion plan.”
“What’s the next target?”
He switched off the phone.
For the first time, he simply sat in the car without going anywhere.
Outside, a little boy was riding a bicycle.
He fell.
He got up.
He rode again.
There was no hurry in him to reach anywhere.
Watching him, something became clear to Sharath.
The boy was riding a bicycle.
But I have spent my whole life searching for a destination.
-A little later, his driver asked,
-“Sir, shall we go?”
Still looking outside, Sharath said,
-“Stay here for a while.”
-That “little while” became a very big pause in his life.
He did not cancel the deal.
He did not shut down the business either.
But from that day, he made one small change.
He stopped mortgaging today for the next target.
The shops continued.
Money came.
Some projects happened. Some did not.
But he slowly stopped looking at everything with the hunger of “I need more.”
-He did not sell the big house.
-He did not give up the business either.
-But before buying a new property, he would ask himself one question:
-“Is this useful to me? Or is it just another paper for my name?”
-Before opening a new branch:
-“Is this really necessary? Or do I simply want to show that I have become bigger?”
-Once he started asking these questions, his decisions changed.
-He let some opportunities go.
-He took some.
-The difference was simple — earlier, desire made the decision. Now, need made the decision.
One day his son asked,
“Dad, what’s your target now?”
Sharath smiled.
“Today should be lived completely as today. Tomorrow’s target can wait until tomorrow.”
-A few months later, his daughter had another programme at school.
-This time Sharath reached early and sat in the first row.
-After the programme, the girl asked,
-“Dad, why did you come this time?”
Sharath smiled.
-“Because I wanted to listen to you speak.”
-The girl said nothing much.
-She simply held his hand.
-In that little hand, Sharath felt he had found something he had been searching for all these years.
-It wasn’t a new achievement.
-It wasn’t a new possession.
-It wasn’t about getting ahead of anyone.
-It was the ability to be completely present in one moment without having to acquire anything.
A Small Commentary
Desire is often made to look respectable by giving it the name “growth.”
“If I earn a little more, it will be better.”
“If I get a little more recognition, it will be better.”
“If I grow a little more, my children will have a better future.”
“If I earn a little more now, I can finally be peaceful later.”
That is how a person gives a respectable name to his desire.
But changing the name does not change its nature.
Desire is still desire.
I want → I must achieve → I need a little more → I must achieve a little more...
That is endless seeking.
-There is a strange calculation in human life.
-Youth, health, enthusiasm and time — these are forms of wealth that can never be bought back.
-Yet many people spend twenty of their strongest adult years building a bigger house or a bigger business.
-The hard work itself is not wrong.
-Earning for the family is not wrong.
-Growing a business is not wrong.
-But after a certain point, if it is no longer mainly about genuine need and becomes about identity elevation — the desire for others to see one’s status and importance — that is where the trouble begins.
-“I want this” slowly becomes,
-“I must have this, otherwise people won’t know who I am.”
-From that point, an asset is no longer merely an asset.
Every asset can become a liability in disguise.
-An asset may look like wealth from outside, but behind it can come maintenance, expenses, responsibility, fear, decisions, family disputes, taxes and the constant work of protecting it.
-An asset is not wrong.
What matters is our relationship with the asset.
-Papers keep increasing in the locker.
PIL — Papers In Locker.
-And as wealth increases:
POP — Problems Of Plenty.
-We often think, “A person with nothing has problems.”
-But it is also not completely true that “A person with plenty has no problems.”
-Where should it be kept?
-How should it be protected?
-Whose name should it be in?
-Who should inherit it?
-How can the taxes be managed?
-Who will maintain it?
-Who will run the business?
-What happens after I am gone?
-Will the children divide everything peacefully?
-What if brothers fight?
-As wealth increases, the questions surrounding that wealth can increase too.
So the real question is not:
“How much do I have?”
It is:
“How much does what I have possess me?”
-A house should exist for us.
Our life should not exist for the house.
-A business should serve us.
Our whole life should not burn in the service of the business.
-Money should be useful.
Protecting and managing money should not become the main purpose of life.
We think that once a desire is fulfilled, the mind will become peaceful.
But very often, the moment one desire is fulfilled, another one appears.
So the problem may not always be “too little.”
It may be the word “more.”
A person gives today’s life in exchange for tomorrow’s happiness.
When tomorrow arrives, it becomes today.
Again he runs towards tomorrow.
That is relentless desire.
That is perpetual seeking.
And that is what slowly exhausts a person from within.
Stillness does not mean giving up work.
Work can continue.
Money can be earned.
Assets can exist.
A business can grow.
Children’s futures can be taken care of.
But somewhere inside, there needs to be one simple understanding:
“Even without this, I am not incomplete.”
Then earning becomes just a task.
Losing becomes just an event.
Growing becomes just an opportunity.
Declining becomes just a situation.
Nothing has to completely drag the mind along with it.
The point is not to stop growth.
The point is to stop postponing life in the name of growth.
Desire says:
“If I get a little more, I will become complete.”
Contentment says:
“I do not need anything else to become complete.”
That is where the running slows down.
That is where, for the first time, a person stops staring at the destination and begins to see life itself.
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