I Don’t Want To Be A Millionaire

By Bhuwan Thapaliya

"You have just won a ten million rupee!" shouted Amitabh Bachan, the veteran Bollywood actor turned TV producer, on the most popular show that has ever hit television in this part of the world. A middle-aged government worker sat on the hot seat in absolute astonishment. In fragments of seconds his life distorted from being an ordinary, government officer living with his wife in a small town home to becoming a millionaire.

I sat on my parent’s room wishing that it were me, who had answered that last question correctly from that seat, instead of sitting in my favorite low bed that faces the television. I would have done anything to be that man at that moment. I could have snatched the Sun from the sky to be there now. I couldn’t imagine what was going through his mind but in my mind the thrill of money was dancing ceaselessly to the tunes of greed played by my heart.

There I was, sitting at home, watching all the excitement on television, dreaming for my life to be different. Yes, change is the law of nature, which even God cannot deny. How easily I had forgotten all of the superior things in my life. Indeed there were more than a billion things for me to be happy about.

I had wonderful parents, more wonderful friends, a great girl and so much more. My life wasn’t dire at all," money isn’t everything," I said to myself. But the demon inside me was urging me that money is the reason of our existence and is synonymous only to oxygen. I murmured to myself, yes, money is the neck that turns our head.

Mild knock on the door made me wake out of my short daydreamers slumber. I walked towards the door and was shocked to see two men standing at the door.

They stood in full uniform. I didn’t know what to think, my eyes began to nip and I could feel them fill with tears. Mine sixth sense told me that something bad news is on for me.

"Brother we are sorry to inform you that….

"We are very sorry brother, but there has been a terrible accident, your girl and two of your best friends were killed this evening… there was nothing anybody could do."

I could not believe it; all three of them were perfect. It was as if someone had taken a million knives and pierced them into my heart. Slowly I pulled away from the officers, and walked towards the low sitting table. The officers followed me and they left with tears in their eyes.

I sat on the chair and did not move an inch. Tears were now constantly flowing from my eyes as if it would run all the way to the vast sea of misery. To join all those tears trapped by their dark fate in the middle of this race called life. My palms and my back were filled with sweat causing me to stick to the leather.

I couldn’t grasp anything apart from pain. My happiness flew from the window and soared high in the sky like an eagle in its high flight. The glitter of the Sunny rays teased me that life is as bright as the rays but deep inside, my heart knew that life is as dark as the hell. Living is not a problem for me but living without those co-comrades is a problem for me.

This is a problem with no solution. I was in complete shock, disbelief, and total trepidation. I sat motionless and tried to understand how God could be so cruel. How one man could win a million rupee within the same hour that another man looses all the people close to him, communally, his whole life. This is the story of life, which is more uncertain than the edge of the knife.

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