Memorabilia

Value. Mostly seen as the monetary worth of a product or service.Value should be measured by what said product or service can offer you in your particular context, not by an economists’ perception of the generic worth of a thing to a mass of people. A thing which may bring tremendous value to one person could be of no consequence to another, and could, in some cases even put the other at a disadvantage.

I believe in products and services where there is inherent value in the trade of goods or the transfer of knowledge to both parties.

Sadly, we see a lot of companies producing things that are very valuable to few and useless to many. There is a certain element of greed and selfishness that is centered around being a part of this exclusive “club” of the haves, and there is a strange respect awarded to those who are in this club – much like the reverence shown to a rich and ruthless king by his disenfranchised subjects. If this disproportionate distribution of value can bring new opportunities, then some of it will certainly be re-distributed. But not at a sustainable pace, and not in the true spirit of community. It will be driven by more greed spurned by grab-and-go mentality that has become a disease of the modern world.

My father sent me two beautiful photographs today. One of my grandmother as a child, sitting on her father’s lap. The other of my great-grandfather with two luminaries from India — the poet Rabindranth Tagore, and India’s second President Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan. I felt something I haven’t felt in a long time — a sense of belonging and pride. A sense of where I came from, what my  family looked like generations before me, what they were doing in those two moments in time captured on film.

My connection to India and my family has changed a lot over the last ten years. It went from acute homesickness the first few years to bittersweet nostalgia as I got more comfortable with my life here in San Francisco. These days it is mostly a brief moment of longing, and I am immediately inevitably distracted by work, television or twitter. I need reminders like those two photographs to feel that sense of belonging and remind me of who I am and where I came from.

Thank you dad, mama, ammamma and thatha for giving me something to be a part of.