Its been over 5 months that I have been doing my stint as volunteer working on different projects. Most of this time my networth financially is being drained and my-whatever little bank balance has been shrinking.
Let me rewind my life by say an year, there was regular income much higher than that of many Indians and even my fellow colleagues. Expenditures were equally high for me, I would call many of these as flash expenditures. It used to be the case that I would be sitting with a friend, generally chatting up and conversation would move like this -
Me: “yaar, hum aise kyooo hai, hamari life rocking kyu nai hai” (why are we like this my friend, why isn’t out life rocking?)
Friend: “5 saal baad paida hona chaiye tha humein” (we should have come to life 5 years from when we actually did)
Me: “Chal daroo peete hai, party kerte hai” (get up lets go for booze and party)
Rest of the conversation would continue in some pub and would be followed by credit card swipes. Bills would then run in few hundred dollars and such hangouts were frequent. Shopping was in (though I have been a regular shopper of average to premium brands, so that ways I had a check on this expense) and there were no worries. If I could afford, then I would own it was the lifestyle I had. Conscience wise I remain the same, so please don’t doubt I changed in my character or intent.
And then came my decision to volunteer, certain equations in life changed in a way that being a volunteer was whatI was looking forward to. When I look back, I think my call has been vindicated. It has been a life changing experience for me. From always-travel air-conditioned, never-travel buses I became travel-in-trains travel-in-buses (short distance, upto 80-100 km), while hardly travelling by personal car. I remember a close relative of mine making a suggestion last year at the peak of my professional career in monetary terms that Ashish now is the time to buy a bigger car. What uncovered in the next many months resulted in me selling the only car I had.
In fact today I don’t own a car!! I have borrowed the one from my Dad that too to tow me to metro station in Gurgaon. My experiences at my work which are also described in previous blogs were wholesome, but not without the extensive travel i did in this period. Regular visits to Ludhiana, few visits to Jharkhand and occasional trips with family brought me back to the roots I had overlooked in the metropolitan life. I continue to remain busy with my work and that is a trait or even weakness at times I developed as a kid.
The amount of rail travel I did in this period matched my travels during IIT days, in the past many years I think I travelled by train only once. But in past 5 months I did at least 7 round trips. The railways remain the same, stinking compartments, dirty commodes and getting-neater stations. The one difference I see in railways now is that number of trains has gone up, but not at the pace with which the ridership increased. As a student me and my friends used to travel only in non-air conditioned compartments, because those were the one’s we could afford on a regular basis. Today as I write, I am in a similar compartment but I see around me the profile of people doing travel through these rakes is very different. This being a result of rising incomes, increased migration from villages towards cities and the spending culture that has gripped our country.
Not that I am completely comfortable with such travel, a look at my face would tell you that I detest this foul smell that covers the compartment. I embraced this life with a purpose and I lived through this in that mode of a volunteer with little income but focus on contribution.
I did party as a volunteer, but these shifted from pubs to my home. Brought down expenses sharply on hangouts, even withdrawing myself from some parties where I foresaw higher expenses. All this was necessary I feel. I couldn’t have been a splurging, non-caring volunteer? I saved wherever I could from cheap mobile connections, to no blackberry plans to less travel. I enjoyed all this, and I felt much of extravagance in our lives actually isn’t required.
I have a previous 6+ years of active work in Indian financial services, in investing and advisory work (a CFA and an engineering degree from IIT). However, only in this mode have I really done justice to my knowledge and skills, I have closed the loop of my early career from being an investor, to advising high networth clients to working towards ensuring financial inclusion of Indian masses. I think I know where I want to go, I had probably always known but never cared to jump into the line. Whether I reach that milestone or not that is a worry which is perennial, I just wish after my business school I am able to translate my desires into action. And whatever I learnt in this volunteer mode should remain with me throughout my life as a reminder, Once I was a Volunteer...
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