Finding richness in Mohmmad Mathew Ram College

When, all the seventh semester students of Mohmmad Mathew Ram College were busy developing meaningful social projects on poverty alleviation, human rights, unemployment, women empowerment and child labour, Venkat and Christopher  decided to work on a fun project to “identify  the richest student in their campus”. The idea was to convienced the rich student to sponsor the football team from the nearby slum.

Their check list was perfectly drafted to the minutest details from giving weightage for designer watches to the bikes they ride. Everything has to be done discreetly just by observing them from distance.  But, there were few, whose richness may not be reflected from the watches they wear or the bikes they ride. Even these non-reflective rich should not be missed out from their radar. Since, more pair of eyes will be required to reach maximum potential customers, they decided to take few more friends into confidence.

These friends finding their profile like FBI agents actively participated in the project. In order to test their check list and gain some practical insight, these two students  decided to start their project from their hostel room itself …who is the richest among both of them?

They started by giving marks to themselves simply by counting the number of trousers, shirts, shoes, watches, pen, laptop, mobile, etc as per the cost. Finally, they concluded, Venky was richer, who scored couple of points more than Christy according to the point system they had developed. But, soon  they hit a road block, when one of their FBI agent, Anshul point out  that they have to find out a way  to measure the richness  of  kindness because to fund the football team the rich guy has to be rich in kindness too. They found merit in Anshul’s opinion, so it was decided to develop a mechanism to quantify richness of kindness. This add further confusion to their scope of the project , but since it was getting interesting everyone started spending more time on the project.

That evening, Venky and Christy went out on date with their girlfriend. To stay away from publicity, which may otherwise dilute the scope of their ambitious project, they decided not to share their idea with their girlfriends. 

At night the white sheet on which they calculated their material richness declaring Venky as a clear winner was still placed above the wooden cupboard. While Christy was happily texting his girlfriend from his bed, Venky was looking out from the window and checking his mobile every alternate minute. Soon, after posting few smileys, Christy felt asleep but Venky kept waiting till late midnight checking his mobile for a msg from his dearest one. With no indication of msg, Venky went to sleep, not before making some changes on their Richness calculation chart.

Next morning, Christy woke up to see the white sheet declaring              Venky = Christy. Two marks added on Christy’s side for richness of affection from his girlfriend and good sleep…!

The very idea of giving marks for richness of affection and richness of good sleep, changed the entire concept of the project.  Slowly, the word spread across the campus and more students joined them with new ideas. Richness of humour, health, happiness, IQ, EQ, and richness of peace from family, friends, seniors, juniors, etc, were included in the scope. Now, the project seems more like finding what is richness rather than who is richest. The FBI agents were becoming research scholars.  

From the fourth week onwards science and astrology was introduced by few students to determine richness. Late one night, Gaurav along with four of his batch mates, from first semester came running to Venky and Christy’s room, as if they have decoded the oldest mystery of the universe.

“Venky bhai, God has created a balance life for all of us, everyone is equally rich, only the nature of richness is different”   explained Gaurav, as if he had heard straight from the God’s mouth.  Christy smilingly asked him “but how?”

Gaurav explained…

“Look, we played a game to identify the richness among ourselves. The game starts with one of us listing out the things he may have not got in life, like good grades, friendly father, big house, swanky car, luxury gadgets, beautiful girlfriend, etc. Than rest of us help him to identify the things he have got  in life  like a healthy body, sense of humour, caring sisters, good schooling, medals in sports and many more such qualities or facilities that he unknowingly enjoys. Finally we realized God has wonderfully balanced our life by gifting us with different types of richness. May be for some, certain richness comes early in life and for others they may experience those richness late in life.”  

Quite impressed with the wonderful thoughts of this young boy, Venky laughingly asked “you mean to say, you and Sachin Tendulkar is equally rich”. “Yes off course” a confident, Gaurav replied. “Because, whatever amount of feel good hormones(richness)  Sachin must have experienced in all his sporting career, I am experiencing the same from this eureka moment. Besides Sachin has also experienced many tough time in his career at the highest level which I have not, so I am equally rich as Sachin Tendulkar.’

“Venky bhai and Christy bhai, you both are gifted with richness of thought because of which you decided to develop this project to fund the football team. Your rich thought has already inspired the entire college to extend support to the football team. All you need in life is just a rich thought to overcome all obstacle”. Concluded Gaurav.

Next week the  outcome of the fun  research paper was published on a college social media blog. Funds came pouring in from all students. The slum football team wore branded  kit and boots, hired a  qualified coach and got the best diet. They also qualied for the A division city league