While going from Quetta to Chaman of Pakistan, the car passes through a number of small towns or bazaars. These are called cities but, except for a couple of them, they cannot be entitled to be cities as they are too small. One of these places is called Maizai Adda. Since my childhood, it had been a routine to pass through these small towns and few things were common for all of them. They included a few small, mud shops in which shopkeepers could be seen selling small items like edibles, fruits, vegetables and things like these. The car took very less time to travel from the starting to the ending point of these places as there were very few people on the road and there was nothing to attract the interest of either drivers or passengers. The shops contained only a few objects and they were not good enough to motivate a passenger to stop for buying anything. On both the ends of bazaar, there were always some empty shops which showed that no one was interested to rent them or start any kind of business in them; if it can qualify to be called a business.

But in last two three years, things started changing a bit. This change could have not been called the general change because majority of the people and their conditions were the same but change could have been noticed in the form of latest Corolla, Camry or similar expensive cars, in the form of people wearing expensive clothes, carrying expensive Galaxy or iPhone cell phones and other things that showed extraordinary flow of money. It doesn’t mean that all people living in the area were poor and there also lived rich businessmen and landlords but they had the mature and humble style of those rich people who had these bounties from many generations. These newly-rich people had some other habits. They appeared very proud and tried their best to exhibit their money in form of cars, clothes, mobile phones and others. It looked as they were trying their best to earn the appreciation and respect of others by their show-off.

We can call it to be their problem but I also witnessed something else in the eyes of poor. In old days, when the rich were not showing-off that much, they had not stolen the contentment of poor and both the poor and the rich were happy and satisfied at their places. Some of my friends disagree with me that a poor man can be contented and satisfied with his condition but I know so many people who don’t know how plenty of money can keep them happy, and their thoughts and minds are fully free of any kind of thought about money and its acquisition. They are so much busy in their own simple lives that they never get time to think about money as is the habit of some of our youngsters who remain busy day and night in thinking about money and in the end, resort for an illegal but shortcut way of acquiring it. Anyhow, these newly-rich people were spreading the virus of greed in the air and if they are not stopped from this, slowly and gradually, it will be the dream of every individual member of society to be rich, no matter which ways or means they utilize to make this happen.

But the inside story is not as glorious as it appears from outside. In one of the cities, there lived three brothers who had the habit of committing small crimes like pick-pocketing, stealing someone’s bike and other similar crimes. Because of this habit, they were not able to work somewhere but they never dared to commit any major crime and be wealthy. Like any other human being and especially the thieves, they also had a strong desire to be wealthy but with their small crimes, they suffered to make the ends meet. Many years passed and there came the brisk flow of money in the society. It is not necessary to discuss it here, how our society was over-flooded with the easy and plenty money which some of my friends call ‘Unearned money.’ Then I noticed these boys being turned into strange-looking mature men riding in luxurious cars. These dirty boys of past now lived in most luxurious houses. But they had one good thing. Whatever they did, they did away from their own area and thus people could not complain against them. Anyhow, on my inquiry I was told that they had started dealing with stolen cars and had a vast business of buying and selling stolen cars. I was also sure that no one could have earned so much in such a limited period of time by legal ways.

Of many interesting characters I met, one was a gardener who worked to look after the garden of a school. It is scientifically proven that one who passes time with trees, flowers and greenery, naturally feels better so he was lucky that he both worked and drew satisfaction from it. One day when I was having a walk among the trees and flowers, I noticed him taking his lunch under a tree. As he saw me, he stood up and greeted me with a smile. One thing I forgot to mention about him; he always had a pleasant smile on his face and I never noticed him being angry or irritated. Anyhow, he made a place for me and invited me to share his lunch. He was eating yoghurt with plain bread. I also ate for a while with him and then returned back to my office. I returned from him with an absolutely different idea; the man had not got infected with the virus of greed and unending desires and plans and his body and soul were fully saturated with simplicity that was the wealth of people in past.

When I look at the houses, expensive cars and artificial lifestyle of people in Kabul, I see the symptoms of virus which was present in the people of small towns from where I used to pass. It doesn’t mean that I am against the economic development and its resultant prosperity in form of tall buildings, well-paved roads, beautiful cities and other civic facilities. But we all know that majority of this prosperity is from ‘unearned income’ and the ways employed for these earnings can never be appreciated or even tolerated. Land grabbing, bribery and corruption, murders, kidnapping, smuggling, fake projects and frauds in different projects and contracts gave birth to this unnatural prosperity. I am also not a judge to comment on the sources of income but it is very sad that such people also motivate the others to follow their illegal and unethical path. They are slowly instigating the others with this virus of greed and illegal income and showing them the way of achieving these illegally. It is the reason why, the rate of corruption is increasing day by day and we are included among the most corrupt countries of the world. They may have done a work and may be even proud of it but they never deserve a right to snatch the contentment of others and also show them the wrong way.