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What you want vs. what you need

Just as much as people love to indulge in seemingly unproductive activities like shopping, I like to just stand idle in the street somewhere and see how the world go at that corner of the planet. In fact, it is a form of mental callisthenics that stimulates the mind to think what possibly happened behind the persona that people portray as they walk head held high in confidence.

Down in Amritsar, Punjab, where the land is fertile, and the name of the town takes after the substance, honey, that has healing qualities and are soothing to the palate, my friends decided to bring home some of its produce.
To spice up your life, indulge in some people watching and let your mind go wild!
Walking down the rows of shops accompanied by the symphony of honking motor vehicles and enthusiastic shop assistants trying their level best to entice potential customers into their shops, I found the job in indulging in my occasional pastime of people watching. Engrossing oneself in this activity can also be self-defeating as it makes one vulnerable to the prying eyes of pickpockets and snatch-thieves on wheels.

Wise men always chide people who go on a rampage acquiring lands and properties as if we all carry all these to our graves. Sages insist that at the end of the day, we only need a 6' X 2' plot of land. The truth of this is so apparent in the case of many shop owners in India (or at least in my imagination).


Many provision shops owners work long hours sitting at the mouth of their joints in their 3' X 3' square behind their cash boxes. From this corner, they have the perfect hawkish view of their establishments. They can see the customers coming in, be able to invite them in; order their assistants to get the merchandise; oversee their activities and be ready to collect the moolah from clients. Even though this arrangement may appear claustrophobic to the uninitiated and potentially stifling to the knee joints, these people are perfectly at ease at such an arrangement. If you think they would need those occasional walkabouts, you are wrong. They even have their pre-packed meal there within the confines of their working 'desktop'.

I envisage that after work, they would go home and sit on their couches spending quality time with their loved ones, reading the newspaper or watching TV serials. Sitting again! At the end of the day, they would retire in their 6' X 3' space within their king-size or queen-size beds just to repeat the whole exercise the following day.

So, how much personal space do you really need?

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