This archive report was first published on 22 September 2019.
Published on September 22, 2019, by Sunny Bindra, author of The Bigger Deal, this thought-provoking piece explores the human tendency to prioritize material gain over compassion and goodwill.
Bindra recounts a scene from a movie where a customer asks a shopkeeper for a rope, only to be met with a price of Sh200. The customer is outraged, but the shopkeeper's response is telling: 'What does it matter to you? You're about to die anyway!'
This exchange highlights the transactional nature of human interactions, where one side seeks to maximize profit and the other recoils at any suspicion of being over-charged. The actual need behind the transaction is ignored, and irrelevant.
Bindra argues that this mindset is pervasive, even in the face of death. At funerals, people often gain a sense of profundity, but this is short-lived. As soon as they depart the funeral, they return to their usual transactional selves, haggling over taxi fares and making phone calls to secure deals.
Bindra reflects on this phenomenon, noting that it's a sign of our collective insignificance. 'We are all, all of us, insignificant,' he writes. 'It doesn't matter whose eulogy is being delivered: whether it's a loyal employee or a respected CEO; a plumber or an epoch-creating president. It's all the same.'
He quotes the renowned Sufi poet and mystic Baba Faríd, who gazes upon a burial and writes: 'And dust is being spilled on dust. The dust that used to laugh / The dust that used to cry.'
Bindra concludes that recognizing our own insignificance is key to making better sense of our lives. It would help us stay grounded, stay humble, and place our wins and losses in perspective. The recognition that we are nothing would, paradoxically, help us to actually become something.
