Imagine a bucolic scene and lush green farms surrounding a tiny cluster of villages. This scene is set in a time when horse carriages were the primary mode of transport. And in the villages where most dwellings are made of mud and thatch, there is a concrete building. And the building is a significant establishment for this area – it is a Bank. Inside the bank, four employees are chugging along doing their duties. Most of the work in the bank is manual, as this was before computers. Tea gets brought in at regular intervals, fan swings overhead to its rhythm. And in the corner, there is a desk for the agricultural officer. There is always a crowd of farmers around that desk looking for a loan. Once the loan is approved, the farmer approaches the other employee’s desk.

The employees at the bank have a pretty standard routine, but recently something is bothering them. They have tons of one rupee notes, and they do not know how to get rid of them. These one rupee notes have been bundled into thousands and stacked on each other. And one day, luck shines of them – there are tons of farmers looking for loans. So, employees happily hand out these one rupee bundle notes to the farmers. Each of this bundle is like a fat, thick book. Farmers grumble, and they are getting a loan, so they take the bundles with them.

Employees are happy that they have found a way to get rid of them. Routine resumes for the next two weeks. And then, to their surprise, these bundle of notes start trickling back in ones and twos. And they are bundled as they were before. Employees look at each other until it occurs to them that the shopkeepers who the farmers trade with have an account in their bank as everybody in that area has an account in the bank. So now, along with the original problem, employees have to count the notes as it is the rule.

This is a real story that my dad told me from his banking days. And it made me realize that there is a more profound truth to it. Even in our lives, what goes around, comes around. Have you ever commented on somebody only to hear it from someone else? Have you bought a Starbucks for somebody and somebody else did the same for you? Have you mentored somebody, and that reminded you of how you were mentored? This is life – give and take. We are all so interconnected and stuck in the human predicament that it is impossible for there not to be a boomerang effect. And this is even more true because we are all one in essence – all these different forms that we inhabit are the manifestations of that one essence.

No wonder everything is cyclical, and hence the saying what you sow is what you reap. In the same fashion, this blog makes its way back to my dad and his friends, who hopefully will cherish those memories with a smile on their face.