Life is never made comfortable by artificial needs, but by plain living and high thinking.
Srimad Bhagavatam 2.2.37
Just look all round; look at the ocean, look at the sky. How can you manage not to be simple and not to be humble?
Remember Sushil Kumar, the Bihar boy who won the jackpot of Rs 5 crore at the 'Kaun Banega Crorepati-5' show in November last year? Five months on, the 28-year-old and his kin continue to reside in the same three-room house which they took on a monthly rent of Rs 3000 in 2010, eat 'roti-daal-sabji' as always and wear the clothes they could afford to buy with their meagre income, including the monthly Rs 6,000 Kumar earned as a computer operator on contract with District Rural Development Agency (DRDA).
Third among five siblings born to Mrs and Mr Amar Nath Prasad who worked as a 'munshi' for a contractor, Sushil has, however, used up "about Rs 1 crore" of the Rs 3.5 crore he got, post-TDS. "Lakshmi hoti hi hain Chanchala (The goddess of wealth is fickle and doesn't tend to stay at one place)," he says smilingly as he raises his forefinger to denote the crore he has spent on buying a 5000-sqft plot for Rs 22.5 lakh and repaying the loans worth Rs 10 lakh his family took over the years from moneylenders and relatives for household expenses. While the two elder brothers are married and do petty jobs, the younger ones are jobless.
But all that doesn't add up to Rs 1 crore, does it? "I have also given around Rs 7 lakh as loans to relatives," Kumar explains and says another Rs 3 lakh was spent on the 'bhoomi pujan' function earlier this month. He didn't buy jewellery, clothes and footwear or household items in bulk to improve the family's standard of living. "I did buy an inverter though to see the family through the long hours of power outages," Kumar says, sitting on an old plastic chair in his house at Hanuman Garhi in Motihari, 200km from Patna.
The episodes that saw Kumar win were shot on October 24 and 25 and aired on November 1 and 2. He got the cheque on December 16 in Delhi where he had gone to attend an awards ceremony. "On returning home after the telecast, I had opened a savings account in the main branch of SBI at Motihari; I deposited the cheque at an SBI branch in Delhi," Kumar says and adds he has now only "a few lakhs" in the savings account with the balance invested in debt funds which fetch higher returns.
While his lifestyle has not turned lavish despite the fortune, the fame has changed the IAS aspirant's career plans. For, his books remained shelved when he basked in his new-found glory. "Invitations to attend functions, including those to felicitate me and those to launch products like spice and tea, came wholesale and I ended up neglecting my studies," says Kumar who has lost count of the functions he attended in his hometown and adjoining districts.
Much of his time was also spent on promotional shoots as brand ambassadors, including that of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) schemes. Not that these assignments brought him another windfall. In fact, he has no complaints that the Union government didn't pay him a penny for promoting MGNREGA. "I earned a living from MGNREGA for which I computed data while working for DRDA in neighbouring West Champaran," he explains.
This postgrad in psychology will for now prepare for NET (national eligibility test) for lectureship. "My chances of cracking the IAS exam have become bleak for I can no longer avail of the job reservation facility, which I could have as a poor Kurmi candidate. The Other Backward Classes' creamy layer, of which I am now a part by virtue of being a millionaire, is not entitled to the quota facility, you know," he says, rather pragmatically.
Having quit the computer operator's job with effect from April 1, Kumar on April 26 left Motihari for Delhi - in AC-3 in Sapt Kranti Express - to stay with his two cousins who are preparing for competitive examinations from a rented accommodation at Laxmi Nagar. "I will devote one year to studies and prepare for a career," his wife, Seema Patel, would stay at her parents' place - in Motihari - during his absence.
While Seema waits for her husband to return - this time with an appointment letter in hand, their land with a freshly-erected boundary wall around it awaits the construction of the four-apartment building Kumar has planned for himself and three brothers as the eldest brother will continue to reside in the neighbouring ancestral house which, of course, will be renovated.
