Today I went for an evening walk at Shankey Tank at 5:30 PM, the correct timing. Thanks God! Every day I notice people very carefully. Their attitude, lifestyle, culture and behavior. A nice group discussion was going on some hours back. My colleagues think I live in an ideal world that doesn’t exist. I was speaking about the health and the lifestyle! How to improve yourself? They were giving me numerous examples of luxury. I was defending, trying to make a better understanding about lifestyle but getting confused to conclude a proper answer.
I was thinking during my walk, I gave an example, “How many laptops you can use at a time?” They answered, “Two”. My point of judgment to the social behavior and improve human lifestyle worked here. I come up with a conclusion!
I was not thinking deeply. As an example like ‘rich’ and ‘poor’, very common concept the rich becomes rich, and the poor becomes poor. One is benefited another one is being used. Sharing between the two extreme levels is complete fantasy. May be you can say, “Vikram is barking like a dog, blaming on the rich and protecting the poor. It doesn’t change anything.” Is it?
What is lifestyle?
Let me come directly to the point. A week ago I ordered a vacuum mug, the costliest one available in the market. Divya, one of my colleagues, made a point. In silhouette voice she asked, “Why you ordered a costly one?” Few hours back I was defending poor and now I have ordered the costliest vacuum mug. It creates a moral quandary that somehow I am also two faced like the celebrities and the business men. I just asked, “What is lifestyle?” The confusion is very natural because the cosmopolitan society teaches us the capitalistic marketing strategies, where the luxury means the lifestyle.
There is a sharp gap between these two words. It’s like a slice ray of light that separates the dark and the bright room.
Suppose you have earned money to buy yourself a luxury car. This luxury car was a dream to you. To buy this car you have worked every day for last five years. The word luxury is also attached with the car but should it be called as luxury? I say, it is lifestyle, it is not luxury. Then what is luxury?
First tell me, how many mobile phones you have changed in last three years? If your answer is more than six then it is luxury. How frequently you are having dinner in the costliest restaurants in your town? If it’s more than five days a week then it is luxury. How many cars do you have for your personal use? If it’s more than one at a time, then it is luxury?
Lifestyle is to improve our daily life. It is a practice of doing nice, cute, lovely things everyday to feel the happiness. Take care of your health, work out, proper food habit, cultural involvement, social causes, events, travelling, hobbies, recreation etc.
The point is related with consumption and buying behavior. If a person buys a property and then he can’t buy another immediately that means he just added an extra value in his daily lifestyle. I find no luxury in it because it is his basic requirement. But if a person is buying multiple similar object at a time and using only one then he is consuming without his basic need. It should be calling the luxury.
Filed under: Biography, Business And Commerce, Editorial, Education, Fiction & Fantasy, Lifestyle, Philosophy, Science & Technology, Social Science
