Now, is that a trick question? Maybe…. Who wouldn’t like to have more? More riches, friends, clothes, books, Facebook likes ― whatever makes you happy. But then, can you have too much of a good thing?

An elderly relative of mine lives in a gracious old home laden with artifacts, embroidered quilts, rosewood chests and memories. She often said she must find homes for her treasures and clear up the junk while she was still alive. Otherwise her children would declare that her ghost had visited them in their sleep and told them to pile her things on the pavement for people to pick through. Now, do you know how she is clearing her house of things she doesn’t use anymore? She piles them on the pavement for people to pick through.

There were days when old was gold. ‘They don’t make refrigerators/cupboards/jewels like they used to. These days it’s all about use and throw,’ they said. But the guys who recycled old clothes, repaired grandfather clocks or replaced broken slats of rocking chairs have moved on. They now ask for old silk saris with silver zari that they can melt and sell. They hire noisy autos and loudspeakers to announce their largesse so you can pull out that old sari with mangoes embossed in gold thread that your grandmother gave you. Who cares anymore about old clothes when you can buy five T-shirts for the price of three? Who cares if the colour runs and stains all your clothes for eternity?

Books, lovely books. What do you do when the pages stick together, the shelf sags in the middle and your mother threatens to throw you out if you pick up any more? There’s no one to read them anyway. The neighbourhood library has piles of dusty books donated by children when the old man is gone. A few months lying untouched in a corner and the library calls in the raddiwala, the ‘old paper’ guy.

So clean out those shelves. Empty those lofts. Stop buying new things. You will have fewer things to dust, to store, to maintain, to safeguard. Treasure your children, your friends and your good deeds instead.