Every city is a mixture of splendour and squalor, of wealth and poverty, and of those who have found their fortune and those who have lost it. The noisy cars of the rich and famous jostled alongside the salesman.
Regardless of where you go, it is this city that greets the passerby.
The dream to possess vast riches begins with a vision where one sees him or herself with more money than one needs. That’s when reality strikes down the dreamer. He gazes into his empty bank account and sees that he has been blessed with the power of naught.
The Almighty Zero from which he thought all his dreams and visions would come true.
After a lifetime of labour, the wealth the fortune-seeker seeks has eluded him. And yet, everywhere around him, signs of Lakshmi’s magnificence loom larger-than-life. For he who has toiled hard under the sun, is only seeking to be fairly rewarded for his labour.
The man’s labour does not bear fruit. His efforts are fruitless, not fruitful.
The labourer works and toils and puts himself through wearisome sorrow. But his work brings him no pleasure and his toils leave him poorer, instead of richer. The man becomes weary of being without wealth in the midst of plenty.
His quest for gold has finally begun.
The Mercantile 