This is a sequence from the 1977 Hindi classic Gharaonda. Sudip (Amol Palekar) and Chhaayaa (Zarinaa Wahab) are a young couple with a dream of having a home (Gharaonda) of their own. But given the fact that in 1977 we did not even have an HDFC in place, owning a house of one's own was almost a pipe dream for a middle class person. This is captured beautifully in this film. Coming to the germane topic, Sudip is constantly looking for money in order to save up for the ever elusive dream. In one such instance, Sudip goes and asks his chawl roommate Abdul (Jalal Agha) for money. He is unable to get any monies from him. Later when Guha (Sadhu Meher) suggests that he should not bother about getting a loan - rather he should borrow from his friends; Sudip's acerbic response is
"saale se paise maange to passbook dikhaa di"
साले से पैसे मांगे तो पास बुक दिखा दी
which means that when I asked him for money, he showed his bank statement (literally). Figuratively this means that if you wish to share your sorrows with someone and ask for help and if that person starts sharing his own tales of woe, then you would say this. This happens all the time, especially in a world where the only answer expected and hence possible to the question "how are you?" is "I am fine. How about you?". No one even remotely wants to listen to the real answer. As the title of that offbeat film went "Everybody says I'm fine". And in the rare event where people do share their woes, they only expect you to listen. Else, they would say
साले से पैसे मांगे तो पास बुक दिखा दी
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