currency comparison

My friend was asking me the other day – how can I possibly take off paid leave and go out somewhere every now and then.

Initially when we are kids we get pocket money, then even 25 paise or 1 rupee is carefully preserved and valued. Then a person starts earning then he dosen’t bother about small change that much, he cares about Rs 50 as much as he used to care about Rs 1 earlier. Then he becomes richer, and he isn’t that concerned about blowing Rs 500 on an evening’s food or entertainment, something he would never have imagined earlier. And once he earns in a foreign currency – say dollars, or pounds, and he spends a 1000 rupees relatively more casually than he did earlier.

The value I get in the time I take off has been far higher than even the British Pounds I have earned in so far.

However, there is a thin line between being detached from something and devaluing it. Devaluing of smaller currency is nothing but a sign of impudence. One thing I’ve learnt the hard way is that once a person reduces valuing something – anything – whether its wealth or relationship or technical competence – he is very likely to end up gradually starting to lose it.

So overdoing this is definitely inviting disaster – one must take care and use utmost discretion based on the priorities of himself as well as those associated with him.

Having said that, its important to note that even a millionaire who values every paisa that he has earned inspite of all his millions, might find himself in some awkward situation say he’s lost his wallet or he’s locked out of his hotel – where he does not have a pie on him and is equivalent (atleast temporarily) to a beggar – and there have been cases where its happened even permanently when someone’s got conned or sued out of all their wealth overnight. So there’s certainly only a certain limit to which we can be careful about controlling things, so no substitute to living for the moment! 🙂