INDIVIDUAL - CURRENCY AND PARITY VALUE

The Currency

Independent currency is a powerful symbol of sovereignty. It comes in different denominations, each different in looks, dimensions and security features. Differences aside, each one carries a statement of promise lending it credibility and making it legal tender, an instrument for value transfer and a medium of exchange. But there is a catch about the value “assured” to be transferred.

Face Value

Each note carries a promise that assures value at par with the printed face value. The value, said to be guaranteed with commensurate gold reserves, keeps fluctuating based on supply and demand, interest rates, inflation, public debt, and other macro and micro factors. Socio - political environment, itself speculative and make believe nowadays, influences currency value. Experienced as, purchasing power parity and expressed as exchange rates, a strong currency may equal many of a weaker currency.

Transaction an Imperative

Inflation weakens currencies, erodes value guarantees of a currency and forces it to deliver much below par its face value. Weak or strong, a currency realises its value only when transacted. Each time, a note changes hands, it imparts the denomination value to the service or transaction without itself being consumed. Thus, ten transactions, of a single ₹100 note, add ‘thousand rupees’ value yet retains only its face value before, through and after transaction. Though small denominations have high turnover, high denominations make up even with small movements. A ₹10 note toils two hundred times to achieve what a ₹2000 note does in one transaction. Unfortunately, bigger denominations tend to get hoarded more!

Believe it or not; we have much in common with currency notes!  

Let’s Face It

We all, to start with, have a face value! Based on how others perceive our looks, cast, colour, creed or being a member of a family, an organisation, society or nation they arbitrarily assign us a notional value. We could even maneuver ourselves into positions of authority and responsibility using this bias.  But for those who aren’t worthy enough, inflation catches up and exposes the difference between ego and worth. Our competencies dictate our denomination and consistency of our actions and its conformity with our claims determine our exchange rate values. Our antecedents, which reach places before us, like reserve bank promises, create expectations. Meeting expectations result in improving value and failure to do so leads to credibility-erosion, an inflation of sorts. 

Parity

Parity is a major issue with us. Many, significantly visible contribute insignificant little, whereas few insignificantly visible contribute significantly.  They are everywhere. We have the choice of deciding to commit or not commit ourselves to action and even choose how much to commit. We often choose to contribute just the minimum required and hoard and resist deploying our real strengths.

Doing so, we are devaluing ourselves. When it becomes known, we are no more required. We would be like demonetised notes! 

Comparisons

When currency loses value, government intervenes in an attempt to shore it up. Human relationships are no different. Though we exercise long-term patience in the case of currency, hoping a turn-around, we seldom afford this luxury even to intimate interpersonal relationships. Interpersonal problems emerge mostly from judgmental comparison between ‘expected’ and ‘received’ and lack of required interventions.

Broken relationships are manifestations of impatience and inability to invest long term in relationships. Society is littered with broken relationships and courtrooms are brimming over. Falling short on assurances is natural but not accepting the likelihood of falling short is the problem. Unfortunately, unilaterally or are led by other’s projections, we set high standards for others to meet while we are satisfied delivering sub-par.

Takeaways

Like currency notes, all of us, have face values. Real or unreal, it is up to us to live at par, over-par or sub-par. Inaction to avoid risks is hoarding and can lead to devaluation. Unpredictability or volatility will result us being dumped like demonetised notes.

The more one commits and acts, better the velocity of turnover and higher the chances of carrying over accumulated credits. Comparison with others help to upgrade or intensify inputs but if used for anything else may lead to terrible depreciation. Finally, it’s about actions at micro levels conforming to the macro values, our value systems.

 

THE MOMENT OF GLORY & THE GLORIOUS MOMENTS OTHERS DON’T KNOW OF

Caveat

If the story narrated resembles any award function, it’s NOT intended!

Advice

To enjoy and get the best out of this article, as you read, try visualising being there watching it all. Lessons, you can draw thereafter.

Visuals

The dancers vanished from the stage after the scintillating sequence and the applause soon waned. The master of ceremonies took the stage wielding her mike like a sword. She surveyed the audience attempting to dramatise the occasion and even more dramatically announced “It is time now for the final award”.

Silence consumed the crowd.

Stars, mega, super, budding, fading, fallen and even self-assumed shuffled in their seats. The churn within notwithstanding, actors all, they put on their most detached looks as cameras panned. Fans waited to cheer. They create and nourish stars and celebrate anyway, even as the stars they created were kept safe, from them and their miserable existence, by bouncers. The fans crowded a real-life planet and nourished the stars in the celluloid galaxy.

The guest for the occasion, a star of the yore, took the stage. He wore an air of authority because he had a ‘sealed cover’. He acknowledged the glitterati in front and surveyed the world beyond and then dramatically looked at the cover. The more time he took on the stage, the more attention he earned and though fleeting, longer the relevance he earned.

Expectations turned strained patience. It was brimming over bated breaths. The moment of glory was almost there. 

The Climax

The special guest pulled out the card and said “This year’s award for the best actor goes to…”.  Then, he laboured to pause, looked at the card , looked at the crowd and announced, “goes to…”.

He looked at the name printed on the card. “Am I seeing it right?” he thought. He took a closer look and said “This year’s award for the best actor goes to…” and announced the name.

You could hear a pin drop. 

The Moment of Glory

He knew he was being considered. He longed for it; but…! He thought he heard his name. It was music to his ears, as he struggled to believe.

His celluloid journey was filled mostly with insignificant roles. An insignificant speck in a galaxy of stars, he was genuinely unassuming even when visible.

The crowd broke into a thundering applause. The embodiment of simplicity, unbelieving still, looked around and slowly walked up to the stage. He belonged to everyone in the crowd. 

Yes; it was his moment of glory!

The actor continues to turn out some amazing performances, year after year. His victory is driven by professionalism. Looks and fan clubs he doesn’t have.

If he could; so, can I! 

Few would have thought then; many later. 

Recipe for Success

Who doesn’t want success, recognition and adulation? Who doesn’t long for a moment of glory? 

Who doesn’t want that heady feel of walking up the stage, amidst thundering claps and crowds roaring in adulation?

 

How do I get my, ‘moment of glory’?  

Should I wait for an eternity?

Can I advance it?

Can I master those winning traits and succeed?

or is it all about destiny?

Yes; there are answers.

Persona

To be reckoned and recognised as a star one needs to have that looks. Is my physical appearance good enough to make me a star? Do I have the physical attributes to succeed?

Often, we rely on physical attributes to gauge individuals. Physical attributes is not just looks alone. It includes the environment one is lucky to be part of, in the normal course of existence. Tall, short, rich, poor, backing of influential people etc all could be elements of physical attributes. Imposing physical attributes do provide initial advantages but those seldom carry us through. The attributes naturally associated demand  certain quality. but when actions do not match expected quality associated with perceived physical attributes ridicule is the result. As we get to the core of any activity and when it comes to the crunch, physical attributes are forgotten, persona counts; only persona counts.

Persona is less about physical attributes and more about character. It is  about the triad of competence, commitment and performance. 

Master the triad and become a star.

The awardee doesn’t possess physical attributes that we often associate with stars. His ordinary looks merit not a second look and helps him easily submerge himself in any crowd. 

Competence

If competence is an ingredient for success, why didn't he get the award earlier? Was he incompetent before?

Competence is all about knowledge and the skill to apply it to the demands of the situation. Many of us, often mistake familiarity with situation as competence even when our actions scream incompetence. Building competency is a long, arduous and painful process. Since the world and its ways are changing every instant, there is so much need to imbibe, calibrate and upgrade knowledge acquired to be of any relevance. Building competence is a continuous process.

To be successful, relevance of competencies is only one part. Competencies also need to grow, to allow us, to move into higher echelons, bigger roles and provide brighter visibility. Success must prime growth; growth is success and competence its fodder. Only actions can testify competencies. When one acquires competence to handle higher roles, even at the lower role it is visible. Brilliance is sensed and opportunities come calling.

Competency building starts from within. It takes time to mature. It's like a flower, miniature as a bud, hung slender on an insignificant stalk and then all of a sudden bloom to capture attention and overwhelm surroundings with beauty, fragrance and abundant nectar.

The awardee played many insignificant roles before he was entrusted with the role of the protagonist. A review of his body of work clearly shows how his competency matured over time. 

Commitment 

If commitment assured success, wasn’t the actor committed before?

Commitment is an addiction of sorts. It can neither be forced upon us nor taken away from those addicted. Persistence is the visible face of commitment. We have to plant it within, all by ourselves. It grows on us slowly and with time. Slow to root, it helps us persist, despite innumerable hurdles encountered in the journey.

Commitment is faith in the process and one’s own capabilities. It allows us to, identify and acknowledge own shortfalls, accept challenges, open ourself to receiving knowledge, enhance our capabilities and reengineer our efforts. It also prepares us for the many falls we could encounter in the journey and help us relaunch ourselves. Commitment is actually the power to carry on, regardless.

The awardee’s journey is a classic case of gritty persistence. Anyone one without unshakable commitment would have quit. 

Performance 

Did that ‘one’ great performance of the actor get him the coveted award?

How do I get, that one chance? 

Most of us are conditioned to believe that a reward or recognition is the consequence of ‘one great performance’. There can be no bigger fallacy than that. We forget the immense sacrifices made, terrible injuries risked and suffered, and the time and effort that successful people commit themselves to before their moment of glory on the podium. Immense pain from countless failures, physical and emotional bruises suffered and hours of anxious loneliness weathered lie hidden behind the podium as the victor stands smiling on it.

It does us well to remember that ‘the moment of glory’ under public gaze comes much after many ‘glorious moments’ of overcoming tribulations and triumphing over hurdles of apathy, anxiety, fear, naysayers, undermining elements of the environment and consequent hopelessness.

The one great performance others get to see is often the sum total of many small great performances that others haven’t seen. Many glorious moments in the journey precedes that ‘one moment of glory’

Though not the protagonist, the awardee had given some stellar performances even in insignificant roles.

Opportunity

I can make myself competent, commit myself and even perform my best, but without opportunity, how is success possible? How do I find opportunity?

The loudest and most common lament of people is about lack of opportunity. The successful seldom lament. They transform every moment into opportunity. They don’t wait for an opportunity to perform. They perform every moment and thus every moment is an opportunity.

If everything is given on a platter, then success is momentary and at best short lived. One, by the luck of birth, may get an easy shot at success but to sustain it, the triad is imperative. Every moment at every place is an opportunity. It depends on us to convert the time-place duo into opportunity. Most of us reserve our best for the apt opportunity, little realising that it would have come incognito and gone by.

Many of us offer the minimum inescapable to meet the minimum expected but expect to maximise returns and reap success. That formula doesn't work for long. Giving our best at whatever we are doing, wherever and whenever, actually gravitate situations into opportunities. Success is the result of linear equation where minimising anything becomes detrimental.

Critical review of the body of work reveals that the awardee had essayed each role, however insignificant, wholeheartedly.

But!

If he was so good and he gave his best always, why did it take him so long to get a role of substance?

A very logical question that does not have answers convincing enough.

It takes time for us to excel at what we are doing. But it takes more time for others to take note of us. It takes much more than time and efforts for them to risk their dreams, life and future investing on our competencies. We may call it their inadequacies, if it offers any solace. Though very reasonable an explanation, our impatience doesn't allow us to accept it as such. Unfortunately, in a very highly connected and inter dependent society as ours, success depends on many elements beyond our control. Patience is a virtue and persistence the key. 

Destiny! Why Sweat and Fret?

If success has so many imponderables, why should we sweat and fret over it so much? Destiny!

There is none in the world compelling us to be successful. If the call to succeed is from within, we have to labour the pain. The sweat and toil is worth it.

Doesn’t destiny have a role in ensuring success?

The answer, irrespective of faith, belief and disposition is ‘Yes’. Fortunately, the undeniable fact called destiny lies in our hands; not etched as lines in our palms but as our actions. We tend to mistake destiny with fatalism.

Fatalism is the hide of the lazy. It helps justify consequences of inaction. It helps shift responsibility and accountability of failures to the power of the unknown. It is the perfect excuse for resignation without sweat. But even those, adept at fatalist resignation, cannot dispute the omnipresence of “cause and effect”. 

Call it by any name, assign divinity of religious dogmas, only action can beget reward. If at all, inaction brings along something, it is accidental and transient.

Glory Awaits

Set sight on the many glorious moments of everyday life and toil, the giant moment of glory follows.

 

ORPHANED ASSETS: THE ART OF WASTING ONE’S OWN SWEAT

Phenomenal Growth

Rs 5,124 crores in 2013.

Rs 8,864 crores in 2016.

Rs 11,300 crores in 2020.

And if the Indian government’s statement to the parliament is to be believed, Rs 24,356 crores as on 31 Mar 2021.

What a phenomenal growth!

No. It is not the statement of the country’s achievements. It is the about the unclaimed money lying in 8.1 crore bank accounts. Each branch of every bank might have orphaned and unclaimed accounts. If the insurance sector is also considered, the orphaned assets could be anywhere near 50,000 crores. The figures do not include assets lying forgotten in vaults and lockers of banks and financial institutions. 

The story of orphaned assets is incomplete!

There is no organised and definite valuation, of real estate across the country lying uncared for and deteriorating due to ownership disputes or ignorance of inheritance. If assessed it will easily put the unclaimed accounts to shame.

Who perpetrates such a colossal waste of resources? Who are the losers?

Perpetrators and Victims

Many of us reading this article might have already been affected. If not already, each one of us could soon be affected. We could be perpetrators and victims as well. No one is immune.

Worse, even as we read, most of us, may be in the process of wilfully orphaning our assets; perpetrators of orphaning our own sweat, through ignorance, deliberately or because of apprehensions!  Yes; you are a potential perpetrator if you are an adult, of sound mind, have moveable or immovable assets, big or small, in your name and haven't yet written a will. Ironically, you may not even realise that your inaction could orphan your own assets, sooner than you think.

Our individual and social conditioning has a lot to do with this phenomenon.

 

Confirmation Bias

We associate ‘will’ more with death than life. We link it with the old, sick and dying. May be the very rich, with complex asset holdings may need a will otherwise. Therefore, a will is seldom considered required well late into life. Those below sixty may even consider, the idea of a will laughable. Sadly, raging pandemic, increasingly unpredictable calamities that forces of nature unleash and escalating global violence have made life all the more uncertain. Unfortunately, for some amongst us, the time to write a will may never come.

The picture of a will, we conjure, is about a grim looking lawyer and a sheaf of paper containing intricate prose, beyond comprehension by anybody but himself. With the person who wrote the will, dead and gone there is none to vouch for what was actually intended. Poorly researched films do little to help truth. Experiences within the family fuel apprehensions.

This bias, handed over from one generation to the next prohibits us from believing that a will is truly the simplest legal document that an adult, of sound mind, can make on his or her own. It is as easy as writing what one wants, in one’s own hand on a plain sheet of paper. If one knows the ‘mechanism of inclusion and exclusion’ the will written by an individual can stand legal scrutiny and ensure actualisation of what the individual actually desired.

 

Inclusions and Exclusions

The will, to be legally valid, must be written by an adult of sound mind and in consonance with inheritance laws.

To be effective and incontestable, a will must categorically include a self- declaration stating that the testator is of sound mind and making the declaration on his or her own volition. It must also include names and details of each intended beneficiary along with the details of the benefits being willed. What is being willed in favour of the beneficiary must be unambiguous.

Details of immovable property and moveable properties like ornaments, vehicles, various instruments of investments like fixed deposits, insurance policies, shares, mutual funds, bank accounts, lockers and other costly and items considered dear being willed must be included. As much detailed the inclusion, lesser is the problem for the legal heirs.

It is wise to mention and exclude all previous wills written at the beginning of the will. It is important to exclude probable infiltration by greedy folks whom one wants to avoid by categorically stating that the assets mentioned shall be divided only amongst those mentioned in the will. 

With no specific formats and no compulsions of registering it, one can detail out on blank sheets of paper, how one's own movable and immovable property should pass on to others, after one’s demise. The document is complete when one affixes the signature with the place and date and is duly witnessed by at least two adults on the same document.

 

Why The Reluctance?

If will was so easy, why do people die without writing their will?

It is mostly ignorance and partly apprehension. A will can be written and changed as many times as one wants. If so required, one can even register one’s will each time it is changed. The very reasonable cost of registration is not linked to the value of assets. Yet people do not attempt to write their will.

Apprehension, about how each beneficiary would view what has been received in comparison to what he or she perceives others, mostly siblings receive, also holds people back from writing their will. However, equitable one may attempt to be in partitioning one's assets, discontentment is inevitable. Equality, a perception remains a mirage.

Many individuals do not write their will hoping to elicit terminal care from potential beneficiaries. Nothing can be more laughable. However hard one may try, there is a limit to lure. One can leverage, only presence and not attention with one’s belongings. Despite poor prognosis and repeatedly proven, this is a common practice.

There is also an underlying emotional factor of having to concede the fact that one is mortal and have to leave. The truth is that departure is certain; time, manner and place of departure not in our control. Why not accept the inevitable with grace and prepare to exit with honour?

 

Now What

Young or old, rich or poor, able-bodied or disabled, healthy or sick, certain or uncertain, brave or scared, if you are an adult and reading this piece, you should be of sound mind. Then it’s time to sit down and draw up your will if you haven’t yet written. If you have already written, its time to review it.

Procrastination never helps. Fatalism is fodder for the faint-hearted and justification for the lazy. Decision to act is wisdom.

To start with, list out all the assets and liabilities and decide who in your life deserves to get what you, now have. You could end up knowing the material possessions you actually value. Even more important, you would reveal to yourself how differentially dear you hold each one in and around your life.  The beauty of the process is that you could end up recalibrating and resetting relationships and you can do it in utmost confidentiality.

A will is also much beyond inheritance and division of assets.

 

The Beauty of a Will

Each successive will, is indicative of an individual’s journey of life. The will exposes the quantity of one’s physical acquisitions, quality of social relations and the strength of emotional bonds. Successive wills over time captures the essence of one’s journey in life. A run through over few wills one has written would, like a kaleidoscope reveal the emotional anchors and the beauty of a journey called life.

PS: I have been getting many mails for forwarding a draft for the will. I am attaching it as a page in my blog (link given below). You are free to access it and use it. Query if any can be put in the comment box or send as mail to me

https://jacobshorizon.blogspot.com/p/1.html