Dear Friends
In 1993, a group of 10-15 friends
and I visited a village near the Tatipudi Reservoir in Vizianagaram District,
AP. While walking among the lush greenery, we all shared our dreams for life.
One of them said, settle abroad. Another one for a luxurious life. When my turn
came, I was told to buy a Maruti 800, knowing we could never afford it. At that
point, it was an absolute dream. There was a reason for this. At that time, it
cost 1.66 Lakhs. Given my intelligence levels and where I was living, I would
have gotten a job paying 3K. It requires 4.5 years with zero living expenses,
and with 20% savings, it would have taken 23 years to buy a Maruti car.
Fast
forward, Thanks to the 1991 liberalization, the Indian IT boom took place. Before
1991, Indian IT companies delivered code by physically shipping magnetic tapes
abroad. In 1992–1993, the STPI installed high-speed international satellite
earth stations, starting with 64 kbps leased lines. This enabled firms such as
Infosys, TCS, and Wipro to transmit software code electronically. This created
a boom for computer degrees in India. Fast forward to 2003, we were able to buy
a Maruti 800 Non-AC. For that matter, many of my classmates could buy a better
car or a premium model than this. It took 10 years to manifest the dream. Many
of them upgraded their cars. Having said that, I chose to use it till it was
burnt out in 2017 for a specific reason.
Last
weekend, we visited the Sri Anantha Venkateswara Swamy Temple in Vykuntagiri,
on the way to Araku Valley, which faces the Tatipudi Reservoir, in a Maruti
Swift (upgraded from 800). It sits at 3,333 feet above sea level and is
considered the world’s highest altitude Venkateswara Temple. You might get an
interesting question. This time, did I dream about anything more near that same
Tatipudi Reservoir? No!! When we enter the 50s, priorities and responsibilities
change. The highest priority would be to plan for retirement life with 6%
inflation and unexpected medical and family expenses.
I was
reading a beautiful article by Saksham Mittal, a young boy and IIT Kanpur
alumnus, with the same title. He starts with a story of Leo Tolstoy, who once
wrote about a man who was offered all the land he could walk around in a day.
He walked so far that he never lived to enjoy it. 20 years ago, the “set for
life” amount was 1 crore, which definitely aligned with society’s standards of
success. At a 6% inflation, that 1 crore in 2005 would need roughly Rs 3.4
crore today to buy the same life. Hence, it remains a dream for many to
think “set for life”. Hence, we require an alternative way of thinking rather than
defining “set for life”.
Saksham
writes further about the Famous psychologist Daniel Kahneman, who observed that
an annual income of $75,000 can serve as a benchmark (maybe for the US standard;
I don’t know the equivalent Indian standard). Money buys you happiness until
$75k. Daily feelings like joy, stress, or sadness plateau or stagnate at this
amount. And below this amount, daily miseries like illness, divorce, or
loneliness are amplified. Similarly, if someone knows the threshold amount, it
is considered a success in life. Till we know that number, neither should we
hanker for more money nor reject God-gifted earnings, whatever little they are.
We should not lament but pray to God that He gives us the realization to know
that “set for life” figure.
Till we
attain that realization, both “excess money” and “insufficient money” ruin our happiness.
Saksham wrote about a hungry donkey that stands exactly between 2 equal piles
of grass. It can't find a reason to pick either, so it starves. The 2
piles of grass were “excess money” and “insufficient money”.
The
successful people are those who manage either of the excess or insufficiency. I
believe both are gifts of the Lord and are defined by the Prarabdha karma of our
previous life.
Ravi
Saripalle
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