Happy Father's Day

Being a Father is a challenge!

Being a Father is a gift.

Navigating the sleepless nights,

And the parental shift.

Being a Father, You can't help but think

Am i doing it right?

You need everything to be perfect

But it's not always in sync.

Managing the chaos and yet smiling through it all

Because his Mom has a tougher job than you

And you need to climb that wall.

In all of this, you dream of this one thing,

Being a perfect father,

Being a good friend.

So let your journey begin!

In the last 3 months, I have been a friend to a colleague, a helper for my wife, A caregiver for my parents but the role which has excited me the most is of being a Father.. For me 'Fathers Day' was yet another westernized concept celebrated in India which started with ordering a flower/gift from a website and showing your father you cared.. 

Although me and my father never had that relationship (we still don't), I have seen my wife and friends do the same thinga with their Dad. 

Growing up, I have seen my Dad being good at only one job. Being the bread winner of  the family. Navigating us mostly as his duty more than anything else..And i think that's where my fascination of being the 'perfect Dad' for my child comes from. 

Being there for him when he needs me,

Always a call away.

Not being Intrusive and yet to be his friend

It is said that your child mimics your qualities as you are the only role model he has till he grows up. So that poses another challenge! 

Being the best version of me for him! 

And that's the most difficult job of it all..

Happy Father's Day to all the new Dads! You will figure it out

Senior Citizens and Technology

With the pandemic scenario , one of the sectors which has transformed for better or worse is Education. Online learning has been in the space for quite some time, although the relevance has been the greatest in this time since it's foundational moment.

All the schools and colleges in India are going virtual! For someone like me who has been working remotely since the past 4 years, this is a natural progression. But for a 50 something year old teacher, this is something totally different. This is unlearning years of traditional teaching methods which she has carefully adopted and then trying to fit in a completely new medium. For me, this would be as much as a drastic change as going back to work in a Government office from the 1970's.

One of the things this has brought me to think is why do generally older people bad (or slow) to adopting technology.

My mother in law is a school teacher who is in the same situation. And I have been trying to teach her Microsoft Teams for quite some time.. And yet, every day i watch her forget the same old moves i taught her yesterday. Most of this resistance i can blame on her anxiety, but some of the traits are different. 

Compare this to my 10 year old niece who is taking the same online classes. She will know how to mute herself and when to unmute to ask questions while also going to addition options to change her virtual background (which I never taught her). 

So why are older people more resistant to Technology or change?

Curiosity is one of the biggest factors which is higher for a younger generation while the law of diminishing returns applies to those who are older. My mother in law was comfortable in an in-person teaching surrounding and her tools of work and education never involved clicking on a folder or sending an email to anyone.

While the barrier for my niece is already shortened for Technology when she is using YouTube at this age and coupled with hee curious nature to learn how things work and knowing how to 'Google' stuff. She can do these additional tasks flawlessly..

When you grow up with something, you learn it and evolve until it becomes second nature to you! We are the Facebook and YouTube generation, but for my niece Snapchat and TikTok are the platforms she is most comfortable with.. It still takes some time for me to use them when I see the platform and how she uses it!

So does that make me the 'senior citizen' now?

Why can't we keep printing unlimited money?

This is a question I always used to think on every budget session when I was in college

"Why won't the RBI just print the extra money and make up for that difference?" I used to ask myself secretly, too afraid to ask it out aloud.

I am sure you must have thought about this at-least once even if you are an Economics student or not!

Well the answer is simple. Let me try to explain it with a simple example:

Imagine a city like Mumbai with the population of only 100 people who eat 2 vada-pao's everyday (Yummy!) for ₹10. Now, RBI announces that they will print extra money and make it double the current circulation and distribute it to everyone.

Hurray!

Everyone in your family is happy. You are happy. You always wanted that new iPhone and with the new set of extra money, you can finally afford it. To celebrate it, you go ahead and try to eat an extra vada-pao today.

The vendor asks you for ₹15 this time. You are shocked!

You just ate it for ₹10 yesterday and so did everyone else. What happened?

In this scenario, the disposable income in everyone's hands has changed suddenly (double of what they had yesterday) but the production of vada-pao stayed the same. With more cash in everyone's hands, the demand for the vada-pao has gone up. So the vendor is now asking for an increased price which everyone is ready to pay for with the new cash in hand.

So in order to match the demand and supply, the production of money has to match with the production of goods and services to keep pace. This is also what is known in economic terms as 'Inflation'

When people see the value of goods rising sharply over a short amount of time, they start to buy it in large quantities for the fear of more increase in the price i.e hoarding which ultimately leads to shortage of goods for everyone else.

Inflation is quite common over time in every country. When you hear someone saying: "When I was young, this set of biscuits cost only ₹2 and now it is sold at ₹10"; They are referring to an Inflation example.

So when RBI thinks of printing new currency, they have to think about Inflation, GDP and other macro and micro economic impacts it can have on our country. 

And although it looks good on paper, Your country cannot survive the economy when you try to print your way out of a recession.

So it's not a really a good idea!