In my twenties...

Okay, its not folic acid that this post is about but a more essential vitamin that none of us can exist without, that human beings alone need and a vitamin that has acquired identity only recently in evolutionary history.

Being a resident of a European nation, I have begun to realise the face value of a Euro a lot more than I ever considered tossing a 1-Rupee coin into the plate of a poor man at the roadside. When I first travelled to the UK, I was amazed to see items priced as low as 2 and 3 GBP. By a casual gesture I would flip into my basket, nearly all that I found pretty and arrive at the cash desk with a sum of around a 100 GBP - a figure that I never really cared to multiply by 86 to realise what a spendthrift I have been. It was not long before I caught up with the habit of converting to INR and getting hold of my expenses that I was given the privilege to move to another country where the currency value is a little lower - the Euro.

It has been really difficult to control my expenses despite constant reminders from my friends that a 20 Euro pair of flip-flops can be really really expensive. I would rather recklessly toss in the 1-cent from the cashier (the remainder from the billed 19.99 Euro) and not really bother to pop it into my piggy bank when I'm home. Saving 50 Euros for a birthday gift was common.

All until I realized the face value of the currency. 1 Euro is definitely not equivalent to 1 Rupee even for a localite. The average salary of an upper middle class employee is about 3000 Euros per month, the same figure in Rupees is definitely not the average salary of the employees from an IT software company in Bangalore. Neither is 1 kg rice 1 Rupee and 29 Paise nor is Ipod Classic 230 Rupees. Soon after I realized the grave mistake that I have been doing, I was in a hot debate about gifts with my labmate, a localite. As we spoke she ridiculed my attitude towards money and my heavy budget for a birthday treat with a simple statement, "Well, last year I planned to gift a ticket to the Opera to Pat (her husband), but I later gave up the idea. It was way too expensive. 58 Euros per person!!" And that shut my breath.

And here I am a lot more responsible in handling the European currency. Well I finally realized today it is worth about 68.8 INR. I have even subscribed to the daily currency update to constantly remind me of what a "squanderer" I have been!