BENGALURU: I’m no economist, but if one were to get a fair idea of which sector in India is going through a purple patch, one needs to only look at the sponsors for the Indian Premier League. The initial few years were sponsored by traditional businesses like real estate and poison-cola drinks. As India quickly grew in the previous decade as a dominant market for mobile technology, telecom companies carried the mantle of paying for cricketers’ late-night parties.
If you’ve been following the history of the Indian Premier League, you’ll know that the league is immune to terror attacks, the tribulations of general elections, and even a global pandemic. In the recent few years, it has been tech companies who have been sponsoring the league - fintech companies, money-wallet apps that charge you a commission for transferring your own amount to yourself, and apps that ask you to use your brain while making your nightly cricket gamble. After following the Indian Premier League for 12 years, I now treat the matches like background noise – as a marker for the four hours of the night. The matches play on in the background, as we watch them cursorily - like a crack addict finding the next hit – without any real interest or euphoria. But the one thing I notice is the proliferation of apps that deal with crypto-currency and Bitcoin.
As someone who was born in the pre-liberalisation era, money was always treated as a hush-hush subject in our childhoods. At home, we never knew how much money our parents made, and were discouraged from discussing money matters in the presence of relatives. It was understood that money was perennially in shortage, and any sort of extravagance was accorded the same amount of respect reserved for chicken pox. Instead of being encouraged to take financial risks, we were taught that ‘tiny drops maketh an ocean’. ‘Money comes and goes’, we were told. But ‘morality comes and grows’. I do not possess vast reserves of morality, but I have let money come and go from my life.
Still lost in the world of cheques and debit cards, even a minor change in financial technology is a giant leap of resistance from me. I have no understanding of how digital currencies work. My knowledge of crypto-currency is at the same levels as my knowledge of quantum mechanics. For all I know, bitcoins could be being created by elves in secret, underground vaults.
But I wonder what happens to pocket money with digital currency! When our generation ages, we will have to swipe on a screen to give ‘festival money’ to our grandkids. During religious festivals, what happens to the practise of slipping in money to a shrine? Temples, mosques and churches will have to come up with ‘Digital hundis’ for devotees to give back to their gods.
At my age, I realise that I have probably missed the bus with crypto and bitcoins. I am comfortable with the thought, and have added digital currencies to other buses I’ve missed – like Action shoes with lights, and the MotoRazr. Like the drunk uncle in weddings, I would like to encourage the younger generations to continue blazing new paths. I will continue to play Ludo - Snake & Ladders, and call my mobile network provider to request a change in my callertune!
(The writer’s views are his own)