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By:

Kaustubh Kale

10 September 2024 at 6:07:15 pm

Silent Money Killer: Loss of Buying Power

In personal finance, we often worry about losing money in the stock market, dislike the volatility associated with equities or mutual funds, or feel anxious about missing out on a hot investment tip. Yet the biggest threat to our wealth is far quieter and far more dangerous: loss of buying power. It is the invisible erosion of your money caused by inflation - a force that operates every single day, without pause, without headlines, and often without being noticed until it is too late....

Silent Money Killer: Loss of Buying Power

In personal finance, we often worry about losing money in the stock market, dislike the volatility associated with equities or mutual funds, or feel anxious about missing out on a hot investment tip. Yet the biggest threat to our wealth is far quieter and far more dangerous: loss of buying power. It is the invisible erosion of your money caused by inflation - a force that operates every single day, without pause, without headlines, and often without being noticed until it is too late.
Inflation does not take away your capital visibly. It does not reduce the number in your bank account. Instead, it reduces what that number can buy. A Rs 100 note today buys far less than what it did ten years ago. This gradual and relentless decline is what truly destroys long-term financial security. The real damage happens when people invest in financial products that earn less than 10 per cent returns, especially over long periods. India’s long-term inflation averages around 6 to 7 per cent. When you add lifestyle inflation - the rising cost of healthcare, education, housing, travel, and personal aspirations - your effective inflation rate is often much higher. So, if you are earning 5 to 8 per cent on your money, you are not growing your wealth. You are moving backward. This is why low-yield products, despite feeling safe, often end up becoming wealth destroyers. Your money appears protected, but its strength - its ability to buy goods, services, experiences, and opportunities - is weakening year after year. Fixed-income products like bank fixed deposits and recurring deposits are essential, but only for short-term goals within the next three years. Beyond that period, the returns simply do not keep pace with inflation. A few products are a financial mess - they are locked in for the long term with poor liquidity and still give less than 8 per cent returns, which creates major problems in your financial goals journey. To genuinely grow wealth, your investments must consistently outperform inflation and achieve more than 10 per cent returns. For long-term financial goals - whether 5, 10, or 20 years away - only a few asset classes have historically achieved this: Direct stocks Equities represent ownership in businesses. As companies grow their revenues and profits, shareholders participate in that growth. Over long horizons, equities remain one of the most reliable inflation-beating asset classes. Equity and hybrid mutual funds These funds offer equity-debt-gold diversification, professional management, and disciplined investment structures that are essential for long-term compounding. Gold Gold has been a time-tested hedge against inflation and periods of economic uncertainty. Ultimately, financial planning is not about protecting your principal. It is about protecting and enhancing your purchasing power. That is what funds your child’s education, your child’s marriage, your retirement lifestyle, and your long-term dreams. Inflation does not announce its arrival. It works silently. The only defense is intelligent asset allocation and a long-term investment mindset. Your money is supposed to work for you. Make sure it continues to do so - not just in numbers, but in real value. (The author is a Chartered Accountant and CFA (USA). Financial Advisor.Views personal. He could be reached on 9833133605.)

The Changing Face of Sex Workers in Bollywood Cinema

Updated: Oct 21, 2024

The Changing Face of Sex Workers in Bollywood Cinema

Prostitution in Indian cinema has a hidden charisma, like a film that has been banned, and the banning becomes a tantalising invitation to the film that depicts or deals with prostitution. It is a part of everyday sexism. In constructing certain specific representations of women, it codes women as an object of the male gaze.

Chetna (1971), directed by the late B.R. Ishara, was perhaps the first Hindi film to represent a sex worker who stepped into the profession out of greed and was not embarrassed about it. But the guilt of having married one of her clients who fell in love with her proves her undoing. It was an extremely bold film for the time, encapsulating very bold cinematographic frames and a brilliant performance by Rehana Sultan.


Parched

Bijlee in Parched, directed by Leena Yadav, is part of a touring entertainment group that performs item numbers for the village men. She also sleeps with some of them in exchange for money. The owner of the company who pimps her gets a fair cut. She has a beautiful figure enough to set the men’s hormone levels rising. Additionally, she is a delightful woman who loves to return to the village to meet her friend Ranee, a young widow. She is not embarrassed about her job, flaunts her charms proudly, and gives courage to other women.

Bijlee is a sparkling beauty and crackles like fireworks with her naughty, teasing charm she veils her inner pain with. She throws up alternative ways of behaviour and thinking, changing female-prefixed abuses men generously use by substituting them with male prefixes and shouting these from the top of a hillock with her friends. Bijlee offers visions of freedom to Lajjo and Rani from the prison they are caged in. But simmering inside her is the pain of the trap that, for her, is a no-exit situation where love is as much a mirage as it is for Rani and Lajjo.


Akira

Maya in Akira is a high-class call girl. She is not ashamed of trading her body for money. She is strong and courageous enough to strike back when a corrupt and murderous cop blackmails her into offering her services for free. All because he set her free from being jailed once. She tries to avenge this wrong by capturing on video one of his corrupt dealings but is killed by the same cop and his team. Strangely, reviews of Akira do not even mention the way her character unfolds and the brilliance of her performance, who has no sad story to back up her being in the profession.


Badlapur

In Badlapur, Jhimli (Huma Qureshi) is portrayed as a confident sex worker who, despite her deep affection for Liak (Nawazuddin Siddique), remains committed to her profession. She ultimately becomes the mistress of a wealthy man, showcasing her assertive nature and lack of desire for marriage or settling down.

But underneath her flashy clothes and loud make-up, Jhimli is very fond of Liak, though he is a killer on the run. The only time we find her broken is when the hero rapes her with vengeance. Huma Quereshi as Jhimli gives an outstanding performance as a sex worker who is not embarrassed about her profession. There is an irony when placed next to a character who is a social worker who sleeps on the sly with men who she has business with. Jhimli comes across as a bold woman, in love with one of her clients but with no plans of marrying him or giving up her profession.

The prostitute, on celluloid as in real life, has her saleability in common. With other culturally prevalent representations of women such as the sacrificing or the ruthlessly selfish wife, new Indian filmmakers, men and women, have reinvented and created new codes of non-voyeuristic vision through the character of the prostitute in their films.

(The writer is a senior journalist based in Kolkata. Views personal.)

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