#8 One Indian Rupee = 40 USD Fantasy

Rupee stands, dollar sleeps!
Originally uploaded by Kunal Mistry

In early 2000s, a creative but bored tech coolie drafted out an email, sketching out his day dream, which would go on to become one of the most loved and forwarded emails by desis.

The dream essentially reverses the United States power play in two significant dimensions: (i) One Indian Rupee would someday be US$40 (ii) Americans would stand in lines outside Indian embassies for Indian visas.

The email turned out to be a blockbuster hit. Desis tirelessly and religiously forwarded this email again and again and again and again till they made sure it came back to them at least 10 times from atleast 5 different people. It is such a massive hit because it successfully addresses deep emotional needs of desis: a long unfulfilled dream of India being a super power and of course scant number of American visas.

With passing of the years, the email went on to became a modern day Mahabharatha. People started adding their own fantasies like Narayana Murthy beating Bill Gates, 50% of Microsoft employees are desis etc. before re-forwarding the email. This email still goes around, although, it mostly sticks with email newbies. A newbie who signs up for an email service, receives a copy of this along with the welcome message from the service provider, thus making it part of introductory package for the Internet.

The fantasy thus lives on and on. Oh! but wait, the original fantasy was 1 INR = 50 USD.

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