Imaginch and his Universal worries: -322-

If the universe is the answer, then what was the question? Really a tough nut of a question to crack. Imaginch decided to make an attempt whether it was rhetorical or philosophical. The Universe is immeasurable in size, content and complexities. It contains mysteries like dark energy, dark matter and regular matter, God particles and God only know particles, planets, comets and mystery laden interstellar objects.  This much he knew.

It operates fusion plants to birth protostars from enormous gas clouds and keeps tight control on the transformation of these infants into main sequence stars, giant & supergiant stars in blue and red colours. These the aged, giant and supergiant stars, after consuming easily fusionable materials collapse inward, under ever increasing gravitational pressure and their cores become millions of degrees hot. Reaching a breaking point, they explode spectacularly as a supernova or a hypernova explosions. 

The lean mass stars are incapable of sustaining the fusion reactions for long and are unceremoniously relegated to become the planetary nebulae, white & black dwarfs. Medium mass stars which tun into sun like stars (yellow dwarf) and end as red giants disintegrating into a planetary nebula which then become white dwarfs and fade as black dwarfs. Heavy mass stars become hyper and super red & blue giants and explode as supernovae ending in a black hole or a neutron star (magnetars & pulsar). The remnant debris left over from these exploding fusion reactors produce heavier elements, electromagnetic waves and extreme cosmic rays. 

There is a purpose in this madness. Or else, how it could upgrade the next generation stars with richer and heavier elements as starting material unless it distributes the heavier elements, stardust and nebulous clouds into the vastness of space?  The ejected mass of enormous gas clouds, rich in heavy elements such as silver, gold, platinum etc, becomes the starting material for forming beautiful planetary nebulae which in turn produce the next generation stars and planets. 

Imaginch stood awestruck by the power and beauty of these ultra efficient recycling plants where it could pulverise the cores of these nuclear reactors, at will and with an “iron” hand! It believes in taking one star generation at a time to reach its goals and the only way forward is by orchestrating different kinds of celestial explosions. 

The Universe has a role for the formed back holes and neutron stars.  The black holes have to monitor the local groups, keep the planetary nebulae and their star population under control while performing additional duty as a super vacuum cleaner.  How else the Universe would collect and crush debris, dusts, ejected star shells and even the errant stars to keep the raw materials supply chain for the next generation celestial objects?`

For entertainment, it keeps bending the very fabric of spacetime and to remind the celestial bodies, tiny or ultra super giants, that the Universe is the boss! Like a puppeteer it pulls the lightyears long strings, as it does not want the celestial bodies to get entangled or collide with each other during the performance of the cosmic dance. 

Acting like a business tycoon, it goes after acquisitions and mergers. If the deal goes sour, it lets the entities to fight it out among themselves and silently watches the collisions and annihilations resulting in bursts of Gamma-ray, spewing of remnant materials and push gravitational waves through the spacetime fabric. 

Imaginch started to worry – is the universe becoming reckless and careless or over-burdened or plainly bored with certain entities? Or has it found a quicker way to recycle? After managing all these activities, spanning over astronomical distances, the universe still has time and energy to expand and enlarge its space. Pursuing its   architectural hobby, the Universe builds gigantic structures and bridges spanning millions of light years! 

Obviously, for this cosmic realtor dealing in millions and billions is just a pocket change. To bewilder us, it operates a cosmic theatre fitted with gravitational lenses, to give us a peek at the primordial stellar objects from its depths. The Universe seems to say without saying it - “what you see through these lenses now are not what you will ever get to see.”

Unable to live with his worries any longer, Imaginch posed a question to the Universe. “Why are you allowing all these to happen?” 

The Universe thought it would be better to come clean and reply. “You are still confused because you had merely collected so much information but failed to convert it into knowledge to appreciate the workings of the Universe!  If you need a refresher course, for brevity’s sake, I will give my reasoning.  

Destruction and construction have to go hand in hand. How on earth would you get the heavier elements silver, gold, platinum and other heavy element deposits to extract, unless celestial bodies merge, explode and produce gamma ray and heavy elements? How do I produce the abundant materials for the next generation stars to form? How am I to make magnetic stars and nebulae if I don’t allow collisions, explosions?  

Am I not sending gravitational waves as signals of such events so that you people don’t get scared? Collisions and mergers are not by accidents but a regulated recycling process member, I am the Boss! 

Aha, really you think you have a tough task in solving the enigma “If the universe is the answer, then what was the question?” 

Am I not handling seamlessly the task of charting paths for trillion upon trillion galaxies and quadrillion upon quadrillion upon quadrillion stars, planets, dwarf planets, comets and star debris and keeping track of them in finite orbits forever. A small worry but I have the trump card called the four-dimensional fabric of spacetime curvature, to make them behave properly. Mind it, I have to be vigilant for ever! Of course, there are few galaxies, ejected black holes and run-away stars trying to chart their own independent paths and manage to collide in a death-wish. Now think, who has the toughest task in the Universe?” 

Imaginch's mind was panting like an athlete clocking six seconds to finish a hundred-meter dash! Still, he had no clue as to the answer for "What was the question?"  Not giving up hope, he continued to pose many rhetorical and philosophical questions to himself, to dig out the probable question that would have been asked. 

From where we came into existence and why?

For what purpose we exist?

Oh! Maybe, to ask the first question! (This attempted humour fell flat on his face.)

If we had not come into existence, then what?

Where from our medieval, modern and evolving post-modern theories and knowledge originated?

When everything, even the light, cease to exist, then what will be there? 

The answer for all the above questions invariably came up as ‘The Universe’ 

He was disappointed to note that his questions lacked the elegance to be worthy of evoking that answer. Yet his mind kept nagging him with the question, “If universe is the answer, then what is the question?” For good measure it added a warning, “It will still exist to keep trying to get your question!” 

Eager to settle the issue, he asked this question to his mind “If universe is everything, then the question could not have come from someone from the universe itself is it not? If so, did it come from outside of this universe? Imaginch commanded it to try and guess ‘who would have given this answer and who had asked that question?”  

He was aware that theoretically the existence of parallel and multiverse is possible. As a consequence, theoretically this question coming from an alien origin is also a possibility. This possibility raised multiple questions: “who in this Universe could understand the statement made in an alien language?  Who is that alien residing unbeknownst to us? Why should an alien come up with this question to get that answer unless this question was asked to seek clarity or to emphasise a greater purpose?” 

Imaginch remembered reading about Nobel laureates, who have experimentally proved that the universe isn’t locally real.  This led him to get confused by thinking that, if this universe is not totally real, then parallel, multiverse and the aliens, the question and the answer also could be locally unreal or imaginary. When the universe may not be locally real then he, Imaginch has every probability of being locally unreal! Is the universe not worried being locally unreal? 

At this juncture, frightened and shaken, he wondered ‘why the Universe has gone silent and not talking to him like it did while lecturing about destruction and construction, collisions and mergers. It had boasted of playing the spacetime curvature trump card to steer and shepherded 99.99999% of the celestial behemoths and dwarfs in precise orbital paths. Of being the bog boss and bragging about its cosmic log listing numbers in millions, billions, trillions and quadrillions, as if it was nothing but a pocket change!” 

He did not know why he is bothered about the question and the questioner? As like him, will there not be alien minds in other purported universes, making similarly attempts to find out what is the question and who asked it? 

His knowledge bank and question bank simultaneously getting exhausted, he safely concluded that the answer would remain the same, in the respective categories, for those who believed in a parallel or multiple or even in an infinitesimal Planck Universe 

A serious doubt crept in. Is the universe itself trying to find out what could be the question that brought up its existence as the answer? Or is the universe asking him indirectly to answer the question “who could manage all these celestial events? If so, how the answer got into his mind to set him in search of the question?” 

At least, he got to enjoy a brief glimpse on the working of the Universe. This tour into the realm of the universe has been educative and helpful in enlarging his data bank. He realised that this feat would not have been possible but for the efforts of tribes of astronomers, their published works and their tacit approval. Yet his knowledge bank did not open its counter to answer that question. He had vainly searched for an equivalent to cul-de-sac in the parlance of the universe, reaching a dead end. 

Stymied, he took a detour and decided to let his brain to explore on its own. No problem on who comes up with the question. At last, the spark plug came alive and jolted his mind to pop out the question:

 " Which is not bound by time but gets time to bind with it? 

A hypernova exploded in his mind and the pulsar beamed the answer, " The universe!" The universe does not simply exist in time; it outlives everything including the Time. Time is something the universe continuously uses to write lessons for us!  Now, blame yourself for not thinking about the question that I nudged into your brain. 

Having had enough worries about the universe, Imaginch started to believe that universe knows why it is doing what it is doing and what for. He will be safe as long as he did it a wide berth. This made him to feel happy.

Imaginch fails to reform the UN: - 321-

Wonder why of all the billions of people, Imaginch should be overly concerned? To keep his mind engaged he needed a concern, even if it did not concern him directly. He did not know why he did it, but anyways did it!

Imaginch expected the UN and its member states to be ideologically, politically, commercially and geographically neutral. In his opinion, this tall edifice has progressively undergone repainting with brushes dipped in motivated ideology, commercialism, political intolerance, bullying tactics and camps separated by continents. 

Like a periodic comet, the annual ritual starts with head of states or high-ranking dignitaries selling to the world, their current and future distorted visions. Speeches laden with swipes at each other, to add punch lines to their dreary translated contents echoing through head-sets. When these speeches end, the permanent representatives move in to carry forward the foreign policy briefs left by their respective dignitaries.

As members of various committees and commissions, these representatives live behind closed doors, in conference rooms, to conduct hectic lobbying ‘euphorically’ labelling it as intense parleys. How else a representative could project or protect his or her nation’s teeth in the game?  If that nation happens to be a bully, then it is compulsory for the other members to wear soft, kid gloves. This reality was his current concern.

He rued that the UN has become the stage for exhibiting brinkmanship rather than statesmanship. Over the time it has quietly settled in to the role of a passenger with guaranteed free boarding and lodging. Still, the members continue to respect and maintain one decorum - no fisticuffs. Instead, the members freely engage with each other using oral versions of jiu-jitsu or kung fu!

The short clips of the UNGA proceedings, floating through like a flotsam, kept his worry filled mind on boil.  He blamed himself for tracking this enacted annual ritual and analyses through various media outlets. He wondered why none of the UN Secretary Generals have not thought of installing   heckle-o-meters and shame-o-meters to monitor the behaviour of the members and the countless committees, to assist as the third umpires? Instead of fostering peace, why they watched helplessly when one nation toppled regimes, started wars with missiles and tariffs?

Why the UN allows use of designations and sanctions as tools of deterrence?  Sanctions help a bullying nation to hegemonise by applying brute force and keep that backdoors open for selfish aggrandizements. Attaching these labels to terror entities rarely does anything other than giving them global recognition and to become powerful magnets to attract publicity, funds and other such group. These dictates fall flat and ineffective when the nation, where these groups reside and operate from, walks away with windfall gains to eradicate the very same group from its soil!  

These add value to.   The leaders and prominent lieutenants of the terror groups become valuable as a hefty bounty! Rides on their heads. This does not affect their public appearances and it is business as usual.  Why would they fear when elite military personnel accompany and stand guard inside or outside their residences, which again for operational conveniences are co-located with in a barrack? 

Why nobody has thought about totally revamp this ineffective UN setup, living beyond expiry date? 

Feeling frustrated and tired, Imaginch had a cold shower. a hot meal he called it a day. The moment his head hit the pillow, he hoped to go in to a much-needed sleep. But the process of falling asleep had its own SOP.

“Drop the body temperature. Lower the heart beat and slow down the breathing rates. Relinquish hold over body’s awareness. Induce rapid eye moment. Increase brain activity. Induct temporary muscle paralysis and clear the path for a deep sleep or a slow-wave sleep.  Now allow entry for the dream or dreams.  Repeat this cycle from the beginning to end, once in 1.5 to 2 hours.”

SOP be damned! His subconscious mind relentlessly kept processing every scrap of stored information to produce random, symbolic, or reflective dreams. In effect, the subconscious mind has converted his sleep time as a rent-free theatre with dreams as special shows! In the midst of all these, he could not understand, why the subconscious mind should try to solve bothersome issues he himself wanted to leave on back burners? Why should it project and remind him of unfulfilled desires, which he himself had stopped dreaming about?  These thoughts operated on a different SOP, preventing him from falling asleep. To have the last laugh, and acting like the UNGA he designating his subconscious mind as the primary villain and the conscious mind as its side kick!

This cyclic and disturbing sleep and dream sequences left him clueless as he could neither recollect nor make sense out of these nebulous dreams. But the stubborn conscious mind simply refused to ignore them as random noises and ended up chasing flocks of wild geese in an attempt to find meaningful connections or interpretations. A strange voice kept reminding him, like a side track, that a balanced diet and balanced sleep  is essential for a healthy life.

Few days later, Imaginch had one of such a blue moon kind of vivid dream playing out with such a clarity, he could not simply ignore. It made him to get up from sleep to make sure that it was only a dream.

It had a particular recurring theme mirroring unconnected incidents, echoing unwanted arguments and dragging his weary legs to visit unknown places. This worried him. Even in this dreamy state, he remembered to have decided to find out the reason for that dream about the UN dream kept recurring. 

He was disheartened to learn that “A circuit in the brain can push one’s behaviour into a compulsive and “repeat mode.”  How does it do it?  Further reading pointed out “the nexus between the brain, the nucleus accumbens and the hypothalamus to energise a region processing negative experiences in the lateral habenula”. This answer left the question whether the same wiring would force a person with nagging thoughts to gnaw at it, compulsively and repeatedly. He felt that the repetitive scary dreams are less threatening than the lengthy physiological terms and explanations. 

Getting fed up, he decided to take it upon himself to affect its overdue reformation. It was anyways overdue for a major overhaul, since the founding principles of the institution has been steadily going southwards. Here, a self-doubt arose - has he the locus standi to be anywhere near New York, leave alone the UN? What if? He decided to do it on a paper and at home!

To set the ball rolling, he decided to cancel the ‘permanent member’ tag and the vote mechanism.  Instead, he will constitute an enlarged Security Council comprising and not exceeding one third of the UN membership.  Each continent gets to select 5 members agreeing to rotate the tenure to get equitable representation.

Next, he wanted to give the post of Secretary General the marching orders.  He or she will be replaced with a secretary from each of the continents, vested with equal administrative powers.

With the General Assembly’s unanimous approval, the Secretaries will constitute the various UN Committees and Commissions, ensuring proportional representation to each of the continents in the appointments as members.

The annual ritual is mandated to be dignified with the visiting heads of states or high-ranking officials speaking to the world, about their current and future visions for the world. Talks peppered with punch lines and exhibition of martial skills in jiu-jitsu or kung fu is dealt with a heavy penalty*. The offending Nation’s representatives in various committees will be debarred for a period of time. Then, the leaders leave their foreign policy briefs with the committee members to carry them forward with follow up actions.

Resolution of any nature must be sponsored by a two thirds majority of the full strength and not of those present and voting. Abstaining or walk outs as face saving measure or friendly gesture will have consequences as mentioned previously*.

When a resolution goes to the Enlarged Security Council (UNESC), the countries in question must also be represented and after deliberations the reason for the vote, two thirds voting for or against the resolution, must be spelled out. The country that faces the probable nay-vote will have the right to defend and, if not satisfied, can register its protest. In this situation, the General Assembly has to discuss the issue afresh, pass another resolution and send it back to the UNESC. This check and balance will do away with the practice of highhanded arm twisting as a modus operandi.

Before the reforms, a blind or short-sighted resolution proposed in the General Assembly hung in the balance, awaiting the guillotine of a veto. Any nation having teeth in the game to project or protect its standing, subjected the committee or commission members to intense lobbying pressures and in turn to gain the support of UNSC members for a guaranteed favourable veto. Murder and mayhem got buried and the aggressor walked away with sympathy, finance and ammunitions. In an act of solidarity, the perpetrator was gifted with a victim card. Not to leave the victim in limbo, the committees or commissions blamed and showed yellow and red cards before blowing the whistle.

This sort of sovereign backing was clinched after burning some serous midnight oil in fancy restaurants. For an economically struggling nation, the expenditure of this midnight oil burning diplomacy would be enough to feed at least a thousand hungry mouths for a day. Financially bankrupt or not, politically it was important for the perpetrator or aggressor to keep up the prestige of the nation in the UN and at home. A small price the hungry mouths have to sacrifice for the sake of their mother or Father land.

After his reforms this lobbying practice will get simply shown the door. The cost and efforts to curry such a favourable vote, will now be of astronomical proportion and no nation rich or poor or desperate can foot the bills of this magnitude.  

At this point, Imaginch felt immense relief and happiness for marshalling his guts to say the unsayable and do the unthinkable. To cap his efforts, he had two more things to add. (1). Stationing the peacekeeping force shall no longer be a freebee. Forthwith, it will be a pay and use system.  The aggressor gets punished and bears 75% of the expenditure. The aggrieved gets a breathing space and pays 25%. (2). Henceforth, UNESC shall not hang the fancy tags of “designated” and “sanctioned” on the necks of error outfits and cartels etc. UN members are mandated to comply with and freeze their finances. Forcefully isolate the nation that aids and abets terrorists by closing the tap on financial aid and bailout packages to that nation.

As usual, his inner voice had a few misgivings and raised some serious objections.

(1). How in UN, the present permanent members would relinquish their holds on the world body?

(2). Will the countries in the continents nominate members to your EUNSC, without quarrelling among themselves?

(3). You are in the UN and not Utopia. When in the history of UN there was a unanimous voting? How do you expect a resolution to be passed by two thirds majority of UNGA members? You implied but not specified a two thirds majority for EUNSC, am I correct?

(4). Are you dreaming? Do you expect all the other member countries to comply with and act against any nation or blacklisted outfits as per UNESC or UNGA resolutions?

(5). The cost sharing formula for having peace keeping boots on the ground is imaginatively touché and I like it!

(6) You have managed to bring in a continental shift in geopolitics by revamping the UN.  Its functioning will not only the pathetic than that of the current UN. Will not encourage the continents to open branches and start functioning as local power centers.

Imaginch started to have misgivings that his dream project might be heading for a point beyond the South Pole (he deemed the cliché ‘going south’ as a lowly description). Not to lose any more sleep over reforming he decided to address his suggestion: “UN should have a new flag showing a whistle and yellow and red cards. This would be befitting and reflect the changed character of the charter of the UN. So, design and hoist this flag to keep in tune with the times.”

Matters that matter in money matters: -320-

ChintaMany and worries are inseparable, like light and shadow. He is unique as he would be searching for a shadow even in darkness. It all started, once again, when he read the "I promise to pay the bearer...."

Whether all the denomination of currency notes come with this promise? What happens, if the promise is broken? What about the minted coins? These were his initial set of worries that started off his thought train. 

Then the next stop was to know, how this promise came about in the first place. Are we alone or other national currencies also have this type of sovereign guarantee printed on them? Along the way, he was sure, that he would onboard many other worries. Is it necessary to be a scholar in numismatics or at least a hobbyist as a numismatist? ChintaMany quietly blamed his unwanted interests and worries. Why could not he do as others do - just use the currencies and forget the worries? 

Ignoring these worries, his thought train chugged along, on its own steam, till it hit a red signal - paper currency is just a ‘fiat’ money.  Resuming the journey, his thought train crossed the level crossing, to understand what this meant. 

ChintaMany hissed like a pneumatic brake, in relief, when he understood that most modern currencies are fiat money, and aren’t backed by a physical asset like gold or silver and hence have no intrinsic value. His thought train screeched to a halt at another red signal to understand that the issuing government and its central bank guarantee the value of the currency note for acceptance within the country in all transactions. In effect, the currency is backed by people’s trust reposed on the guarantor! 

The central bank of a country fixes the value of its currency with respect to another currency or to a basket of currencies. The bank manages to maintain value and stability with a set of monetary policy - administering fixed exchange rate and supporting it with forex reserves. The exchange rates vary due to market forces of supply and demand.  At these instances, the bank may still intervene occasionally to keep the exchange rate within a reasonable band to give the nation greater autonomy over its economic policy. 

It also influences currency value through managing interest rates, money supply and inflation control. The central bank can utilise its forex reserves to support own currency by selling or buying foreign currencies, to prevent appreciation in value, and reduce volatility across the board, encourage trade and promote economic stability of the nation. 

The next question popped in his mind “Why at all a fiat money?”  ChintaMany had to go back in time to get the answer for this. “Prior to WWII, many currencies were backed by gold but was found to be inflexible during economic crises. The Bretton Woods System was devised to overcome this difficulty and the U.S. dollar was linked to gold, and in turn other currencies were linked to the dollar. 

 In the year 1971, this system also had to change. Thus, a currency guaranteed combining a legal mandate, credibility of a government and its central bank came into existence. Now, the strength of the currency depended on the effectiveness of monetary policies, efficient management of supply and demand, and economic stability of that nation. 

Thus, the modern fiat money became the liability of the central bank of the issuing country. The central bank (or government) of that country promised to “pay the bearer the value” indicated on the note. Immediately, he made sure of this guarantee on a currency note in his possession at that instant. Then a childhood memory came back to him. At that age, he had asked his father about this "I promise to pay the bearer the sum of [amount] rupees" under the signature of the Governor of Reserve Bank of India. That hundred-rupee note was at least one and half times larger than the present one! Conservation of printing paper or economic stress? 

The next thought the train carried along was, “How the other countries promised their citizens?

“The British chose the Chief Cashier of the Bank of England Bank to state the promise. The U.S. chose not to have this explicit "promise to pay” on the note itself, instead implied its backing of full faith, credit and the strength of the economy of the U.S. government. 

The value of the Euro currency issued by the Eurosystem (European Central Bank and national central banks) is guaranteed, under the signature of the President of the ECB, backed by the Eurosystem’s commitment to maintaining price stability.  Many other countries use "legal tender" as the text on the note to generally indicate the central bank’s guarantees for its value within the national economy.” 

“The currency note is a   fiat money, and it is the government's order that gives the currency its value. Not backed by a physical assets like gold or silver but on the public trust in the issuing government.” It is the say so of the government that troubled him. Unlike older forms of money, backed by valuable gold or silver, fiat money has no intrinsic value. This sobering thought stopped his thought train, like a deer caught in the headlights. 

The thought train cried for some stimulant.  Travelling on an imaginary train what else he could do?  Just to amuse himself he waited for a vendor to order a cup of hot, watery syrup sold as coffee. ChintaMany had other worries to fret about other than the imaginary coffee. 

Could he trust a Central Bank? ChintaMany started his worried focus on the Central Bank’s other functions. 

It regulates and supervises but doesn't directly stand guarantee for solvency of other banks but ensures their sound functioning.  This intervening ‘but’ worried him more. The central bank in all its benevolence operates a subsidiary - Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation to insures all deposits in commercial banks up to a certain limit, but not the banks themselves! 

As his dealings with a commercial bank is limited, he was worried to know how as a depositor and user, his interests are being protected. 

His bank can issue bank guarantees on behalf of its customers to other entities, essentially promising to pay if that client defaults. In case his bank fails or goes under, the limited insurance cover given by the central bank offers to bail out customers like him returning a portion of the deposited money. Is it not amounting to back stabbing a depositor? And is the central bank saving that portion of the money to enable him to open another account in another bank? 

ChintaMany got little agitated by this act of banks in general and his bank in particular - on behalf of the customers by issuing guarantees to other banks promising to pay if its client’s default. But why, for no fault of him, his deposit is not guaranteed by it? Is my bank’s guarantee to other banks is more valuable than the trust of its depositors? 

ChintaMany's thought train stopped at yet another red signal - the central bank gives limited insurance cover for depositors. For the remaining portion, where should the depositor run for cover?" He could not understand this logic - when his money is deposited and it is loaned out, do the central bank and the government hold the “promise to pay" in abeyance? Should not the central bank be more prudent in money matters, which they print and proclaim to protect its value? 

Why the above promise to pay does not cover the deposits which are nothing, but the fiat money printed by it? Why not replace the lost deposits with a special edition of ‘fiat money’ to save the depositors from financial ruin?” 

ChintaMany's defiant thought train came to a halt at a junction. Lucky it so happened as at the exact time a weighty question confronted him. The central banks keep buying gold and when every one of them try to sell it, what will happen to the value of currencies they all were trying to protect?  When the global economy nose dives, which country will have the money to buy the gold  sold by the banks and at what throw away price? One sobering thought struck him - in that scenario, the central bank will also suffer the same fate as an ordinary depositor. 

When he was about to get off from his thought train, a late worry got into the compartment – the cryptocurrency. 

Cryptocurrencies come without any pretense. No guarantees for these decentralized digital assets. Not backed by a sovereign nation or physical asset like gold. Cryptocurrencies operate on a distributed ledger (blockchain) where transactions are verified only by a network of users. Funds are held in online crypto wallets and lack government insurance. 

Their value is based on community consensus and cryptographic proof. But many countries permit them for use in transactions. A cryptocurrency's value fluctuates based on market demand, investor confidence, and its perceived utility. Prices can change dramatically leading to significant gains or losses, in short periods. 

Investors are vulnerable to volatility, scams, and loss of funds. The lack of third-party oversight makes the crypto space susceptible to fraudulent schemes. It is left to the investor to secure the digital assets as there's no entity to recover lost or stolen funds. 

Stablecoins offer a different choice by "pegging" it to fiat currencies, but its credibility still depends on the issuer's reserves and the stability of the ‘pegged’ currency. 

Unlike the fiat money, governmental agencies are happy to employ a hands-off approach - regulate crypto exchanges and urge firms to set standards to protect investors. It leaves the investor to assess the inherent flaws of this decentralized financial system before taking the risk. This is the hidden meaning of the hands-off approach of regulating agencies. 

ChintaMany had enough of financial jostling in his mind. On a favourable note, he concluded the journey by praising himself for not getting trapped by the allures of a tornado-fall gains in the world of Bit or 'will bite' coins!  He had suffered enough nightmares after losing a paltry fifty rupee note. Poor ChintaMany searched high and low, but the note had been lost forever. He shuddered to imagine what would have happened, if it had been in Bitcoins.  His wife would have jacked up its value to astronomical figures, although it was in a free fall! 

You may wonder, how ChintaMany manages to get away, unscathed, after making this comment. The secret is his better half does not pay any attention to his utterings or writings! 

It is now the time for us to know what set off ChintaMany on this journey into the world of finance? The trigger that set him off came from none other than his better half. She chided him for being careless and quoted that incident of the lost fifty rupee note.  Inseparable being that he is from worries, he started his thought train to go on a global search and thus landed into the realm of currencies.

Imaginch in pursuit of unproductive quests: -319-

Keeping quiet when the answer is not known and not answering a question that is not directed at you is enlightenment. Asking a question and waiting till such time that no one has the answer and then answering it is enlightenment by education, of others. 

You see the book in his hand, before you notice his presence. He keeps constantly turning the pages and avidly reading them. Don’t jump into a false conclusion that he is enriching his knowledge! He is only trying to assimilate doubts rather than clarity. To clear the pile of doubts, he tried to reason it out to himself and frequently resorted to turning the pages of books, which obviously got dog-eared.  Aware of this fact, his friends have come up with a nickname which they thought of as apt - “bookworm”. If they have done their due diligence, they would have come up with a modified moniker – “doubting book worm.” 

It would not come as a surprise to know, what he did after coming to know the nickname. - he started searching for the origin, worldly meanings and its applicability as a universal epithet! 

Then, he found out that this word also referred to the larva of a beetle, which happily thrived by feeding on the paper- handwritten or printed and the glue used to bind the books. This again took him on a hunt to know whether his nickname placed him in the literary pursuit category or consigned him to the status of a larva in the woodworks. Are you wondering now, why his friends did not coin the nick name as "doubting bookworm" to begin with. The inside scoop is this is a cleverly constructed façade of Imaginch. 

He used his free time to undertake seemingly unproductive quests. He dived headlong into them not bothering about a helmet.  Once a problem or confusion gets his attention, he seldom lets it go easily. He starts the process of dissecting and re-assembling it in his quest to find a solution. He has become an example for the famous Peter's principle, " there will be some left-over parts, after completing the assembly." To keep Don Quixote in good humour, he relentlessly went on tilting at the windmill. 

It is not by chance that he identifies one of many such unproductive pursuits. He only has to pull it out from a mental list, which sometimes hangs in confusion. Once successful, it buoys up his spirit to crave for one more.  With redoubled efforts, he repeats this endless cycle of fruitless quests for analysis. 

One of his grandchildren presented him with one such problem. He wanted to use every opportunity to impress upon them the value of discipline in education. To lit fire to their imagination, he put up a parade of great scientists, inventors and innovators and explained their struggles and life achievements in great detail.  He emphasised that their minds filled with purpose, combined with tireless effort made it possible to achieve their goals! 

After patiently having heard these acoustic laden accounts, with minor variations on different occasions, one day they confronted him with this stumper - as a kid, did you not know about all these greats personalities and their hard work? If only you had, now you might be quoting yourselves also as another shining example to emulate, instead of importing them! After this encounter, Imaginch though in discomfort, that he had managed to identify one more unproductive quest to pursue. Never minds defeats, when he is firing on all cylinders. His credo - Ignore the backfire or Octane number or any other fancy description! 

Undaunted by this set back, he was on the lookout for another one. His sight settled on looks, not of the appearance type. He has heard and at times he himself had experienced that faraway look or closed eyes phenomenon. The faraway look focuses on nothing but still people employ it, in deep thinking or doing no thinking! How is it possible to be not thinking of anything and why the eyes refuse to register and transmit to the brain what they are observing? 

What happens in the mind when the eyes are closed - does it receive signals or messages from sources unknown? Personally, he had seen nothing with that faraway looks and received no messages when the eyes are closed shut.  Is it a common experience or only he failed to get something out of these exercises? Another dead end reached in yet another unproductive quest. 

News items on psychics or clairvoyants having predicted centuries ago about today's miseries caught his attention promising to be the next unproductive quest to follow through. Sceptic but curious, he decided to pose these questions and find answers for them.  How could the psychics or clairvoyants travel forward in time? Was the travel faster than light? And if so, why none of them found the answer to settle the doubt on the big bang or just like that our universe got squeezed out of a tube-like the tooth paste we are familiar with? Whether the visions came to them or they went in search of them? What was the format - analog or digital or some other form of communication yet to be invented by human beings? 

For argument’s sake he was ready to accept their vision on the origin of big bang. But they should clear these points:  How could a psychic or a clairvoyant   reach the origin of the big bang, unless he or she had prior knowledge of its location? Are they not bending the rules of Newton, Einstein, Bohr, Heisenberg, Schrodinger et al, all the way to that point and back to earth? What was the source for that phenomenal speed of zillion times the speed of light? Were they privy to locations of wormholes and licensed to steer warp drives?

For a long time, he had been pursuing another unproductive quest - of astrologers decoding what the planets had to foretell. For him, the motion of planets around the Sun maintaining the status quo looked fair enough. The other thing that held his interest is the arrival of comets or comet-like objects from Oort Clouds or beyond. They have rendezvous with the Sun and make their return journey. He wanted to find out what for these icy rocks undertake such a journey.  Are they not capable of contributing some icy portends to these astrological predictions based on the planetary positions at birth of an individual or a nation and current planetary transits in various parts of the zodiac? 

As many astrologers there are that many varied predictions there will be. Why there is no unanimity as the planets are the same? Why these predictions predictably come out at the fag-end of every year or whenever a war breaks out or when natural calamities strike? As a fallback arrangement, why, these comets and comet-like non-resident objects are roped in to play the villain? He hit the pause button here, to end another unproductive quest. 

The hue and cry about the denial of hall-marked visas and the surgical strike on the workforce to reduce foreign skill and the loss of face of the returnees back at home, catapulted Imaginch on another unproductive quest. He did not understand why the so-called developed nations fail to foresee the reactions that will visit them out of their own ill-advised actions. The first sized European nations and continent-spanning country, bleeding from self-inflicted wounds are themselves the reason.  When unchecked immigrants choke their throats, they belatedly shut one door and opened another. 

The door that got closed will cost them billions per year. The international students shut down their ATMs that was bank rolling academic institutions and augmenting helping hands in business establishments. The door that they opened is by way of toeing the tariff footprint in procrastination. The choke holds what they wanted to apply on other passive nations will turn back to choke them economically. Both the doors left the businesses gasping for air and walking with crutches.! 

Why don’t nations operate under logic rather than discrimination? Utterly defeated in his quest to straighten the world order with a few words, Imaginch took a deep breath and closed the file as a foolish attempt. 

Why photon does not get tired even after travelling, at the speed of light and for billions of years? What will happen when they really get tired?

Even for a bright bulb (required to emit photons), Mr. Einstein’s interwoven space and time is a far-fetched concept. He managed to bend and wrap Imaginch’s mind in confusion with the theory “At the speed of light, time dilates (slows down), length contracts(decreases) and mass increases all conspiring to keep the speed of light a constant”.

Then, he tried to emulate Einstein and did a thought experiment. A photon having no mass, travelling at the speed of light (299,792,458 m/s) did not get tired, because from its reference frame it experiences an extreme time dilation, to reach its destination instantly. Hence has no time even to register its tiredness! Imaginch not being a photon became dog tired during his thought experiment and did not have the energy to read that article again! 

If and if, earth decided to take exactly 24 hours, not a second more or less, to complete one rotation what would happen?

He needed help from someone who had understood the implications. Imaginch simply nodded his head in confusion but remembered whatever was explained. “The sun rise and sun set will not be in the morning and evening. A new cycle will be established that also will change in a cyclic manner, such as midday sun rise and midnight sun set and so on.  A mere four-minute increase could throw our life permanently out of gear”. Feeling frightened, he started to worry about his life at this point. 

Disbelief and curiosity still hammering around the walls of his brain, he raised the white flag. In defeat of his fruitless and unproductive pursuits, he sent out an appeal for help. "I hope it will not be too much of an ask, if anyone of you could clear all my queries at your convenient time, dispassionately and logically. Keeping this in mind, I will wait in anticipation." 

Wait he did. Number of people responded with their own list of unproductive pursuits that they have carried out, unsuccessfully. Equal number of people replied with suggestions for him to consult a psychic or clairvoyant for a séance to ascertain his mental health. Apologetically, they admitted that whatever names of psychic or clairvoyant, they wished to suggest, are no more in this world and their whereabouts unknown to them. 

In the pile of letters, one of the envelop was looking different in size, texture and colour. With unbridled curiosity, Imaginch opened it and withdrew an equally different in size, texture and coloured sheet with foldings and creases perfectly done with care. In a calligraphic style lettering, the note advised him to visit a famous psychiatrist in the city. Thoughtfully the writer had furnished the address, contact phone number with e-mail particulars. 

Master in the field of unproductive quests, Imaginch locked the letter in a safe, planning to take it out when no other unproductive quest demanded his immediate attention!

ChintaMany's beefs: -318-

 “If everyone’s missed this one, then there could be many more that everyone’s missed as well.” After reading this sentence, ChintaMany started thinking where these thoughts might fit in his scheme of worries, anger, desperation or any other strong feeling about any other thing. As if to pod him into action, certain news items cried for his attention.  

A volcano of anger erupted in ChintaMany's mind. Day in and day out, he has been watching and reading about this one lot -of- no-good-doers getting exposure as if they are supernatural beings rivalling the rocky interstellar visitors. The abysmal depth to which the world has fallen to give these warts a halo of glory, worried him. 

As is his habit, ChintaMany boils over first and then checks if the fire is properly lit or not. It took time and patience to understand why is he erupting and where he wants to divert the flow of lava? As he has never failed them, his friends have secretly honoured him with this acronym - AFATLER (act first and think later). 

What are his beefs?  

Somewhere an ordinary citizen gets fatally knocked down on the road by a speeding vehicle or an inebriated person behind the wheel. It definitely did not deserve much more space than two or three paragraphs or a 5 second clip buried under tons of advertisements. This had happened on the pedestrian walkway and in broad day light did not appall the minds behind the media. 

His next target the notorious people getting outrageous publicity.  A gang operating from a ‘mulable’ geographical strip, abutting two or three national borders becomes labelled as an international entity. More their illegal activities like smuggling drugs, arms or humans more the publicity they get. He considers this as an act to egg them on to aim for greater notoriety, with impunity. Achieving greater notoriety, these individuals/groups get mentioned in the UN and if lucky get ‘sanctioned’. The poor human ‘mules’ don’t get as much publicity, leaving the animal kind to wonder what this is all about 

ChintaMany’s issue is not with what businesses they engage themselves in, but with the ego boost given to these no-good-doers by the free-of-cost publicity in print and electronic media. This bothered him. He is boiling over because in a way these media outlets act as a beacon helping them to increase their reach to haul in more and more customers. Media accounts pay scant attention to highlight the miseries heaped on the passive public. As if to ease the burden of conscience a few investigative journalists attempt to expose and vanish without a trace. Media keeps mum, why? 

How the publicity part of it starts? It rests on the premise “the public should know or wants to know.” A rowdy sheeter is apprehended and soon his exploits along with his photograph, gets splashed(print) and flashed (electronic).  Is this to unmask the culprit or to frighten the public?  He has another beef with the apprehending agencies to which he would come a little later. 

A drug smuggler is caught red handed with a load of banned items ready for distribution. What happens next? Cameras click, microphones capture sound-bytes and braving a stampede among themselves, the reporters rush to send home the ‘treasure’ for wide dissemination. All in true public spirit! In their hurry the reporters missed the opportunity to interview the smuggler about his modus operandi. No problem, they will make it up with 'an operative of an international ring or bangle' tag. 

A counterfeiter lands in custody with freshly printed currency bundles. Apprehending agencies deem it a good photo op and pose with the cache, thoughtfully allowing the criminal to hide his face behind a mask. Why should a counterfeiter get this privilege? Is the apprehended such a valuable ‘statue’ to be kept covered before inauguration? 

In the case of human trafficking, the rings history, modus operandi, payment modes and other unwanted information is brought to the public almost painting this act as a heroic exploit. ChintaMany had a double beef- one for the painting on the offenders and the second for not painting the gruesome picture on the sufferers. 

The drama ‘heist gone awry' ends in an anti-climax, when their getaway vehicle is flagged down for a traffic violation! The heist gang do not mind posing for a quick 'click' wearing the supplied hoods, before being bundled into a police van.

ChintaMany had a few doubts on this ‘heist gone awry’ episode. How the police van came to the scene so fast and was that a roving reporter who clicked the heisters and who was playing into whose hands? 

The same drama unfolds whenever an apprehended criminal is brought into a court. ChintaMany's beef is why should the public not get a glimpse of a criminal? Whom are they shielding, the public or the criminal? 

Why should words like king and lord are dishonoured by associating them with a ‘pin’ and a ‘drug’, to describe criminals as kingpin and drug lord? Is this not a perfidy on the language to confer such noble titles on notorious persons? The pity is the agencies have to rope in the silent mule, both human and animal, as essential elements, to describe the elaborate networking. 

ChintaMany’s biggest beef comes next. What harm the innocent collar has wrought on the society, to contribute to the vocabulary to list the crimes committed by persons from different walks of life- as "white collar" "Green collar", "Brown collar”, “Blue collar" and so on? Has the literate society given up its hope of finding other suitable descriptive words?  Why do they have beefs with kings and lords? 

A notorious arms dealer, a merchant of death, who thumbs his nose at the society and law enforcements might become the Merchant of Vengeance (R.I.P William Shakespear). The master mind of theft, architect of terror gets eulogised, in absentia if he had gone underground or feigned untraceable though he regularly holds ‘court’ in public glare. Why is he untraceable? 

When a passerby is killed, individuals and banks lose money, innocent people are subjected to terror, drugs and illegal arms trade, why are the perpetrators allowed to hide behind a hood, obviously not out of shame?

With readership and viewership in mind, is the media opting to bury sensibilities in the name of sensational coverages? Why on their part, the public should look for sensational coverages? Is it as an antidote to boost the quality of humdrum existence, as long as it covers others' plight? 

Free speech is taken for granted to utter thoughts inimical to the wellbeing of the nation. No doubt, everyone has an issue, if one is unable to solve it or live with it, why not migrate to a country where your free speeches are welcome? News outlets falling prey to sensationalism or bias, pour out words and visuals to elevate these voices to the status of freedom fighters. The true freedom fighters fought for everyone and this pseudo freedom fighters fight for a few.  Why politicians have the Midas touch - start dirt poor and end up owning mountains. Are they the standing example (they contest elections) for starting from scratch…

The fortunate ones build a retirement corpus and grumble about its insufficiency. The poor, who has nightmares about earning money for the day never gets to dream about a retirement plan. How to describe this mindset - as “buttoned up collar” crime? 

In the end, a question mark stood before ChintaMany. Why is he ranting at things and really what is his beef with these beefs?