Opportunity Cost

If you were a student of Economics, you know the term “Opportunity Cost”. It has been brought up time and again in the course of Economics, and a very true fact it is. In microeconomic theory, the opportunity cost of a choice is the value of the best alternative forgone where, given limited resources, a choice needs to be made between several mutually exclusive alternatives. Rather, simply said, Opportunity cost is the potential forgone profit from a missed opportunity—the result of choosing one alternative and forgoing another. I think it was in high school when I was first introduced to this concept. Little did I realize at the time, that this term could also be applied to life.

My Economics teacher might or might not be proud to hear that all of this came back to me recently. We were watching the popular movie “Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani”. There is this scene when the characters Kabir and Naina are exploring the beautiful, historic city of Udaipur. Kabir has a full list of places to go in Udaipur and he is determined to check everything off the place. This is why when Naina wants to stay and watch the sunset, he says that they only have today and they need to do everything by today. I’m sure if you’ve watched this movie, you are familiar with this scene. But then, Naina says to Kabir : “You cannot be everywhere in life, you have to let go of somethings, so embrace and enjoy where you are in the moment.” Such a simple line, yet a deep meaning, isn’t it? And the very truth of it. This is true in all of our lives, too. We only get so much time to do everything we want. Sometimes 24 hours fall short in a day, because there is so much to do. But there is only one of you, and you have to make choices in the one life you get. Make the most of the choices that you are making. My restless mind somehow related this with opportunity cost. Here, whatever Kabir had planned in the list was the opportunity cost that they had to let go to stay and enjoy the beautiful sunset, isn’t it?

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