Self Worth

After my PhD from IISc, I was to go to University of Tokyo for my post-doctoral work. The professor who had examined my thesis had recommended me for the JSPS Fellowship awarded by the Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of Japan. After having learnt that I will be going to Japan (very unusual), I began to collect information on Japan. Would like you to visualize the difficulty because it was before the search engines and internet made their presence.
One such data point that I collected and one that was reinforced by all, including my knowledge of geography), was the fact that it is a land of earthquakes and that it could happen anytime. Little did anyone know of the advancements that Japan has made in this regard!!
This had raised enough of concern in me that I decided to insure my life before leaving for Japan. Accordingly, I met a LIC agent and took an endowment policy for RS. 50,000/- and paid the first premium and informed my husband that he should pay the second premium without any delay. At that point of time, I thought it was a large amount and was even convinced that it would be useful to my family, in case something happens to me while at Japan.
A few days, later, just before the final departure to Japan, I received the health and life insurance offered to me by the government of Japan as part of the fellowship. I casually gazed through the pages and stopped at a figure that took me some time to comprehend. I could not believe my eyes when I learnt that the Government of Japan had insured my life for 3 crores ( do not remember if it was in Rupees or in Yen, either way it is a large amount). It took me a while to understand the whole concept behind insuring one’s life because I was not convinced with that figure as I thought it was too much for someone like me who had no explicit value. I did not have a job and earned nothing and so had seen myself only as a liability and not as an asset.
But that number kept haunting me and I somehow started believing that the probability of imminent death was proportionally high. Little did I understand the insurance business, those days!!!!