obtuse angle

A recent news item caught my eyes. A very rich person in India has splashed money like anything to send his daughter to a British University. He has bought a palatial mansion for about 10 crores (just for her stay). He has employed about 12 dedicated staff to assist her in her daily chores. A chef, some people to serve her, a gardener, chauffeurs and the like... Their monthly pay will add up to around 25 lakhs. Not to speak of the other routine monthly expenditure.... I cannot desist myself from knowing the frugal ways of some extremely rich multi-billionaires in the world. Take for example, Warren Buffet, the investment mogul well-known the world over. He still lives in a modest house bought in 1958 (almost 60 years now). He drives his Cadillac (a simple model), whereas he can afford a fleet of the most expensive cars of the world. And the best part is that he has pledged the majority of his wealth to charity. He is neither a miser nor a spendthrift. Bequeathed most of his wealth f...

Knowledge is one's understanding of facts and information about something or someone and it can be acquired by education and experience. Wisdom means, 'the quality of having experience, knowledge and good judgement'. Knowledge alone is not enough and for that matter neither experience alone will do. The world has seen many wise men in its history. They have taken the right decisions at the right moments. There is a huge difference between having knowledge and being wise. King Solomon witnessed a case in his court. Two ladies claimed to be the mother of a baby! How could that be? King Solomon ordered the baby to be brought to the court. In a wise move, to find the real mother, he ordered the baby to be cut into two halves and each half given to the two ladies. The court was stunned! One of the ladies stood nonchalantly and the other lady started crying. It was obvious to Solomon that the lady who cried and begged 'not to cut the baby; rather give the baby to the other...

It was the time the transition from 'British to Metric' system was being implemented. The conversion from 'pound' to 'kilogram', 'gallon' to 'liter', 'mile' to 'kilometer' was not easy, to say the least... The current system of currency and coins (decimalized) was also introduced that time (1957). Earlier it was all 'anna' and 'paisa'. Sixteen annas make one rupee and each anna comprises of 4 paisa. A 1/4 anna coin (1 paisa) was very much in use, which was 1/64th of a rupee. That could buy something substantial! Though most of the measures are mentioned in 'metric' system now, still we see the common usage of British units in some areas. The construction drawings might show the distances in meters but in the brackets you would see the distance written in 'feet'. Even now most of the construction field staff can easily visualize the distance in feet only. For them, that comes naturally. The ship...

Do you graze through the newspaper or news portal every day? You will definitely stumble upon some news showing someone getting cheated. There are innumerable ways in which one gets cheated..... Innovation at its best! In most of the cases, if you analyze, the victim invites the perpetrator of the crime to inflict the damage on him/her. Recently I read a news that a 59 year old man cheated around 35 ladies (in the age group of 45) and ran away with their cash and jewelry. His modus operandi is to contact the gullible ladies (mostly widows or divorcees) through newspaper ads informing that he is a divorcee and a businessman earning handsomely and wanting to remarry and settle in life. He then establishes contact with the applicant over phone and judges her naivety, meets her in person and promises to marry. He then informs (depending on his judgement of the lady) that he needs some money/jewelry for making marriage arrangements, as his money is tied up in business. He catches the fis...