Talent and Intelligence
In the last post, I argued that how hard we work has nothing much to do with how much reward we should reap. After all, there are taxi drivers who work longer and harder, and even more unfortunate...
View ArticleIf Time Died Now, I Would Be Happy
I dream strange dreams. Thankfully, I don’t usually remember them. But at times, I do remember some, and they provide a lot of entertainment. One recent dream was of a TV interview, going on in a mall....
View ArticlePhilosophy of Money
Money is a strange thing. It is quite unlike any other “thing” that we know. Its value manifests itself only in a social context where we have pre-agreed conventions as to what it should be. In this...
View ArticleThe Ultra Rich
Let’s first take a look at how people make money. Loads of it. Apparently, it is one of the most frequently searched phrases in Google, and the results usually attempt to separate you from your cash...
View ArticleMoney — Why do We Crave it?
Given that the investment value is also measured and returned in terms of money, we get the notion of compound interest and “putting money to work.” Those who have money demand returns based on the...
View ArticleMoney — Love it or Hate it
Whatever its raison-d’etre may be, there is a need for more, and an unquenchable greed. And paradoxically, if you want to try to quench a bit of your greed, the best way to do it is to fan the greed in...
View ArticleOffice Email Wars
Email has revolutionized corporate communication in the last decade. Most of its impact has been positive. An email from the big boss to all@yourcompany, for instance, is a fair substitute for a...
View ArticleSophistication
Sophistication is a French invention. The French are masters when it comes to nurturing, and more importantly, selling sophistication. Think of some expensive (and therefore classy) brands. Chances are...
View ArticleAn Office Survival Guide
Let’s face it — people job hop. They do it for a host of reasons, be it better job scope, nicer boss, and most frequently, fatter paycheck. The grass is often greener on the other side. Really. Whether...
View ArticleMy First Car and My First Ticket
I bought my first car from an Iranian girl called Sherine for $350. This was in Syracuse, NY of the late eighties. By the act of buying, the car became mine, of course; but I still used to call it...
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A Chess Game
When I was a teenager, I used to be pretty good at chess. The highlight of my amateur chess career was in the late eighties when I beat Manuel Aaron, the nine-time Indian national champion and India’s...
View ArticleA Parker Pen from Singapore
During the early part of the last century, there was significant migration of Chinese and Indians to Singapore. Most of the migrants of Indian origin were ethnic Tamils, which is why Tamil is an...
View ArticleIoanna’s Aisles
During my graduate school years at Syracuse, I used to know Ioanna — a Greek girl of sweet disposition and inexplicable hair. When I met her, she had just moved from her native land of Crete and was...
View ArticleA Crazy Language
This crazy language, English, is the most widely used language in the history of our planet. One in every seven humans can speak it. More than half of the world’s books and three quarters of...
View ArticleEnglish as the Official Language of Europe
The European Union commissioners have announced that agreement has been reached to adopt English as the preferred language for European communications, rather than German, which was the other...
View ArticleBelle Piece
Here is a French joke that is funny only in French. I present it here as a puzzle to my English-speaking readers. This colonel in the French army was in the restroom. As he was midway through the...
View ArticleAccents
Indians pronounce the word “poem” as poyem. Today, my daughter wrote one for her friend’s birthday and she told me about her “poyem”. So I corrected her and asked her to say it as po-em, despite the...
View ArticleEverything and Nothing
I once attended a spiritual self-help kind of course. Toward the end of the course, there was this exercise where the teacher would ask the question, “What are you?” Whatever answer the participant...
View ArticleSpeak Your Language
The French are famous for their fierce attachment to their language. I got a taste of this attachment long time ago when I was in France. I had been there for a couple of years, and my French skills...
View ArticleRidiculous, Annoying and Embarrassing
Now it is official – we become embarrassing, ridiculous and annoying when our first-born turns thirteen. The best we can hope to do, evidently, is to negotiate a better deal. If we can get our thirteen...
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