Technological advances in the past 25 years have reduced information access time from days/hours to seconds. However, our ability to process this information has not changed much and if anything, has only decreased due to an information-excess. Yes, most of us are addicted and slowly drowning in information that we practically have no use for. …

A few years ago, I overheard some lab staff talking. A middle-aged person, soon to retire, was talking about the preparations for his daughter’s upcoming marriage. His aim was to outdo the reception arrangements he had observed in a recent marriage. I was invited to the event and found that it was extremely lavish for the…

Nearly 11 years ago, I sat down to face my IIT, Madras faculty interview. One of the faculty members who I knew from my student days sat beside me as he was waiting for his promotion interview. When he found out that was a particularly troubled time for me he said, “Pattu, I am glad that…

If you click on “images” after searching for “medicine side effects”, you will notice a t-shirt with a message that goes, “I take medication for diabetes which is a side-effect from my high BP which I got from taking sleeping tablets due to insomnia caused by anxiety which I got from a tablet given for…

A napkin drawing is a rough sketch drawn to effectively communicate an idea. It is called a napkin drawing or a back-of-the-envelope sketch because it can be done anywhere. Carl Richard’s napkin drawings are famous and he is an inspiration for me to attempt the same. A visual representation of a complex fact can be quite convincing….

Dear friend, can we please take a moment to recognise that the art of doing nothing is dead? We are no longer capable of sitting still for a short while without reaching for our mobile phones, computer, or the television. The art of idling has breathed its last and perhaps the end began as much as…

Albert Einstein is supposed to have said,  “The more I learn, the more I realize how much I don’t know.”. Aristotle is also credited with a similar quote. Applied to what I do at freefincal, that quote would read as, “The more I stare at Excel sheets, the more I realize their limitations”. Here is a…

“Schools suck, the system sucks, everyone sucks”. Sounds familiar? You may have probably said at some point in your life – perhaps as a parent, perhaps as a student and perhaps as a teacher!! A discussion on why homeschooling is essential for every child, whether they go to school or not! Before we begin, a…

I describe my lessons from losing weight, gaining it back and losing it again! I have always had a problem with my weight. Thankfully I also had a metabolism that instantly responded to lifestyle changes. So in my case, it was a matter of whether I ate right or not. This is unfortunately not the case…

The other day, my 6.5 year old asked my wife, “mama when will I get married?”. Surprised, she quickly collected herself and said, “first, you need to finish school, get a college degree (or two or ahem .. three!), get a job and then you can get married”. To this, he replied, “Okay, then I…

I often wonder about who is a teacher? Or what defines a good teacher. People often expect a teacher to inspire and motivate. How exactly does a teacher do that? A teacher without passion can suck out the soul and spirit of eager young minds much like a dementor in the Harry Potter stories. Unfortunately, many join up as teachers because…

Emotional spending refers to the instinctive disbursal of money and time at the cost of physical and/or financial health. Decisions are made in order to “feel better” without thinking about consequences. Without sitting in judgement on whether this is a good or bad, here are some thoughts on the subject. It is fashionable to say that…

My family has had more than its fair share of interaction with the medical community. In this post, I list some of our most important learnings. Trust is the most important ingredient in the doctor-patient relationship and in spite of all that has happened to us, we still manage to trust our doctors, but not blindly….

Here are some common misconceptions about frugality and frugal folk. What is frugality? Wikipedia makes a wonderful reference to a behavioural science research paper titled, “Lifestyle of the Tight and Frugal: Theory and Measurement” The authors state, “Frugality is conceptualised as a lifestyle trait reflecting disciplined acquisition and resourcefulness in product and service use. Frugality…

‘Price discovery’ refers to the way in which the market arrives at a price for a commodity driven by supply and demand. The government is gradually moving towards a regime of 100% price discovery. That is, interests rates will be marked to market. I think it is high time we promote price discovery of our college…