September 19, 2018 Wednesday
Bedtime story
The Frair
Leonardo da Vinci was a Universal Genius.
Both Leonardo and Luca Pacioli hailed from
the Republic of Florence (there was no Italy then as there was no such political
entity as India back then).
Luca Pacioli though an innate mathematician
was for all practical purposes a friar albeit an educated one.
We all have a vague idea about monks and we
relate them to Buddhism, the kind of people who have forsaken the materialistic
world and retreated to ashrams praying and contemplating the entire day leading
a very austere and celibate life.
So how does a friar differ from a monk if
at all?
Well, what is common to both is that both
agree by choice to live a life of frugality and asceticism (which I would
recommend in general to everybody though understandably in relative terms) and
probably in prayer and contemplation of some undefined stuff.
It is my personal argument that frugality
need not be limited to just these men who exist on the fringes of human social life
(though from the history of Hindu Godmen one would hardly connect austerity and
frugality to them).
You would be surprised to know that that
large industries and corporations consider frugality as a strategic imperative
for growth and survival in the competitive market.
Frugality in modern economic sense is
defined as thriftiness in the consumption of consumable resources such as food,
time and money.
Frugality by default includes practice of
self-discipline thereby consciously avoiding waste, lavishness and
extravagance.
The practitioners of frugality demonstrate
certain behavioral traits very consistently in their day to day lives without
ever overtly stating or emphasizing them.
Such behavioral traits include fiscal
self-restraint, avoiding social traps (such as throwing fancy and lavish
parties), defying expensive social norms (such as expensive ostentatious fat weddings
that bring ruin upon so many Hindu farmers driving them to irrecoverable debts
and eventually to suicides), detecting and avoiding advertising which are
inherently manipulative and often false and most crucially staying
well-informed about local circumstances, laws and markets.
The practice of frugality demands that its
practitioner stays knowledgeable and skeptical of “expert” knowledge of market
gurus, financial consultants and advisers and to some extent even doctors and
lawyers.
Religions at their inception always
advocate frugality which eventually degenerates over time into conspicuous
display of religious insanity and inanity.
All religions are guilty of this
misdemeanor for their high priests, monks and friars are after all evolved
human apes that came out of African savannahs and who all have the same
cravings to climb up the social ladder.
Any why climb up the social ladder?
Stay tuned to the voice of an average story storytelling
chimpanzee or login at http://panarrans.blogspot.com
Good night Mon Ami and my fellow cousin ape.
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Another great educator and a teacher that I am aware of is
Professor Subhashish Chattopadhyay in Bangalore, India.
While I narrate stories, Professor Subhashish an electronic
engineer and a former professor at BARC, does and teaches real mathematics and
physics.
He started the participation of Indian students at the
International Physics Olympiad.
Do visit him here:
All his books can be downloaded for free through this link:
For edutainment and English education of your children, I
recommend this large collection of Halloween Songs for Kids:
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