Price

Time for a single exercise. I'm sure none of the readers possess a footlong ruler anymore (though their siblings or children might); even if you don't, I'm sure you know what it looks like, and how long it was.

This is what it used to look like. Quite intriguingly, it still looks the very same. One plastic ruler, twelve inches, about three inches longer than the usual lie spoken by the masculine gender.

Step two: take another ruler. Of course, I know no sane house contains more than one footlong ruler. Hence, use your fertile imagination (unless you're too inclined to beg, borrow or steal one); once you've managed to acquire them, place them in this fashion:

Now you've managed to acquire an L-shaped absurdity, comprising of two rulers, placed orthogonally to each other. Yes, I know this looks weird, but haven't we done weirder things in our moments of madness?

Step three: take two more rulers. Yes, I know I'm insane. But then, I really count on your imagination. I really do. Once you've stretched your vision to an unprecedented stage or have actually purchased four rulers and successfully convinced all and sundry that you're not insane, place them to form a square:

Now you're ready for the final part. Even if you have not been able to form this bizarre figure for reasons, logistic or otherwise, you can definitely form an idea of what this looks like. You also have a fair idea about how big it is - why, even one of the tiles in your room might be of the same size!

Concentrate on the size now. On the inside. Consider it to be a somewhat innocuous square bit of place, somewhere in the second-most populated country in the third planet of the solar system. Focus on the square. Hard.

This bit of land can cost - 158,773 rupees (http://www.xe.com is possibly the best website for currency conversions). This chunk of earth.

Don't believe me? Check this out. And do the calculations. 2,048 square metres is roughly 22,044 square feet.

Now, where's that Sorbitrate?