What does 'merit' really mean? And does it relate to investing?

In investing, as in life, we should attain clarity on whether our skills or our luck gave us success

- DEVINA MEHRA

A couple of months ago, I was at the British Museum, and besides pondering what would be left if everything in its halls that was looted from the rest of the world was returned (pretty much nothing), I had to contemplate something else as well.

There I was, queuing up for the ladies' room and the line went from right outside the door up about one-and-a-half flights of stairs. There were 52 women waiting (yeah, I counted). Next to the ladies' was the gents' and the men were just strolling in and out—there was no wait at all.

And this is not an outlier situation. This is the case pretty much in every public place in every country.

What does this say about fairness and equality? It could well be that similarly sized spaces were allotted for both the men's and women's toilets, but then how do we end up with these unequal and frankly unfair waiting times?

Here are some reasons. Obviously, urinals take up less space than stalls. Then there's the fact that women's physiology and clothing require more time to manoeuvre, making the whole process more time-consuming than for men. Not to mention that a certain number of women will be pregnant or on their period and are more likely to be looking after children or elders. That pushes the average turnaround time up even further. All of these result in the mind-bogglingly unequal waiting times we see in such places.