FWIW, I first learned about radio and electronics from an ex-royal! When in the fourth grade I started taking apart radios and breaking them, my father took me,

FWIW, I first learned about radio and electronics from an ex-royal! When in the fourth grade I started taking apart radios and breaking them, my father took me, along with the broken radio, to the local radio repair place (that may have been the only one at the time in Ahmedabad, India). The owner was an old man of 70 or so. He taught me the very basic stuff and helped me build a crystal radio and soon I graduated to building fancier stuff! Everyone called him Bapu (father). Later on I learned he was a prince from a small princely state in the Western Gujarat. India forcibly merged all 500+ such principalities in the Union once it became independent. These princes had a "princely purse", a govt allowance, to maintain their status for a while but that ended in 1956. Bapu had a degree in radio and electronics from UK so he set up the repair shop which happened to be within the walking distance from my home. When I met him he had no royal airs; he was more like a kindly grandfather who had infinite patience for a skinny undisciplined but inquisitive kid!