I was recently watching the movie Gandhi- the one you and I have seen every other year on either of the Independance or Republic Day. Now, though that movie has a lot of things to talk about; my attention, this particular time fell on the speech that M.K.Gandhi makes sometime when he was visiting (or beginning to visit?) India on a massive scale. It is a pretty inspiring speech. What came to my mind was this - why have I not heard/read this anywhere else... on blogs, websites, those forwarded mails, or for that matter, in any patriotic editorial in Slimes of India?

No I won't call this "shameful", nor blasphemous, nor even disrespectful/forgetful of the Mahatma. And while we are on it, I am not even arguing about whether he was a Mahatma at all or not.

What I ask is simple - these words are important for India. They were important back then, and they are equally important now, if not more. Since I haven't seen anyone quote this anywhere, I took the pains to note down the speech, and am putting it down here. If you consider this worth the while, put it up on your blog/webpage as well, and propagate this.. increasing awareness among people is the best I think we bloggers can do. Written word can never replace speech, I acknowledge my failure in being able to bring out the passion and fervor which the man had when he spoke this. The speech follows -

"Since I returned from South Africa, I have travelled over much of India and I know that I could travel for many more years and still only see a small part of her. And yet, I already know that what we say here means nothing to the masses of our country.Here we make speeches for each other, and those english liberal magazines that may grant us a few lines.

But the people of India, are untouched. Their politics are confined to bread, and salt. Illiterate they may be, but they are not blind, they see no reason to give their loyalty to rich & powerful men who simply want to take over the role of the british, in the name of freedom. This congress tells the world - it represents India. My brothers, India is 700 thousand villages, not a few hundred lawers in Delhi & Bombay. Until we stand in the field with the millions that toil each day under the hot sun, we will not represent India. Nor will we ever be able to challenge the british - as one nation."

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Puzzle o da day -

Last one is yet to be touched.

It was an average day today. Had mom dad call me up at 7:15 in the morning.. and inspite of my telling them a quardrazillion times not to call me at that time, the message simply fails to carry upto them. So I ended up being all grumpy to them in the morning itself.

Talked to dad about 1-2 hours back to sortof make up for the 'bad behaviour' in the morning. And though there were no explicit apologies from my side (you see the overinflated ego?); the call essentially conveyed the same message.

Why is it that mom-dad are always able to read what exactly is in your mind. I distinctly remember when I was scared to shit because of some exam results - was sitting at the breakfast table, and was almost on the verge of tears, but under control. It took just one look for mom to say,"Kya hua? Beta, are you ok?" and I started weeping like anything..

I love them ... but then again.. there are times when they piss me off real bad.. what is it with this parent children relationship?

In fact, what is the matter with all relationships! Why are they so complicated :(

I never call relatives - I wait for people to call me up. Yesterday night a very close cousin brother called me up and somewhere in the conversation, asked me "Whats the matter with you..? You have changed.." I guess I gotta change again, for the better now. I just want one thing out of my way first... then ... hopefully everything will be back in its place ..

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Puzzle o' da day :

You got a 4X4 grid, each grid square contains a number.. the sum of squares adjacent to any square equals to one. (Adjacent = squares sharing a side with the square under consideration). Hence the number of adjacent squares in the above case can vary from 2 to 4. Now find all the numbers.

Alternately, can you give a generic solution to this, for a nXn grid?

I gotta go to a Bday party today, which is being thrown for the 3rd (or 4th?) day for 2 kids. I have absolutely no idea what to get for them. It's a choice between a box of chocolates or some toys that I randomly pick off some store. But then again, that pair isn't gonna remember anything anyway, as for the parents, hmm.. I'd have to remove my name tag from the gift, and then who cares what I got for them.

Lets see... I'll do what I feel like when I step out for the shopping.

My nokia's balance is nil again... this love-bug is a cash eating machine.. :( .. At least I don't have the issue of going on dates .. but when I move to her town.. omg.. I'd really need to either 1) Rob a bank, 2) Maim myself and claim insurance 3) Ask her for an advance on the dowry ;) or 4) Make friends in some place where we can end up eating for free. Giving an account of expenditures is difficult these days, when I have to accomodate for thousands in "Pizza orders" :)

I failed to mention in my last post.. Poor ol' Matt is survived by Mrs. Matt and 3 kids, who are clinging to each other behind my ceiling fan.. and start shuddering, stuttering and shivering whenever I give them a glance. Poor family, and devilish me.. How bad is it to deprive a family of its breadwinner?

Please don't consider me to be a sadistic spider slayer. I happen to hate bugs, but otherwise am a pretty soft hearted and kind person. I love dogs. And she-dogs too :) .. and of course, who doesn't love puppies?
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Puzzle o da day:

A classteacher caught 10 students cheating in his exam, and decided an innovative way to give them punishment - and avoid getting punished.

He made them sit behind one another, in a straight line, all facing one way, and put a hat on top of each of them. The hats were coloured white or black. The guys couldn't see which color hat they were wearing, nor could they look behind. But they could see all the hats in front of them. The teacher put a random combination of blacks and whites, the only constraint being that the total number of hats was 10. It could be all white or all black too. Now, starting from the guy sitting at the back, he started questioning each the colour of his hat... if he was correct, he was allowed to pass, or else he was murdered until he died :)

Given that the guys had time to plan a strategy, what is the maximum number of guys that you can save, and what is the strategy?

John says : Try saving 7 and when u do that try saving 9. I have a 50% probability on saving all the 10 :)

It was just another morning for Matt, who was relishing his morning breakfast, the leftovers of last night which were so delicious that he did not want to let them go.

As he was gobbling away, Matt recollected the hell of a trouble he had to go through to lay his hands on this one.... His prize catch of the millenium. Matt's abode was almost idyllic - his neighbour, John, very rarely interfered with Matt's business and Matt didn't bother John as well, it was just sometimes when Matt was really feeling like it, he'd hang around when John was trying to watch a movie and disturb him. John almost felt like he would swat him then and there... but then again, restrained himself.

Things between the two of them had been going pretty smooth. Today morning, while Matt was busy with his breakfast and John was snoring, someone knocked on John's door.

"Sir, do you want to get your room cleaned?"

'A regular feature.. it'll pass', thought Matt as he overheard the question, 'That Johnny boy couldn't care less.'

Meanwhile, John, who was the least interested in getting his room cleaned, tried to concentrate on something else; but people outside were insistent...

"Saaaar....", shouted someone from outside.

'Damn.', said John.
"Dampff", muttered Matt from his half filled mouth.

Matt watched helplessly, yet hopefully as John slowly opened the door... looked at the cleaners and said, realizing Matt's worst fears,"Well, you may clean-up those cob-webs up there"

Things went so fast after that, it was almost like a tidal wave. Time flashed past before Matt, and even before he could realise, his house, the thing he had made with such love, was drifting away, swept away with a Mohini Brand Broom.

"No time for emotions," thought Matt as he scampered across the table he had fallen on during this catastrophe,"I'd better get someplace safe". It was too late when he finally noticed it coming, and when the slipper hit the table, his pleas of mercy were muffled by the bang which is inevitably generated when a slipper hits a table...
Matt, was gone and so were Percy, Tom, Junkey and Fido.

Good morning world - My room is cob web free since today morning. Let's pray for the departed souls.
An image of what dear Matt looked like
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Puzzle o' da day:
No puzzle today, it's too early, the last puzzle should do.

More water has flown under the proverbial bridge this week, here's an update.
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I am waiting desperately to watch the start of the Formula 1 Season with the Australian Grand Prix, which I have been following religiously since 98.. the rise of schumacher .. and this season has one added attraction, which will generate more Indian F1 enthusiasts - Narain K. The chap has the potential to make it big, though I doubted whether he would ever be able to make it into the big league - F1 that is. Whether he is able to make it into the big league of F1 is yet to be seen.

Watched quite a few movies this week, am planning on burning my own pirated version of Le Fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain. It's one of my all time favourites. And the soundtrack's wayyy too impressive. Soft music, the instrument thats important is that Harmonica thingy people wear on their shoulders. The one that was used in Amar,Akbar,Anthony and in that song "Jeena Yahan, Marna Yahan" by Raj Kapoor in Mera Naam Joker. It's a harmonica or what is it?

Also watched The Usual Suspects - and came to know that the villain (who is played by Kevin Spacey) was self christened Johnathan Doe in Se7en, funny - isn't it?

She was on the idiot box yesternite and made me sit and watch the whole 1 hour talk show, just because she asked a question in the end, and the camera was pointed at her. I made a lot of fun of her today morning .. about the silly smile she gave after she asked her Q. :)

Been doing a lot of work since the past three days, and when that was reported to dad, he was way to happy to see his lazy, lax, stubborn and intelligent son get back to work.. I hope this dumb project gets finished soon, I am dead tired of working and debugging the same thing over and over again.

Thats about it for this week, Di - remind me to update before a week gets over :P. I almost neglect this blog of mine.. got too many blogs to handle :(

Puzzle for today :

Open ended Equations- I guess regular puzzlers must've come across these some time
It's like this 24H in a D means "24 hours in a day". 5 F in a H means "5 fingers in a hand". There may or may not be unique solutions to these, I invite more and more creative solutions to the following :

# 9 L of a C
# 18 H in a GC
# 212 BP of W in F
# 6 B in an O in C
# 14 L in a S
# 32 P in a G of C
# 57 Y have passed since the I of I

Solutions will be provided in a weeks time

This has been a long hiatus, almost a week since I posted last .. bet my miniscule readership must not have been missing me :D .. anyway.... dad came over for a surprise visit.. and found me dozing off in the bed... (thankfully not clinging to a booze bottle or a sleazy magazine :) ) .. anyway.. that was a pretty shocking morning..

Had to take him out immediately (and sneak into the neighbours room to inform him of the sudden *red alert*). Incidentally, there is a red alert protocol in place .. the person on whom the d-day has arrived, takes his parent's out, at least for an hour or two, while wingmates remove all traces of any shady stuff possible around, from the unfortunate guys room,.from his computer *wink*, and from all other accessible places. So essentially, when my D-day arrived, people were removing bottles of vodka all around the place, a few cigarette butts under my bed (which incidentally were not lit by me :( ). and pressing the delete key on an entire partition of my HDD :)

The last 3-4 days were spent exclusively with him, showing him places, and roaming about generally. He apparently had some meeting which got over 2 days early .. why the hell are some people so bloody efficient? :)

And to top it all, I had a Val day card in my room, not the one my gal sent me .. but the one I WAS supposed to send!!! ... Now, somehow I managed to sneak it into my bag, where the card stayed for the whole time, but I am going to be screwed by her, who will recieve her V day card tomorrow.

Enough of the past few days rants...

I bought Wings of Fire - by A.P.J, an abridged version though. I was recently told by a cousin of mine - cute kiddo - that he read it, and found it a wonderful read. I decided to read the book right then. Though the kiddo was ready to part with his copy, I decided otherwise. And bought the book today - almost 2-3 months later ... Lazy me ..


I just realized that the more I reveal about my personal life, personal details, the more chances I am giving people to find out about the real me .. I do not want that .. definitely not. But then .. i am pretty sure there are people who have read both of my blogs, and I do not want even an inkling to arise about the commonality of these two people ... john doe .. and {whoops! I almost said it :P }

There's so many things I wanna talk about, which I have already spoken about on my original blog, but then ... can't speak here...

Remaining anonymous is a tough job.

Puzzle o da day :
It's becoming tougher to find a puzzle each time i post !!! Helpppppp !!!

Use mathematical operators on four 1's to arrive at 24. got it?

let me rephrase -

? 1 ? 1 ? 1 ? 1 ? = 24 where ? can be any mathematical operator .. or a bracket.

Teaser: is a bracket an operator?

The following song hit me as soon as I heard it the first time - when I was watching the movie. And in the context of the movie, the song made a lot of sense. Nice song.

This song deserved to be sung by the great melodious queen of bollywood...

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Kitne ajeeb rishte hain yahaan pe

Kitne ajeeb rishte hain yahaan pe,
Kitne ajeeb rishte hain yahaan pe,
Do pal milte hain, saath saath chalte hain,
Do pal milte hain, saath saath chalte hain,
Jab mod aaye to bach ke nikalte hain.

Kitne ajeeb rishte hain yahaan pe,
Kitne ajeeb rishte hain yahaan pe,
Do pal milte hain, saath saath chalte hain,
Do pal milte hain, saath saath chalte hain,
Jab mod aaye to bach ke nikalte hain.

Kitne Ajeeb rishte hain yahaan pe.
Kitne Ajeeb rishte hain yahaan pe.

Yahan sabhi apni hi dhun mein deewane hain,
Yahan sabhi apni hi dhun mein deewane hain,
Kare wahin jo apna dil theek maane hain.
Kaun kisko pooche, kaun kisko bole,
Kaun kisko pooche, kaun kisko bole,
Sab ke labon par apne taraane hain.
Sab ke labon par apne taraane hain.

Le jaaye naseeb kisko kahaan pe.
Kitne ajeeb rishte hain yahaan pe.

Khwabon ki yeh duniya hai, Khwabon mein hi rehna hai,
Khwabon ki yeh duniya hai, Khwabon mein hi rehna hai,
Rahen le jayen jahaan sang sang chalna hai.
Waqt ne hamesha yahaan naye khel khele,
Waqt ne hamesha yahaan naye khel khele,
Kuch bhi ho jaye yahaan, bas khush rehna hai.
Kuch bhi ho jaye yahaan, bas khush rehna hai.
Manzil lage kareeb sabko yahaan pe,
Kitne ajeeb rishte hain yahaan pe.

Do pal milte hain saath saath chalte hain,
Do pal milte hain saath saath chalte hain,
Jab mod aaye to bach ke nikalte hain.
Kitne ajeeb rishte hain yahaan pe.
Kitne ajeeb rishte hain yahaan pe.
Kitne ajeeb rishte hain yahaan pe.
Kitne ajeeb rishte hain yahaan pe.
Kitne ajeeb rishte hain yahaan pe.
Kitne ajeeb rishte hain yahaan pe.
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Puzzle o da day:

You got a pair of ropes. When you light one end of a rope, the time it takes to reach the other end is 1 hr. But the burning is not homogeneous, so it will not burn halfway throug in half hr, quarter length in 15 mins and so on. Now using these 2 ropes, measure 45 minutes. Is it possible to measure 1 hr 45 minutes?

Oh btw.. you happen to have a box of matchsticks too.. and if you want you can take a lighter too... or maybe we could have a bonfire around... go ahead... burn burn burn!!!

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Last time's puzzle was not what I intended :( . I should have asked the worst possible case time that the ants can take to get off the scale! Sorry about that.

Govt, mobile cos get SC notice

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday issued notices to the Centre, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India and cellular operators on a PIL seeking enactment of a law to stop unsolicited calls made by business ventures to mobile phone subscribers.

The petitioner requested the court to issue a direction to respondents to check, regulate and stop the "endemic"
invasion of privacy of the subscribers of mobile telephone services at all times and hours by such unsolicited calls.


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Puzzle o' da day:
There are 100 ants on a 1 meter (100 cm) scale. Each of the ants is placed at each 1cm mark(there are 101 marks, but it doesn't matter). At t=0, the ants start moving in any 1 direction - left or right. The rules they follow are as follows:

1. They travel with a constant velocity.
2. When 2 ants collide, they simply reverse their direction of motion and keep going.
3. When an ant reaches any 1 of the 2 ends of the ruler, it falls.

Suppose each ant travels at 1cm/s, what's the earliest possible time when the ruler can be devoid of all ants?

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Di.. I can never throw you off my blog, afterall, you are my only regular reader :) . Love ya.

J

Another one of my Favorites, which, whenever I play it, incites a few of my frends to mouth their heartfelt abuses to me...They say they just can't digest such lovey-doveys.

There's this thing with love songs/movies, you might appreciate them, but if you can picturize the same with you and your 'loved one' - it become all the more realistic. This thing first happened with me when I was watching that movie.. Vivek Oberoi & Rani Mujerjee.... what was it?? .. Chalte Chalte I guess.. or not .. I'm bad at remembering names anyway.
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Romeo And Juliet - Dire Straits.

A lovestruck Romeo sings the streets a serenade
Laying everybody low with a love song that he made
Finds a streetlight steps out of the shade
Says something like you and me babe how about it?

Juliet says hey it's Romeo you nearly gave me a heart attack
He's underneath the window she's singing hey la my boyfriend's back
You shouldn't come around here singing up at people like that
Anyway what you gonna do about it?

Juliet the dice was loaded from the start
And I bet that you exploded into my heart
And I forget i forget the movie song
When you gonna realize it was just that the time was wrong Juliet?

Come up on different streets they both were streets of shame
Both dirty both mean yes and the dream was just the same
And I dreamed your dream for you and now your dream is real
How can you look at me as if i was just another one of your deals?

When you can fall for chains of silver
You can fall for chains of gold
You can fall for pretty strangers and the promises they hold
You promised me everything you promised me thick and thin yeah
Now you just say oh Romeo yeah you know I used to have a scene with him

Juliet when we made love you used to cry
You said I love you like the stars above I'll love you till I die
There's a place for us you know the movie song
When you gonna realize it was just that the time was wrong Juliet?

I can't do the talk so like the talk on the TV
And I can't do a love song like the way it's meant to be
I can't do everything but I'd do anything for you
I can't do anything except be in love with you

And all I do is miss you and the way we used to be
All I do is keep the beat and bad company
Now all I do is kiss you through the bars of a rhyme
Juliet I'd do the stars with you any time

Juliet when we made love you used to cry
You said I love you like the stars above I'll love you till I die
There's a place for us you know the movie song
When you gonna realize it was just that the time was wrong Juliet?

A lovestruk Romeo sings the streets a serenade
Laying everybody low with a lovesong that he made
Finds a streetlight steps out of the shade
Says something like you and me babe how about it?

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Puzzle O Da day :

Make 4 Triangles Using 6 Matchsticks.

{{yes, I like geometry :) }}
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John

Metallica - One.

I can't remember anything
Can't tell if this is true or dream
Deep down inside I feel to scream
This terrible silence stops me

Now that the war is through with me
I'm waking up, I cannot see
That there is not much left of me
Nothing is real but pain now

Hold my breath as I wish for death
Oh please, God, wake me

Back in the womb it's much too real
In pumps life that I must feel
But can't look forward to reveal
Look to the time when I'll live

Fed through the tube that sticks in me
Just like a wartime novelty
Tied to machines that make me be
Cut this life off from me

Hold my breath as I wish for death
Oh please, God, wake me

Now the world is gone, I'm just one
Oh God, help me
Hold my breath as I wish for death
Oh please, God, help me

Darkness imprisoning me
All that I see
Absolute horror
I cannot live
I cannot die
Trapped in myself
Body my holding cell

Landmine has taken my sight
Taken my speech
Taken my hearing
Taken my arms
Taken my legs
Taken my soul
Left me with life in hell

Originally recorded by: Metallica
Written: Probably 1987 (Metallica)
Co Written by: James Hetfield
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Puzzle(Trivia) of the Day.

In Shark Tale, Lenny the shark coughs up a Registration Plate with the Number "007 981" on a Table. The Animators apparently had something in mind when they chose this number. Whats the significance?