16 December 2012

Tasha goes to DC

Thursday evening? Check! At the airport? Check. Here is the weird part. I am not flying. My daughter is. All those planes pulling away without me there… I feel deprived… like somebody took candy away from me. On second thoughts, it’s okay – I had too many of them last night anyways 🙂

16 December 2012

Music session

Music session

Can’t remember the last time that I stayed up till 2 am. Something terrible must have happened or it must have been one of the most enjoyable evenings. Fortunately, today was of the latter variety. And if anybody recognizes the people in the picture can probably also guess why… — with Atashi Mukherjee and 4 others.

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16 December 2012

Aye husn…

Some ghazals are best appreciated in a much delayed flight at 31,000 feet after a couple of red wines…

“Aye husn-e-lala-fam zara
Aankh to mila, zara aankh to mila
Khali pade hai jaam zara 
Aankh to mila,
Saqi mujhe bhi chahiye ek jaam-e-arzoo
Kitne lagenge daam zara 
Aankh to mila”

16 December 2012

Frost epitaph

“I hold your doctrine of Memento Mori 
And were an epitaph to be my story, 
I’d have a short one ready for my own. 
I would have written of me on my stone: 
I had a lover’s quarrel with the world.” 
– Robert Frost

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16 December 2012

Tire wear and tear

I got this puzzle from my brother-in-law today (all your jokes about troubles created by inlaws to be inserted here 🙂 ). I believe I have arrived at the right answer but since he does not know the answer himself, would like to see if others can prove or disprove me.
A car’s wear and tear pattern is such that any new tire put in the front can last 40,000 miles and the ones in the rear can last 60,000 miles. You are given four new tires to begin with and you can interchange the tires between front and rear as many times as you want. What is the maximum distance you can drive?

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16 December 2012

Probability of a son

Strictly speaking, it is not puzzle time since I am flying out of Atlanta not to Atlanta. But what the hell, it is holiday season… so, here goes..
I was addressing a large audience this morning and asked those who have two kids to raise their hands. Then I asked – of all the people who have their hands raised – to keep their hands raised if one of their child is a son born on a Sunday. They rest can put their hands down. Now I picked any one from the ones left with their hands raised. What is the probability that their other child is a son?
(assume equal probability for having a son or a daughter or which day of the week a child is born).

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16 December 2012

Gampu!!

Most consider my travel schedule to be crazy. I admit it can be onerous. But the upsides are huge. If I am not learning about local politics and history, I get to meet people who have touched my life in the past. Today, in the middle of all sorts of meetings (talk about something being onerous 🙂 ), Rishi Bandopadhay arranged to come and have a quick lunch with me. I met him first in 1994 when he was barely a year old. Was a role model for a lot of kids in Dallas including my daughters. Today he is in NYU. Thank you Gampu for hunting me down and then taking time off from your year end test preparations to have lunch with me. That was special!!! Sorry I could not spend more time what with all the client meetings…