24 January
2016
22 January
2016
Went for a run in the flurries and sleet this evening…
I can assert, with some level of shivering, that on a cold evening with completely wet dirt roads, each and every muddy puddle is concealed by the sleet accumulating in your glasses. I do harbor some doubts since I have a nagging suspicion that towards the end, I missed stepping into one 🙂 Aargh!! My carefully cultivated sartorial sense was unceremoniously compromised as I trudged back home in my blue running jacket and what to any eyes with unsleeted glasses would appear as dirty brown shoes.
21 January
2016
5 Miles in a cold, foggy and desolate trail…
17 January
2016
From the bartender’s corner – Yale cocktail
17 January
2016
The Defiant Dozen
To the untrained eyes, it might appear that more Bengalis showed up for coffee and chat session at Starbucks than for the run preceding that. One might even be tempted to conclude that we prefer the aforementioned coffee and chat session more than our run. And one would be well advised to given in to that temptation. For, we do love our food and parties more than our runs. On the other hand, in the Maslow’s hierarchy of a Bengali’s needs – there is another item that outranks food and parties – and that is sleep!!
Thankfully, this morning, twelve of the group defied that hierarchy and came out to run on a cold and windy morning. The defiance was in full display, when faced with closed gates at the trail due to flooding, the group simply went around the gate and commenced their running! A few missed the photo-op at the end since they were putting in longer runs.
Thanks for coming out – Samaresh, Sudipto, Manas, Malobika, Sharmila, Indrani, Puja, Ashok, Surojit, Arup and Ayan.
16 January
2016
From the bartender’s corner – Yellow Rose of Texas
15 January
2016
Puzzle: Inverted License Plates (or why Sharmila does not go for lunch with me anymore :-) )
A couple of days back, after Sharmila had returned from India, we went out for lunch. We were discussing her experiences in India when the topic went to the new restrictions of driving in New Delhi. If you were not aware, New Delhi has promulgated new rules (I am not sure if it is effective still) that stipulates that cars with odd or even number license plates can be driven on alternate days. So, one day, if cars with only even number license plates can be driven, the next day it would be for the cars with odd number license plates. This, if I am not very mistaken, is to keep the pollution under control.
As a side story, I am told that women drivers are exempt from this rule. Which prompted me to suggest to Sharmila that we lost a great business opportunity to sell “burkhas” (the head to toe garb that many Muslim ladies wear) in New Delhi. Who is going to figure out whether it is a guy or a girl driving once they put a “burkha” on 🙂
In any case, another idea came to mind then. How about those guys with license plates that are reversible? Like if I had a license plate “6666”, I can easily take out four screws and put them back on with the license plate looking “9999”. In practice, that is not possible since there are other things written on the license plate that will clearly expose the trick but that did give rise to today’s puzzle:
How many license plates can be there which when reversed (and reattached to the car) gives a legitimate alternate parity (odd becomes even, even becomes odd) license plate?
Assume the following:
- License plates are no more than 4 digits long
- A license plate cannot start with 0
- 0,1,6,8,9 are the digits that while reversed looks like legitimate digits
- There cannot be two license plates which look the same on the roads ever
12 January
2016
That was biting cold
10 January
2016
From the bartender’s corner – Hot Tamale
10 January
2016
