3 March
2013
2 March
2013
Stifle
27 February
2013
Mislabeled boxes
Puzzle time!!
That was a great trip to San Francisco. Lot of business done. Caught up with a few friends. Missed a lot more. Have to come back…Now for the five hour flight back….
Here is the customary puzzle on the way back.
There are three boxes – one has white color tennis balls (see story later in the post), another has yellow color tennis balls and the third has a mix of the two colors in it. They are labeled “White”, “Yellow” and “Mixed”. Here is one problem though – all of them are wrongly labeled!!!
You are allowed to pick one box – upon which, I will open it, pick the first ball that I can reach in to and show you the color.
You have to get all the right labels on the right boxes from that. How would you do that?
Usual rules of sending me personal message in FB with answer applies.
Now for the story – when we were growing up in India as a child, we used to play cricket (that was our winter sport, soccer being the summer sport). And we used tennis balls to play cricket – except we did not know they were tennis balls. In fact, I did not even know what tennis looked like till much later. I am not sure why but we used to call them “cambis” balls. And they were always white in color!!! I saw a traditional yellow color tennis ball way later in my life. Nowadays, I see my nephews play with yellow tennis balls all the time (although they still call it “cambis” ball).
27 February
2013
San Fran hill run Take Two
Evidently, me sitting down 30 yards before the hilltop in my morning run has not been sitting well the whole day with me. So after all the meetings and interviews, I went back to my hotel in the evening, changed back into my running clothes and went out to redeem myself. It was tough, exhausting, and the heart and lungs certainly did not find it funny. But I made it all the way down and then all the way up… Admittedly, I did not put in a 5K before the hill run as in the morning… but if that is what it takes to conquer California St in San Francisco, then that is what it takes 🙂
Now, there better be a glass of red wine with my name written all over it 🙂
Here is a picture of the same route in the evening…
26 February
2013
Only in San Fran!
So here we were – Sunjay Talele and myself walking down the street from one meeting to another in downtown San Francisco… and then we come across this 24 hour fitness place with glass panels. And inside were a gazillion women doing what I can only guess what Zumba looks like. As we were marveling at those womenfolk dancing at lunch hour, we noticed that the Zumba teacher was a very ebullient man!! From first looks we would not have blamed you for thinking that he might have borrowed the clothes he was wearing from one of his students 🙂 Only in San Francisco!!!
26 February
2013
Those were steep!
5K run in San Fran this morning. Coming back from the pier, this is what I had as my running route. Right at the top in front of the yellow building is my hotel. It was unbelievably steep. My heart and lungs were bursting. As I neared the top, I could see the red light. The thought that I will get a few seconds break at the light kept me going. I was sure I will make it and then the darned light turned green 🙁 My mind lost all the strength and I just sat down on the pavement. Very frustrating to realize I gave up within 30 yards of my hotel 🙁
25 February
2013
San Fran run
25 February
2013
India’s national game :-)
Couple of days back, I called up my mom – like I do every single morning. The mood at home – specially mom and my sister – was despondent, to say the least. My mom jumped straight from “How are you?” to lamenting that my niece lost one mark (got 99 out of 100) in her Computer test by messing up one question.
I know how hyper-competitive India is at school level – but I still tried to reason with my mom. I asked her how come nobody is celebrating the 99 questions my niece did get right. Why all the overwhelming attention to one single question she missed?
Trying to use reason with my mom in this context is like trying to explain calculus to a new born. When I pointed out that she is only 10 and that she can’t possibly know everything that is required of her, my mom’s response was – “So what? Which 10 year old does not know that the national game of India is football (soccer as we call here) and not cricket”. Then she commented on the effect of TV and constant cricket and how that is corrupting students.
But something else struck me. I asked her if it was a Computer test, why were they asking about national game of India? What had that got to do with Computers? My mom summarily dismissed this line of questioning and said for Computer Programming, you have to answer all these questions. I think, she forgets at times that I did Computer Science from IIT. 🙂 She also said that if I had the attitude that I have now when I was studying, I would have never made anything out of my life 🙂 By this time, my sister also came onboard and started talking about why these are standard questions for all Computer tests.
So, finally, I pulled up my last trump card. I asked them why did they feel that the niece should have written football (soccer) instead of cricket. I gently pointed them to the fact that (field) hockey has been the national game for India for a very long time.
Now that did trigger some memory cells in their minds. For the next three minutes I held the phone to my ear on this side and on the other side I could hear all sorts of discussions going on as confusion reigned supreme 🙂 Finally, my mom ended the call abruptly saying “We’ll talk later”. I am sure they were looking up all sorts of reference books 🙂
I did get a call from my niece that evening suggesting I am the best person in the whole wide world 🙂 🙂 Ah! All’s well that ends well 🙂
24 February
2013
Sunday morning run
23 February
2013
Saturday run between kid activities…
5 mile run in between ferrying Tasha around for all those weekend activities 🙂 My left leg/knee has not adjusted to minimalist shoes as well as the right leg/knee has.
Something interesting happened yesterday. Woke up at 5 am and realized it was raining heavily. I loved the challenge and wanted to take Mother Nature’s challenge head on. So, put on all the protective running gear and got into my car. When I pulled up near LA Fitness (after running in rain, I head straight to the showers in LA Fitness), it completely stopped raining. I was so upset that I decided to teach Mother Nature a lesson – so instead of running, I just went in and did some indoor rowing.
After showers, when I came out of the gym – wouldn’t you know – it was raining incessantly!!! I am still not sure who was the joke ultimately on 🙂