18 July 2013

Six coin puzzle

After flying to San Francisco on Monday, flying back to Atlanta on Tuesday and then to DC on Wednesday, I have no doubt that I will sleep off on tomorrow’s (Thursday) early morning flight. So, I figured I might as well post the puzzle tonight and go to sleep.

Pardon the picture – I put it quickly on my iPad app. But here is how it goes.

Six coins are arranged in two rows like in the picture on the left. In three sliding moves, you have to get the circular arrangement on the right. The rules are – (*) you can slide only one coin at a time (*) you cannot “push” other coins away when you move a coin – and of course no lifting the coin off the surface either (*) here is the interesting one – when you move a coin, you have to make sure that when you leave it in its new position, it has to touch two other coins.

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11 July 2013

“But I have promises to keep…

…and miles to go before I sleep” ( Frost)

Last year Madhumolli (my friend from school days – one of the few that just could not stand me – but that is a story for another day 🙂 ) excitedly told me that her daughter (a year younger than Natasha) had started running. Even more excitedly, I called her daughter up and before thinking much, promised to run with her within one year.
Managed to grab a train after meetings in London today, haul it to Slough, put in a 3K run with her and turned around immediately to haul back to London. We even managed to get her dad to run with us half the distance!!!
Awesome feeling to keep a promise!! Even more awesome feeling was to keep up with somebody one third my age on the running track.

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8 July 2013

Sunday night…

Our usual date night place. Somebody is getting married here. Sharmila and I took a guess at the bride’s age. Then we got the bar singer Brandon to befriend the bride’s brother and find out the answer.
Let’s just say, we stand a good chance of getting kicked out of this place by the wedding party 🙂

7 July 2013

Sunday run

All our Bengali friends are on vacation for the long weekend. So Amitesh and I decided to run the hills around his neighborhood. As always the uphill was difficult but the downhill hurt lot more. 5K later, we sat out in his porch to enjoy some home brewed coffee!!

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5 July 2013

How often does this happen?

Yesterday, while climbing up Murray Rd from the Falls, I heard somebody yelling my name. Sure enough, Aabhas Chandra – a colleague from long past – a decade in fact – had somehow managed to recognize me in a crowd thru all the changes I have gone thru in that decade!!! Both of us were in a hurry at that moment – so we scooted off at that time after exchanging pleasantries…
And then we got together this morning in the one way I know how to catch up with long lost friends – we ran for half an hour in front of the Niagara Falls and then grabbed a Starbucks!!!
Evidently, the arcs of lives meet more than once!!!

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29 June 2013

Best laid plans of mice and men…

What was going to be a rather unique solution to a logistics problem – drop the rental car at the city location and then run back home – turned out rather horribly. Was not paying attention while driving. As a result, took a wrong turn while running back and by the time I realized it, it was too late. Instead of a five mile run on gentle slopes, it was nearly double the distance over three hills 🙁 In full sunlight, 88 degrees and a humidity that can put Kolkata during monsoons to shame!! Had to take not one, not two but three breaks 🙁