31 January 2013

Engineering Skills

Unintentional 7.5K run in Chateau Élan. The story is to “die for” 🙂 Originally, the idea was to run through the neighborhood behind the winery for 5K. Somewhere in the hills in the dark, I took a wrong turn and found myself on a State Highway and by now 5K away from where I needed to be. It was a single lane highway with no median and barely any shoulder to run on.
Throwing caution to the wind, I just ran on the highway (on the left side so I could see oncoming traffic). A ferocious looking dog that had greeted me about a mile back might have something to do with the decision 🙂 Judging by the reaction of the drivers, they are not used to seeing runners on that highway 🙂
At one point, after running downhill, I faced a long bridge with absolutely no side space to run on. So, I had to clear the bridge before any oncoming car could enter the bridge.
I summoned all my engineering skills – estimated the length of the bridge, knew my speed, estimated the vehicle’s speed, adjusted for the fact they will accelerate as they hurtled downhill on the other side of the bridge and estimated the point on the road other side of the bridge which was the cut off point (I had to make sure no car had crossed that point). Finally found an opportunity where the next car was beyond that point and I ran like the wind…
And met the car about half way into the bridge 🙂
She was kind enough to move over to the wrong side lane. And I ran the rest of the distance mumbling to myself “One minute is 60 seconds; not 100. One minute is 60 seconds…” 🙂

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26 January 2013

Caught in a circle!!

New puzzle!! Like every other responsible brother-in-law, I called up my BIL this morning to check on him and his family. As is his wont, he immediately rewarded me with a puzzle which has stumped me ever since. (I think he is trying to give me a hint 🙂 ). Anyways, I got to the answer intuitively (and I am assuming it is the correct answer since he confirmed it) but for the life of me, I cannot come up with a proof for the answer.
So, here it is: Think of a circle. Now think of all the n-sided regular polygons that can fit in it (all the vertices of the regular polygon will touch the circumference of the circle). Which figure (i.e. for what value of “n” – triangle, square, pentagon, hexagon, heptagon, octagon etc etc ) will have the maximum value for the sum of squares of the sides.
As always, if you know or crack it, send a PM. I will acknowledge in the common forum.

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25 January 2013

Man on the moon

“Today Russia announced plans to send a probe to the moon by the year 2015. Russian scientists say they’re excited to see what they could discover on the moon’s surface. I’ll tell you what they’re going to discover – an American flag!” –Craig Ferguson

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20 January 2013

New members!!

5K on our Sunday morning Bengali run. Today, we almost doubled our team size with Arup Dhar and Manas Chatterjee joining us. The usual Amitesh Mukherjee and Samaresh Mukhopadhyay was there too. We missed Amitesh for the coffee though. It was a crisp cool morning with freezing temperatures but sun out in full glory…

IMG_2543

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18 January 2013

Updates on the Bomb Squad

A few more details are trickling in… (you have to read the previous post to get the context).

After finishing up my office work, I called India back to get more details of the incident. Funnily enough, nobody admitted that they were the first to suggest it might be a bomb. When I talked to my dad upstairs, he said it was my sister’s idea. When I talked to my sister downstairs, she suggested it was the niece who got afraid it might be a bomb!!! My mom claims that right from the beginning, she had a hunch that it might be a nice package from me! And of course, the niece claims she knew all along it had to be books!!! 🙂

Everybody seemed to remember that all the neighbors agreed that those burglars whose attempt to rob was thwarted a few days back must have been so enraged that they sent a bomb!!

An outstanding moment occurred  when the neighbors came. Picture this – there is a small brown packet in the middle of the parking lot in the ground floor. And a bunch of neighbors and my parents, sister et al. are circling it from a safe distance completely confused what to make of it. At that time of “You first” mentality, one brave gentleman stepped forward a little and was able to decipher some letters on the package from that distance. Petrified, he yelled “It says, HANDLE WITH CARE”. Everybody simultaneously jumped back three feet and a half convinced that their worst fears had come true!!! For, as you undoubtedly know, terrorists always take care to warn you to handle with care 🙂 🙂

At the end, I asked them – So, all of you and your neighbors and the police were at the police station with the package? And who was going to fend off the burglars that had attempted a robbery a few days back if they came during that time?

There was pin drop silence on the other side. I kept the phone down 🙂

 

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18 January 2013

Bomb squad

This is too crazy for me to make it up! Early morning as I was catching up on my office work at a Starbucks, I get two repeated calls from my sister in India. I braced my mind for potential bad news (dad is not doing well) and then called back.

All I could hear is a ton load of commotion and cacophony on the other side. But it was my dad who talked! And his first sentence was “We are at the police station”. I was somewhat relieved but irritated since I know there was an attempted robbery in their complex a week back and I realized what might have happened.

I will try my best to carry the import of what my dad explained in Bengali. Evidently, they received a packet today which they were not expecting. Their first reaction was that could be a bomb! As my dad explained – “This is happening lately, people are opening up packets and whole buildings are being blown up” 🙂 Anyways, not knowing any better, they gathered all the neighbors around. Who were of course, epitomes of courage!! Most would not even come near my parents!!! And then somebody suggested that they should go to the police station.

Now get this. My sister, put the package in her car and drove to the police station!! She CARRIED the suspected bomb package herself with my parents in the car! Instead of calling the police over.

The police station was even more scared. The head there declared that they needed the bomb squad. Evidently there is somebody who masquerades as a bomb squad in that tiny little town of Kalyani. He came, looked at it and said that it did not look like a typical bomb. But was unwilling to open it.

In the meanwhile, my sister notified my brother in Kolkata who had the presence of mind to ask if there is a label on the packet. She said – it is from DHL but is missing the sender’s name but said Flipkart was the pickup point. (Flipkart is like Amazon in India). My brother immediately noted that no terrorist is going to send a bomb package thru DHL and anyways DHL will inspect all packages submitted. And certainly they wont be shopping in Flipkart for bombs. They should go ahead and open up the package.

My parents recognized this as solid logic – for whatever reason the police did not. Anyways, they opened up the package in the station and out came 7 Enid Blyton books!

And that is what I got for trying to spring a surprise on my niece!!

Somewhere, I also realized that all that cacophony was everybody in our house and neighbors along with the cops laughing their heads off at the police station and sipping tea 🙂

(sequel to the story here)

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