7 July 2026

I am finally hanging up my boots with this game

Many moons back, my friend Mita Basu had introduced me to this game – travle.earth. The whole idea is to travel from Country A to Country B by crossing only land borders. There are some quirks in the game – It thinks of Siachen Glacier as a country, it does not think you can cross from Morocco to Western Sahara by land, and for some reason, it will not let me go from Poland to Russia directly, although I have been to their land border myself (exclave of Kaliningrad).

But I have now reached the 1000 game mark without failing once. And I am ready to move on to my next geography game. First, I have to dig through my messages from Mita. About a month ago, she sent me another game that I haven’t opened yet!

If you want to learn about country boundaries, this is a great game to try.

Category: Puzzles | LEAVE A COMMENT
28 June 2026

Sunday morning puzzle

Which of the following statements – if any – is/are true? How do you logically work it out?

1. Exactly one statement in this list is false.
2. Exactly two statements in this list are false.
3. Exactly three statements in this list are false.
4. Exactly four statements in this list are false.
5 Exactly five statements in this list are false.
6. Exactly six statements in this list are false.
7. Exactly seven statements in this list are false.
8. Exactly eight statements in this list are false.
9. Exactly nine statements in this list are false.
10. Exactly ten statements in this list are false.

Category: Puzzles | LEAVE A COMMENT
26 June 2026

Health Tip: How I Finally Solved My Dehydration Problem

As an inveterate coffee drinker by day and a wine drinker by evening, I spend most of my life in a “lightly mummified”. Add to that our salty and spicy Indian food, and I am about as hydrated as a Bedouin crossing the Sahara.

Of course, I am aware of the wisdom of drinking eight glasses of water during the day. Knowledge, however, has always had only a passing acquaintance with my actual behavior.

That said, I believe I have finally solved my problem. And you can too.

First, if you don’t know how to swim, excellent. You’re already halfway there. If you do know how to swim, I recommend unlearning it first.

Then, and this part is important, sign up for swimming lessons with a relentlessly persistent instructor.

The results have been astonishing. I am now ingesting water at an unprecedented rate. Not all of it through my mouth, mind you, but hydration is hydration.

Frustratingly enough, there is one unexpected side effect.

Instead of floating gracefully, I seem to be using all that extra water as ballast in a submarine. I think I am one periscope and a sonar device short of being able to swim underwater.

On the bright side, I am stepping out of the pool more like a grape and less like a raisin!

Category: Humor, Swimming | LEAVE A COMMENT
13 June 2026

Martian in our Alpha Loop (declassified report)

The top three conclusions a Martian would make were it to come to our Alpha Loop.

1. The four-legged creature is the supreme being. He has a two-legged best friend who obediently follows him and picks up his poop.

2. Those two-legged creatures all seem to be born with a bright white thing sticking in their ears.

3. Something terrifying lurks at the far end of the loop. The two-legged creatures sprint away from it with great urgency, yet inexplicably return to face it again and again.

Category: Humor | LEAVE A COMMENT