19 December
2013
19 December
2013
Perfect antidote !!!
After the stress of the prospect of having to cancel our India trip (visa issues for Natasha) and the scramble to end the year at office, meeting Amitesh for a few late hours was the perfect antidote that the doctor had prescribed. Nothing can take my mind off than sitting with Amitesh at a very quiet bar nearly into midnight discussing topics that few would think of as “bar topics” 🙂
Today, we spent a lot of time discussing (and researching on internet)
(*) the effect of Calcium level in heart by high level of LDL in blood. (don’t ask me how we got started)
(*) the importance of understanding why we do what we do (especially in professional life)
(*) the relativity of the definition of happiness (this is an effect of a prior FB post)
(*) the plight of gays in India (recently, India has taken a Russia-like position on gays)
While the topics can be mundane, the discussions are always lively !!
18 December
2013
Birthday puzzle
A few days back, I called up an old friend Anamika to wish her happy birthday and she told me that she was out having lunch with her neighbor who also has the exact same birthday!! That got me thinking about what is the probability of such a coincidence happening. Here is a puzzle from that thought process.
If you are mathematically oriented, try solving it. If not, take a guess and see how it compares with the right answer. My guess is that the guess is going to be much larger than the actual number.
Simply put, what is the minimum size of a class where the probability that there is at least one birthday that is shared by two students is more than 50%?
Put in details, if you have two students in a class, the chance they will have the exact some birthday is 1/365. If a third student comes in, there is a higher probability of two of them having the same birthday. If a fourth student comes in, the probability increases further. At what size of the class do you have a 50-50 chance of a birthday being repeated?
18 December
2013
Happiness is subjective
While reading a book that delves into understanding happiness (more importantly how we prevent ourselves from being happy) – more on that book later, I learnt about two 50+ year old conjoined twins -Lori and Reba (now George). If you get a chance, read up about them in http://www.keepmywords.com/2011/01/11/lori-george-schappell/
Now here is the crazy thing….
They are very very happy!!! Look at their picture and tell me honestly how many of us can place ourselves in that situation and say we are happy? But they are.
When asked about separating them, their response” “Our point of view is no, straight out no. Why would you want to do that? For all the money in China, why? You’d be ruining two lives in the process”.
Lori added “Don’t assume our life is difficult till we tell you it is so”
This befuddles all psychologists. And gives a lie to all current medical opinion from doctors (none of whom have been born conjoined twins) that all such twins should be separated out at birth.
Oh! How we project our own definition and concept of happiness onto hapless others!!!
Just watch how we behave with our kids, spouses, friends, colleagues….
18 December
2013
Naked people have little to no influence on society.
Last evening, during my indepth discussions with Tathagata about life, the conversation somehow veered towards human being’s fascination towards how they dress up.
I think we were talking about Shakespeare – specifically, Hamlet, Act 1 Scene 3. Polonius gave some memorable advice to his son Laertes before he left home at the age of 21 (or was it 25?). A couple of great examples:
“Neither a borrower nor a lender be // For loan oft loses both itself and friend”
“Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice // Take each man’s censure, but reserve thy judgment.”
But as I explained to Tathagata, there was a particular advice that vexed me no end since I cannot, even to this day, align my values to that advice. It ran thus…
“For the apparel oft proclaims the man,”
That means you reconcile yourself to a world where you will be judged by how you look. That bothers me a lot. Mostly because I do not look good or dress good 😉 Seriously though, I have been deeply conflicted on that advice.
Tathagata, with his vast knowledge of literature, reminded me of a quote from Tagore
“Juta ki manushke boRo korite pare?”
Roughly translated to Shakespearean English it would be
“Shoes maketh nary a man, nobler”
I was absolutely delighted by his quick quip from a different language, different poet, different times.
Maybe I like him so much because he is my friend from elementary school.
Maybe I like him so much because he knows so much about literature and poetry.
I think though I like him mostly because he comes up with quotes that I can agree with better than the ones I come up with myself I 😉
Later driving back home, I remembered a Mark Twain funny quote on this topic I wish I had told him.
“Clothes make the man. Naked people have little to no influence on society” 🙂
17 December
2013
Sometimes the Mountain has to go to Mohammaad!
Got to meet Tathagata after what seems like ages. I was not on the road today, uncharacteristically. But he was. And he was traveling to Atlanta. So, we squeezed out what was supposed to be an hour meeting after 6 which turned out to be a 4 hour meeting. What a great time I had with this guy who I got to spend two months with during my fifth grade and then again, a few years in the same company twenty five years or so later.
The one time my dad did come to this country, he became a big fan of Tathagata because of his vast knowledge of Bengali literature, poems and culture. Both of us play the tabla although he is light years ahead of me. Picked up some good tips on how to improve my tabla.
There was so much to catch up on from our elementary and high school days…
Some of our discussions veered towards the philosophical – including being in the unenviable position of being the financial stability provider to a much larger family in India and the inevitable role of money around how it can completely queer so many otherwise near and dear relationships…
I do not know too many people who is a star in a company like McKinsey and works as a professor in an University.
Hope to spend many many more hours with him in my life. There is a lot I can learn from him…
16 December
2013
The vagaries of time…
15 December
2013
Christmas gifts
15 December
2013
De-camped!!!
Felt a little better this afternoon after this cold , headache and so on. Went to put in a 5K run to see if I could sustain it. It was a wind-assisted 8:09 min/mile pace.
I say wind-assisted because of the gusts of wind that was there. One such gust blew this tent away to the other side of the road!!
13 December
2013
Some interesting trivia puzzles…
Napoleon was not as short as he is made out to be. In fact at 5′ 6.5″, he taller than an average Frenchman. So, where did the misconception of he being short come from?
This is for my American football fans. In the very first Super Bowl, at the start of second half, Packers had to kick off the ball twice to start the game. Do you know why?
What is the longest English word that does not repeat a letter?
Once before, we had talked about English words which have all the vowels in the proper sequence – e.g. Abstemious. Now can you come up with words that have the vowels in the reverse order? (First u, then o….)
The phrase “two plus eleven” and “one plus twelve” are interesting in that both give “thirteen”. They have another relationship. Can you find out what?
There is a debate on whether “I am” or “Go” is the shortest English sentence. It depends upon whether you believe you have to have a subject stated in a statement. Do you know what is the longest sentence in English language?
I will give you the answer – “Marriage” 😉
Okay, that was not a trivia puzzle. Try the other ones….