9 March 2026

Do you have any ideas for me?

Some time back, I got this strange idea to learn and memorize various things. That has led me down the path of memorizing country names, capitals, flags (not finished with this yet), Morse code, the periodic table, and what have you.

Right now, I am learning and memorizing all the US Presidents and their election years.

In keeping with current political movements, I am calling this quirky exercise of mine “Occupy Brain Cells” 🙂

I think I will be done with the Presidents in another couple of days.

Looking for new things to learn and memorize. Can you make some suggestions?

Category: Musings | 2 Comments on Do you have any ideas for me?
1 March 2026

An unfinished task from my school days – and a quick quiz for you

A few weeks back, as a next step to my madness, I decided that memorizing the periodic table would be a worthwhile enterprise. I do not think I ever went beyond 25 elements in school.

As of this morning, I can finally narrate the entire periodic table of 118 elements. Forwards and backwards, for good measure!

Now, for a couple of interesting questions, try this:

1. “Q” is a letter that no element has as a starting letter. Actually, it is not there anywhere in the spelling of any element. There is another such letter. What is it?

2. What is the most common starting letter for the elements?

3. This is for my US friends. How many elements can you name whose symbol is the same as some state in the United States?

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12 January 2026

My first foray into “filter kaapi”

When I first got started with cappuccino and all that, my friend Raghu from Austin had sent me this contraption to make South Indian coffee – often called “filter kaapi“. Now, this is something I grew up with during my college years since I did my engineering in Chennai.

This year, one of my goals is to learn how to make good “filter kaapi“. Today was my first attempt after looking up a few YouTube videos.

The result of the maiden venture has been distinctly un-South-Indian-like. Followed all the instructions, and then I was left with only half a tumbler of totally diluted coffee. I might have had some more coffee in the cup if only I had not spilt some in the basin while trying to do that South Indian frothing thing with some panache!

If you are not aware of what I am talking about, you have to look it up. Those guys in the coffee stalls in college would throw the milf-coffee combo from high up in the air from the tumbler into the dabarah – without spilling one little drop.

I need to call up Raghu and Prabha and get some tips on how to make the coffee thicker.

[P.S. My second attempt fixed the volume problem but not the thinness problem]

Category: Coffee | LEAVE A COMMENT
6 October 2025

What does “SOS” stand for?

Here is one of the interesting things I learned while picking up Morse code. I can’t believe I have lived all my life without realizing this.

What does the term “SOS” stand for? Growing up, I always thought that it stood for “Save Our Souls”. I believe I first heard this while reading about the story of the Titanic. Some think of it as “Save Our Ship”.

It turns out that “SOS” is not an abbreviation at all. About 75 years after Morse code was created, around the start of the 1900s, the Germans helped set a universal distress code: SOS. They chose it because its Morse pattern [… — …] was easy to recognize. Before SOS, other distress signals were used, with “CQD” being the most common.

So, SOS does not stand for any English phrase. And even if it did stand for something, it would have been very likely a German phrase!

Did you know that?

Category: Puzzles | LEAVE A COMMENT
20 September 2025

One of these days, I am going to get into real trouble with her

Woke up sharp at 5 am, blithe as a lark and went about my early morning routine. Vitals measured and noted down, classical music put on in my study, logged previous day’s 64 point updates, wrote in my journal, made my first cappuccino and settled down in my chair. Suddenly, I heard Sharmila screaming from our bedroom upstairs:

“Rajib, are you around?”
“Yes. Why?”
“I think the dishwasher is beeping. Need to call the mechanic. Can you switch it off?”.
“Okay”.

Hmmm…. now what do I do? I started wondering. You see, that high pitched beeping noises were not coming from the dishwasher. (admittedly, I was impressed with her confidence without doing any debugging).

It was actually me, on my new learning spree. So, about a month back, I took it upon myself to learn Morse code! I know, I know, in these days of GenAI, I could not have picked up anything more anachronistic. After a month of learning my dots and dashes, I got myself a Morse code machine. And that is where I was trying to spell out different words. Not sure what is so dishwasher-y about it.

Anyways, I went back to practicing after connecting the audio output to my headphones.

Eventually, her coffee was ready and she came down. I was hoping she would have forgotten the incident.

“What happened to the dishwasher?”

My burgeoning hopes were summarily … err… “dash”ed!!

I took her to my study and showed her my Morse code machine.

Have you ever noticed how people driven to exasperation involuntarily put their arms on their hips with their palm folded around the wrists? A visage like that was the last recollection I have before I heard her say “You are a quirky man”.

Helplessly, I sat there grinning to myself with no re-Morse whatsoever! I am going to keep learning this…

So there.

Ha! (that would be dot-dot-dot-dot dot-dash to you)

Category: Humor, Musings | 2 Comments on One of these days, I am going to get into real trouble with her
11 June 2025

Vexillology quiz

These days, I have found a great way to learn more about country flags. My friend in office – Danny – is a wizard at this. He asks me questions. I get stumped and then I learn. I come home and learn a few more countries and go back and ask him next day. He answers them without even blinking. My upside is that in the process, I am learning!!

There is another friend of mine Sharmistha – in Houston – who is equally adept in world flags!

Someday, I am going to be like them. Right now I am grinding thru it – one flag at a time…

Here are some interesting things I have learnt…

1. Most all flags are rectangles. However, 2 countries have square flags. Can you name them?

2. Here might be something most people know. Which country has a flag that is neither rectangle nor square?

3. What is the most common color in all the country flags? It is found in a whopping 75%+ flags!

4. What is the most rare color in country flags? How many countries have them?

5. Which country has had the most number of flags?

6. What was the least amount of time that a country flag survived before it was substituted?

7. Which country has the oldest continuously used flag? Celebrating 400 years this year, in fact!

8. How many countries have the front side and the reverse side of the flag different from each other?

9. In the 1936 Summer Olympics, two countries showed up to compete and realized they have the same flag! Next year one of them made an alteration to their flag. Which two countries were these?

10. Many countries have images of arms – often symbolising their struggle and sacrifice for independence. Saudi Arabia’s for example, has a sword. But there is one country that has a AK-47 on its flag!! Can you name it?

Answers posted here.

Category: Maps, Puzzles | LEAVE A COMMENT
28 November 2024

Silence as an opportunity?

Imagine this… you have to stay completely silent for 2 weeks. This is not like your silent retreat kind of thing. You are home. Free to go around doing your usual stuff at home and office as long you do not use your vocal chords. This is due to a medical surgery – but you are guaranteed full recovery at the end of it. So, you do not have to worry about health complications from this.

Well, this is what I am going thru.

Of course, being silent means I have to slow things down. Also, I have a bit of extra time at hand since I cannot do any strenuous physical exercises – so no running or gym and all that.

Now, my question is – how would you use this as an opportunity? What are some of the ideas you have for me that I can use this to come out with a better version of me?

So far, I have started learning ASL. What else?

Category: Musings | LEAVE A COMMENT
11 February 2024

Puzzle: Numismatism – of a slightly different ilk

After putting all those currency notes under the table glass top, I had thought of sitting down and trying to learn all the modern currencies of the world. This has turned out to be much easier than remembering capital names and much much easier than flags (which I am still working on at a slow pace).

See how many of these you can answer. Since the definition of “country” can be a bit subjective, the scope of these questions are the 195 countries in the UN (193 members, 2 observers).

1. What is the currency used by the most number of countries? (US and Canada both use dollars – but they are different currencies with different paper bills – US Dollars and Canadian dollars)

2. If you found the above easy – try this: which is the second one?

3. A surprising number of countries have “dollars” in their currency names (e.g. Canadian dollars). Can you take a rough guess how many of them have it?

4. What would be your guess as the next common word in currency name? How many countries would you guess? I am talking of same currency name but differentiated by its region or country name. e.g. “rupee” is used by both Pakistan (Pakistani rupee) and India (Indian rupee)

5. Speaking of the rupee, and this surprised me – how many countries have the word “rupee” (or its close derivative) in its name?

6. There are many countries which have its own currency – but also use US Dollars (e.g. the Bahamas). But there are other countries than the US that use US Dollars as the only currency. Take a guess how many and who are they?

7. What would be your guess as the shortest currency name (without attaching the country name in it)? How many letters? How many of them would you guess are there?

8. This might be a hint to the previous question. How many countries have currencies that are only 4 letters?

You can find the answers here.

Category: Puzzles | 1 Comment on Puzzle: Numismatism – of a slightly different ilk