Math Mind Bender

Despite Maths and Stats being my first love, I have scarcely written any post on mathematical wonders or puzzles. Here's a very simple and small puzzle. We all know that the sum of the internal angles in a triangle is 180 degree. But there are two cases when the sum can be more than 180 or less than 180. Can you tell how that is possible. Yes! THAT IS possible! Just "bend your mind" Answer to this puzzle on next Monday!

Being proud of an Indian

Many people now-a-days, I see, proudly exhibit the western influence on their minds. Eating with fork and spoon, Indian style commodes with Western WCs, Installing Bath Tubs in the bathrooms... Lets start one by one. When Swami Vivekananda visited Chicago for the parliament of religions, he observed the habits of westerners. One person asked swamiji that was it not backward class to eat with hands dipped in the food? Swamiji instantly replied the westerner by saying, "We indians do not poke or slice food. We first feel it with our hands before we feel it with our tongue." Really! Most people may feel it very embarrassing to continue our Indian culture outside India, or even in India while eating with other fellow Indians. We show-off how well groomed we are by eating the way westerners eat! Following is the excerpt from "Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda"

Now hear something about the Western art of cooking. There is greater purity observed in our cooking than in any other country; on the other hand, we have not that perfect regularity, method and cleanliness of the English table. Every day our cook first bathes and changes his clothes before entering the kitchen; he neatly cleanses all the utensils and the hearth with water and earth, and if he chances to touch his face, nose, or any part of his body, he washes his hands before he touches again any food. The Western cook scarcely bathes; moreover, he tastes with a spoon the cooking he is engaged in, and does not think much of re-dipping the spoon into the pot. Taking out his handkerchief he blows his nose vigorously, and again with the same hand he, perchance, kneads the dough. He never thinks of washing his hands when he comes from outside, and begins his cooking at once. But all the same, he has snow-white clothes and cap. Maybe, he is dancing on the dough — why, because he may knead it thoroughly well with the whole pressure of his body, no matter if the sweat of his brow gets mixed with it! (Fortunately nowadays, machines are widely used for the task.) After all this sacrilege, when the bread is finished, it is placed on a porcelain dish covered with a snow-white napkin and is carried by the servant dressed in a spotless suit of clothes with white gloves on; then it is laid upon the table spread over with a clean table-cloth. Mark here, the gloves — lest the man touches anything with his bare fingers!

This shows the level of ignorance towards our own tried and tested culture. I have seen many western ladies (Proudly!) wear saries while our own Indian women "JUST DO NOT KNOW" to wear them. Western ladies are excited to wear bindi. While our young ladies laugh at other (Indian) girls who wear them! How many boys really know to wear Veshthi or Dhoti? I have also seen my Mallayali friend wear Leather belt on his lungi to insure himself from any potential embarrassment! Now what to say? People, while doing the interior designing to their homes, replace Indian style commodes with Western style toilets. They call it sign of advancement. All I can claim is that our ancestors were not fools to continue with the Indian style. When a person sits for cleaning bowels on an Indian style commode, automatically some pressure is created on the large intestines which makes the "excretion" process easy. Yes, some people do give excuse that the old members in their family suffer from arthritis so they cannot sit in Indian commodes. The very cause of such joint pain and arthritis is the fast food culture that we have readily adopted, laying idle watching the idiot box and no exercise for joints. Also using the flush nearly drains out a large quantity of water. Most toilets installed before 1980 use 5-7 gallons of water per flush. Toilets installed between 1980 and 1993 use 3.5 gallons per flush. Toilets installed since 1994 use 1.6 gallons. 1 US gallon = 3.78541178 liters. People now install Bath tubs, but do you know how much water it holds? Here's some math: 1 (cubic foot) = 28.3168466 liters The dimensions of a standard size bathtub are approximately: two feet wide, four and one-half feet long, and one foot deep. Simply multiply as follows to find the tub's volume in cubic feet: 2' x 4.5' x 1' = 9 cubic feet. 9 Cubic feet x 28.32 = 254.88 liters! The standard bath tub in Indian homes hold around 40 liters of water. Here too, swami Vivekananda was asked why do Indians still prefer to bath with buckets instead of soaking themselves in bath tub? The reply was, "In India, when we bathe, the water flows over our body and goes down the drain taking with it the grime and dirt. We do not wallow in the same water in which others bath!" Yet we are so proud to flaunt our Occident influenced minds. This is really surprising!!! O.A.K.

Time Framed!!!

Tasveer 8X10. Nagesh Kukunoor directed, suspense thriller film is a movie I just risked watching. Akshay kumar a.k.a. Jai Puri, is a forest ranger with an ESP (extra sensory perception). His powers allow him to stare at a pic and then have the sight that the person in the photo had, just before his/her accident. Jai's father Jatin (Benjamin Gilani) dies in what seems to be an accident and a heart attack. On his death, Jatin's wife, Savitri (Sharmila Tagore) bequeaths all his wealth and estate. But all does not end here. Enter Happi (Javed Jaffery), "Happi with an I" as he calls himself challenges Jai into his theory that Jatin's death was not an accident. It was ill intended, well planned murder. Jai initially rubbishes this hypothesis, but his dreams of his fathers calling out for help, makes him suspicious. He uses his ESP on the pic taken by his mom, just before Jatin's death, to check out the truth. That pic has four people in it, who are also the suspects in the film. In the whole film he uses this power over 5 times. This movie, although a bit slow paced, holds the audience in good grip initially, the climax peaks up till intermission. It is a sign of a good suspense movie director that he lets the audience keep guessing who the culprit is. Kukunoor has made marvelous effort in directing this suspense thriller. The cinematographics and technical details of the movie is really appreciable. All the characters have a meaningful and integral role in the film. Nobody wasted. Javed Jaffery is exceptional with his whimsical role of a detective. Akshay's role is unlike his other films and has given his full effort. He has exhibited some of his parkour skills in the film. Sheila (Ayesha Takia) has a very "sweet" role of Jai's fiance. She definitely has a very important role and pulled it very well. Anil Sharma (Girish Karnad) as the lawyer, has a very limited reel time, but has a very meaningful part of a suspect. Other important characters are played by Anant Mahadevan andRushad Rana. Both have done it well. The music score by S. Suleiman keep the audience at the edge of their seat. While watching the movie, I was reminded of M. Night Shyamalan's stlye of direction. Looked very much similar. As the movie nears its end, the audience is clean bowled. The expression is like; "Now, whats that!!!!!" If you are able to catch the ending Kukunoor throws at you, Good. Else you will keep wondering what you are doing in the movie hall!

Back to Blogging...

This was the longest hiatus I ever took since I started blogging. Occupied in organizing the most amazing, fabulous workshop; UTSAV, I could not make out time to write even a few lines. This "season" I have many subjects to write on. My work for UTSAV made me learn, research, invent, stumble upon many new and amazing things, which I will be sharing here. Aahh yes! How will I forget "What Guruji Said..." I have been getting many mails containing short talks by gurudev where ever he traveled. This time I am for sure going to start a regular article on economics and finance, movie/book review, new technology, Lots of high quality humour, Video links that will shake & wake you up, Amazing & Wonderful sites, softwares that help us in day to day life, Lots of online games reviewed! Its going to be a loads of interesting stuff this time! See ya soon... Blogs will be regular after 26th April. O.A.K.