All posts by sid

A hundred prisoners are each locked in a room with three pirates, one of whom will walk the plank in the morning. Each prisoner has 10 bottles of wine, one of which has been poisoned; and each pirate has 12 coins, one of which is counterfeit and weighs either more or less than a genuine coin. In the room is a single switch, which the prisoner may either leave as it is, or flip. Before being led into the rooms, the prisoners are all made to wear either a red hat or a blue hat; they can see all the other prisoners’ hats, but not their own. Meanwhile, a six-digit prime number of monkeys multiply until their digits reverse, then all have to get across a river using a canoe that can hold at most two monkeys at a time. But half the monkeys always lie and the other half always tell the truth. Given that the Nth prisoner knows that one of the monkeys doesn’t know that a pirate doesn’t know the product of two numbers between 1 and 100 without knowing that the N+1th prisoner has flipped the switch in his room or not after having determined which bottle of wine was poisoned and what color his hat is, what is the solution to this puzzle?

Ramayana Series

December 9, 2008postpostsid

The Ramayana series is an epic retold by Ashok Banker, one of the few Indian authors I have come to admire. Fellow Indians of my generation had their first proper glimpse of Ramayana in the TV series telecasted by Doordarshan in the early 80s/90s, and I like them, thought I knew all that had to be known about it.

When I first heard about the rave reviews on Banker’s retelling, I tended to ignore it as hype, as I had already seen and read a lot about Ramayana, with it being such an integral part of Hindu Indian culture, and wondered why should I read something I already know so much about.

But one night, I just picked up the first part (Prince of Ayodhya), and started reading. Within an hour, I was gripped. I found it wasn’t the typical Ramayana retelling one gets to read, which tends to be overwhelmingly colored in a religious tone. I found it to be more in the fantasy genre, and having read LOTR only a few months back, I found it way more exciting compared to LOTR, with a much larger scope and a much bigger and more interesting collection of magical creatures and powers.

A couple of months, and five more volumes (Siege of Mithila, Demons of Chitrakut, Armies of Hanuman, Bridge of Rama, King of Ayodhya) later, I found myself with a much richer knowledge of Ramayana. The author did use his artistic liberties occasionally, but it didn’t alter the fabric of the story in any way, only made it a much more enjoyable read.

I heartily recommend this epic series to anyone and everyone. And I recommend my fellow Indians who already know so much about Ramayana, to cast apart their apprehensions, and just take this as a highly enjoyable read.

Happy birthday Harleen!

November 18, 2008postpostsid

The girl who wants to change India

November 5, 2008postpostsid

Got this as a forward from a friend :

A random browse of Indian Political videos on youtube yielded this –

http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=MDeSxpta4AA

Apparently this girl wants to make a difference to her community, her
village – by entering politics. That is a profound thought –
considering that we – supposed educated people – in the largest
democracy in the world – dont give a damn about politics. That is not
completely accurate. We DO give a damn about it, when we have to
complain about various things that are NOT right about politics or
overall state of affairs of the country.

Coming back to this girl – She has taken it upon herself to make a
difference to her village. And that is inspiring because
she is entering the bad bad world of politics, despite greatly lacking
resources, knowing the kind of dangers that await her. We need her. We
need more people like her. We need more like her to breathe new life into the
administration of India. We need more youth entering politics.

I am forwarding this, pledging my support to her campaign. I know very
well that she lacks the funding or the resources to match goons in the
field. But i am doing as much as i can, spreading her message through
the web and word of mouth. You can support/assist her in her campaign
in Amloh, Fatehgarh Sahib, Punjab. Please do so if you stay anywhere
close by.

She is standing for the IYC (Indian Youth COngress) block level
elections. With support, she could possibly stand at the state level.
You never know.

Forward this message to people you know, coz you never know how far
this mail can reach, what kind of support she may get, how far she may
go. It is all in the power of the FORWARD button right there, on the
top corner of your mail console.
CHeers.

The Machinist

September 4, 2008postpostsid

The Machinist is Trevor Reznik who works in a heavy industry. For certain reasons, he has been suffering from insomnia for over a year. This has caused him to become inhumanly thin, and also obscured his perception of reality.

I can’t elaborate more in the plot or it will spoil the fun of watching it.

The cinematography is brilliant, similar to the Japanese mystery/horror movies like Dark Water/Ring which build up the element of mystery slowly with the use of environment and darkness in general, unlike the typical Hollywood devices of gore, sudden noises/camera movements etc.

Christian Bale playing the protagonist Trevor Reznik, looks like he just got out of Auschwitz. Surviving on a diet of 275 calories a day over several months, he reduced his weight to an incredible 54 kg, just to look the part! His appearance is totally different, and someone who has seen him in any of his other movies will have trouble recognizing him, just like Edward Norton changed himself for American History X