The guessing game story reminded me of an interesting but uncommon puzzle that was posed to us by one of our teachers. I am grateful to him as I found it handy during hundreds of hiring interviews that I had to take, many years later, where I needed a [...]
Give the following instructions to a friend: Think of two numbers the number of the month in which you were born and the number of the day of the month on which you were born. Multiply the month number by 5. Add 6. Multiply by 4. Add 9. Multiply [...]
I was studious in my school days, but that did not mean that I did not like to have fun. I liked lunch breaks and longed to have those “free periods” when we were told to just be inside the classrooms and do whatever and nobody watched us. Most [...]
Let me flashback to my days of primary school(circa 1975). As was common those days the medium of instruction in my school was Marathi (my mother tongue). We barely had started having English as just another subject. Once, our Mathematics teacher had given us a massive homework to complete [...]
The flight attendants have quite a thankless job of delivering security briefing. They must do their dumb charades, no matter how much their audience is interested in it. As a traveler, after several flights, you almost know every word of the briefing and despite your best interest, you could [...]
Catching a glimpse of a celebrity is a perk of Air travel. I too had my fair share of this perk. I was once even puzzled that why ACP Pradyuman did not recognize me after so much of acquaintance, before I realized that it’s just me who knows him [...]
When I bought my first house, one of the conditions was that it should be reasonably close to my workplace. Keeping the commute easy is one of the greatest rewards to yourself, especially if you work for long and odd working hours and if you live in an Indian [...]
I joined Department of Space of Government of India as scientist, in the early nineties. I was selected for this newly founded research center at a beautifully landscaped site. It had manicured lawn with natural granite outcrops left popping out at several places. The building itself had exterior of [...]
Once I finished my Bachelor of civil engineering, a patient wait for a plump government job would be over, I had thought, but alas, the government announced zero based budgeting the year I passed out, meaning no new jobs. As they say, when one door closes, another opens, the [...]
I was one of the studious ones, during my school days. In our state board examination of 10th grade, I stood second in my town. To our fortune, we had a brand new 10 + 2 school in our town which was known for their dedicated teachers. All top [...]