It is a known fact that Americans like it big, so big that visitors from outside the US start to feel a sense of “small”ness. I came back from Seattle last weekend (my third trip to the US) and looking back at my experiences there, my world is tiny compared to theirs.
I am used to buying tshirts of size L or XL. But, it was a surprise to me that i had to choose medium or even small in some shops when i was in the US. I was flattered. I remember, back in school, that friends used to joke that one doesn’t need to wear underwear if you were wearing a over sized tshirt, as the bottom of the tshirt fell way below your waistline. if a normal person were to try on the XL sizes available in the US, you don’t even near to wear socks/shoes!
i have seen the size XL and rarely XXL, but only in the US have i seen the size XXXL. There are also separate sections called “Big and Tall” which ironically have a small size too. Of course, the small in these sections can easily fit in my entire family!
Small in the US is not small for the rest of the world. When we were at a movie, i ordered a small coke. The “small” coke arrived in a cup almost as long as my … fore-arm!
In one of the cafes in Chicago airport, i saw a mom (super-sized one) feeding her small baby (a small one not capable of talking yet, sitting inside a stroller) french fries. No wonder, the average american turns out to be a super-sized adult.
Everyone knows COSTCO, the wholesaler where everything is cheap compared to other stores. But, there is a catch. You can only buy huge american-sized stuff. That would mean you have buy at least 5 kgs of potato chips or few kilos of chocolates.
God help america! No wonder stores like COSTCO are so popular, where the smallest chips packet would be the 1 kg one.
Pickup from the Hilton las vegas in a stretch limo and then a helicopter flight to the bottom of the grand canyon – Cool ! Look out for more photos and updates on my seattle trip blog.
I am currently in Seattle for the past one week and will be here for the next 3-4 weeks. Came here last saturday and immediately went on a sightseeing trip on Sunday. The city is beautiful, the view from my office, awesome!
See more of what I am doing, on my new Seattle blog – Sights in Seattle.
Warning: Before you go out and start taking photographs of lightning, remember that a lightning hit on a human can be fatal. So, pl note these points before attempting so.
Don’t take refuge under a tree while there is lightning around.
Don’t be the tallest object in the area around you. There is a good probability of you getting hit as a lightning strike chooses the shortest distance it has to travel before hitting something.
The best place to photograph lightning is not from the roof-top but from a balcony or a room which has an opening looking out. Stay inside such that there is always a roof over you and then point your camera towards the part of the sky where there is lightning.
So, this is what you have to do (one of the ways, not the only way) to get a good picture of a lightning strike.
You need a tripod. You have to be really lucky if you are to get a good lightning photo without a tripod or the lightning strike has to be real long and bad!
it is very difficult to see a strike and then press the shutter to photograph it. It happens too fast for us to react. So, go to Shutter Priority mode.
Choose an appropriate shutter speed. If there is lot of lightning, then it is enough for the shutter to be open for a few second. In the cases above, the lightning was sporadic and hence i kept the shutter open for 30 seconds.
Manually focus to infinity and leave the focusing mode at Manual.
The press of the button to take the photograph may introduce a shake in the photograph. So, choose the self-timer option and leave it at 2-5 seconds. This will give the camera enough time to stabilize after the shutter release is pressed.
That’s it. Press the button, sit back, enjoy the lightning and your camera will capture it for you!
We recently had an innovation week celebration in our company and as a part of it, there was a daily puzzle contest. I had prepared around 4-5 puzzles every day and sent them across by mail. Given below are all the puzzles. Mail the answers to me through my contact email (top leftof the page). Answers will be given when replies stop coming in.
PUZZLE 1: Head of the Pack
Let me tell you a thing or two about solving puzzles. It is much easier than you think it is. Maybe, all the big puzzle competitions happen only in the capitals of the various countries, but this doesn’t mean you can’t capitalize on the other opportunities. Actually, the capitalism existing in our country is preventing us from spending more time on solving puzzles. Sometimes, this lack of time to solve puzzles results in lesser innovation in organizations. So, it is time to throw out the bureaucracy and come together to solve all the puzzles. One always wonders whether such techniques do yield results, but believe me, they do. Last, but never the least, we hope that you were able to find the name of the city.
PUZZLE 2: Piled up in Egypt
The boxes are arranged such that the number inside a box is equal to the sum of the numbers of the two boxes supporting it (i.e. the two boxes below it). No number is repeated and all numbers are greater than zero. What is the number in the topmost box?
PUZZLE 3: A puzzle on my table!
After seeing this puzzle kept on the table, even Dr.Watson would have been tempted to say, “It’s elementary, my dear!”
99, 15, 53, 8, 11, 32
PUZZLE 4: STR-ANG-E OR-GANI-SMS
Given below is an empty crossword. You have to fit the following words into the grid. Then the letters in the colored cells will give you the answer.
Words: 282, 2253***, 28669, 78779, 5262
PUZZLE 5: Counting the Extras
Corfu
Either
Viefi
Nerves
Open
Sexi
Wort
Look at the words above. All of them have something extra. Once you identify the “extra” bit, do the most logical thing and you will get the seven letter answer.
PUZZLE 6: TOUR OF LIMASSOL
Amdocs Social Club has organized a tour of Limassol. You are here, sharp at 8 AM on a nice Saturday morning. As you try to board the bus, the driver asks you for a password. You say to the driver that you were not given any password when you registered in the survey. The driver says that the survey system had crashed on Friday night and the only way they could allow people to get on the bus was through this password system. You try to argue, but to no avail. As you turn back, the driver says “Sorry, my friend. Maybe, you can have a look at some of the photographs taken by your friends during the previous tour”. You grab the paper thinking that the driver was just making fun of you. But, soon you realize otherwise. The paper seems to be a collage of 9 photographs with people gesturing through some strange signs. You immediately start decoding the message and realize that it indeed has the password. Can you find the password from the collage below? You can download a higher resolution picture here. Thanks to Harish and Anith for modeling for this puzzle. Btw, both are right-handed and hence, their right hands take priority over their left.
PUZZLE 7: MILITARY TALK
Do you know the NATO phonetic alphabet? If not, search it up on the net. In the passage below, the NATO phonetic code words of all letters of the alphabet (A to Z) but one have been encoded. Find the one alphabet which has been omitted. To get you started, I shall give an example: Alpha (for letter A) has been encoded as one of the “Two Greeks”.
(Repeat Twice): Tyson and his father (in a radiation outfit) went to a country, a Canadian province and a capital city. There they met Frankenstein, two Greeks, an African, an American and his angels. They danced twice (to critical acclaim), had a drink in the local Mariott, played a sport, watched a play by William and before December they founded a software company, for which they won an award.
PUZZLE 8: PRIME-TIME PUZZLE
All the numbers in the table below can be expressed as a product of some primes. Do the prime factorization for each of them and then look for some pattern to find the 8-letter word!
9699690
510510
4849845
248710
39
2926
248710
285285
14630
49742
39
2090
746130
6630
53295
PUZZLE 9: Just another day in Cyprus
I have Cypriot neighbors. They are a small family with the husband, wife and their three kids – Andreas, Nicos and Nicolas. Mr. Christos, 42 years old, works in the LAPD (Limmasol Area Police Department) and Mrs. Christos is a housewife. Mr. Christos is former national backgammon champion. Mrs. Christos is highly educated and it seems that she chose to give up her good job to take care of her family. Mr. Christos works 6 days a week and starts at 7 AM in the morning. So, it was yet another boring Saturday when I was lazing around on my balcony. I noticed a guy walk over to the front door of our neighbor’s and this is the conversation I heard (translated to English for your convenience).
Guy (G): Good morning, I am from the PENTAGON (People EstimatioN Team And Government Organization Nicosia) and I wish to know the details of your family.
Mrs. Christos (MC): Yes, what details do you want?
G: Do you have kids?
MC: Yes
G: How many?
MC: Three
G: What are their ages?
I saw a smile on MC’s face. Then she said, “So, are you in a mood to do some math?”
G (with a smile on his face): Of course Ma’am, tell me.
MC: If you multiply the ages of my three kids, you will get three dozens.
MC: If you add the ages of my three kids, the number is the same as my door number.
G (Thinks for a while): Nope, I need more clues!
MC: You know, my eldest is a spoilt kid who spends the entire day playing backgammon in that coffee shop.
G: Thanks you Ma’am, I know their ages now.
Now, all you have to do is to find the ages of the three kids.
PUZZLE 10: BILINGUALLY SPEAKING!
Nowadays, more security personnel are required at football matches compared to international borders, as the probability of trouble seems to be higher in the former. So, it was no surprise that BBC were taking extreme precautions before reporting on an upcoming Russia-England football match. Any partisan report by the BBC could spell trouble for its loyal supporters and would enable its competitors like CNN get the international edge. So, they went looking for a person knowledgeable in football, but also impartial to both Russia and England. They found one Mr. Edvard Garringue Gotwald, a former footballer of the Czech Republic, who knew a lot about the Russian and the English sides and was also well conversant in both Russian and English.
So, the match happened on 18th July 2001. It was a closely fought encounter and the cops managed to keep off the hooligans and ensured that the match went on well. The editor of BBC received the match report from Mr. Edvard. He was shocked! It looked like Mr. Edvard, in the excitement of the match, mixed both Russian and English while writing the report. So, what does the report say? Btw, the final score in the match was Russia-1, England-0.
PUZZLE 11: STUCK IN JAIL
Samuel is stuck inside a jail in Libya. He is full of remorse and has sent you the secret note below. What does it say?
PUZZLE 12: WATCH THE CHANGE!
See the gif file below. You should see different images in the gif are played one after another. Imagine a 5*5 grid of LEDs. Only few LEDs are switched on at a time. The switched-on LEDs appear as white circles in the image. There is a 7-letter word encoded in these blinking LEDs. Better switch your brain to mode X OR you will never find the answer!
PUZZLE 13: A Visit to Kykkos Monastery
A team in DVCC wanted to go for a project event. They decided to go for a walk on a forest trail leading to a monastery. Only few members of the team knew about the trail and it was up to them to guide the rest of the group.
They started off going northwards. Then they turned east. Then a superstitious person suggested that they rather go south. After walking for some time, they realize that they had reached a dead-end. So, they cursed the superstitious guy and then retrace their way north. Once they reached the point from where they turned south, they continued in the original direction. A little later, they reached a dead-end. Then the superstitious person laughs and suggests again walking southwards. After some time, they take a well deserved break.
After a 15 minute break, they continue walking south. Once they reach the fountain marked on the map, they turned eastward as suggested. After what seemed like a long time, they came across a signpost on the road pointing towards the north. So, they turn north and walk for another half an hour and then rest for lunch.
After lunch, people were not in a mood to continue. But, they had to reach their destination before nightfall. So, the group leader urged the group to start walking westwards. After some time, the path turned to the south. Just after a short distance, there was a sign pointing towards east. So, they turned east. Now that the sun was behind them, they didn’t feel the heat of the sun. So, they didn’t realize that they had walked quite a distance when the map suggested that they turn south again. So, they dutifully followed. Then, almost immediately, the path turned west again. Then, after walking west for around 30 mins, they stopped for a tea-break.
After the rejuvenating tea, they started walking eastwards. After what seemed like a long walk, they came to a dead-end. Then one person casually said; ”Ah, maybe we should have taken the path to the south which came some time earlier!”. They all cursed him and retraced their path due-west. When they came to the turning mentioned by this person, they turned south and marched on. After 1 hour, they saw their destination before them, the grand monastery of Kykkos. At the gate of the monastery, the guard asked them for the password. The group leader who had been taking notes all the time during the trek realized the password and told it to the guard. It was the correct password and they all happily retired to the guest rooms at the monastery. So, do you know the password?
PUZZLE 14: The search for Cypriot villages
Find the following village names in the grid below. The remaining letters would tell you how to get the answer. The words can be oriented horizontally, vertically or diagonally. The letters in the grid below can be reused for more than one word, but not in more than 2 words.
PUZZLE 15: GRAFFITTI OR GRAPH?
The Cyprus government has long suspected the British of monitoring all email communications passing through Cyprus. But, they have never been able to prove it. They ask for your help in uncovering the secrets of the big white dome on top of the Troodos Mountains. But, this task is easier said than done. It is a well known fact that the dome is patrolled by less than a dozen soldiers, but the hi-tech security around the dome is almost impenetrable. In the guise of a regular tourist looking for a good spot to ski, you reach the side-doors of the dome. You see lot of graffiti on the wall and think aloud; “These football fans haven’t left alone even this place!” You see a monitor on the door asking for a password. Then you realize that the graffiti might actually be the key to this. You start plotting points assuming that each pair of letters connects the vertices labeled by the alphabets. Slowly, letters start to appear and finally, you get the password. What is the password?
PUZZLE 16: A TIGHT FIT
The eight tiles below must be fitted into the pattern so as to form 4 words reading across and 5 words reading down. The tiles cannot be rotated or modified in any form. Find the 9 words.
Fit in the letters below to form the question above and then find the answer. No need to change the orders of the letters in each group of three. Just find the right position to place the group as such.
APO
BEA
BUM?
NWA
SAL
SAL
SOA
TLE
TWE
WHA
PUZZLE 18: READING BETWEEN THE WORDS
Each sentence below contains a country’s name within it. Find each of the countries.
a. My landlords went to a spa in Latvia for this year’s holidays.
b. To find the Great Wall, search in an Asian country.
c. It is normal in this country to walk to work.
d. This country has a fine palace where horses live.
e. You have to visit this city to enjoy such adventures.
f. While attending the innovation session i germinate ideas for the next big thing.
g. The crowd consists of thousands of people so those leaving cannot be monitored individually.
h. The rough analysis proved that this machine does not work.
PUZZLE 19: GOING TO THE MOVIES
For all you movie buffs out there, these puzzles should be a piece of cake! Each of these rebuses solve to a movie name. (14 movies)
I am a normal person who dreams regularly (thankfully, no nightmares!). Sometimes, i do remember the dreams the next day and most of the times, they are even more outlandish than a typical Bollywood movie. But, one thing which has always been the case is that some aspect of the dream would always be something which i had done or been involved with in the near past. For example, if i were preparing for a dumb-c event, then i would not only stop at dreaming about codes, but also wake up (actually asleep) , then awaken Vidhya and ask her to decode something which i mime! Similarly, for puzzle events, i have actually got some good ideas for puzzles from the dreams. But, a few days earlier, i had a dream which went something like this. I was traveling in a bus and got a ticket from the conductor. There was a guy next to me who suddenly dropped some coins into my hand and then asked me to hold on to them for few minutes. I, of course, wasn’t interested and tried to put back the coins in his hand. But, he was avoiding this and saying “one minute, please” and so on. Then, i noticed some movement behind me and felt a hand on my pant’s back pocket. I realized that someone was trying to take the wallet out of my pocket. I quickly turned around and punched the guy in his face. At this time, i came out of the dream. No, i didn’t wake up, but i went into “Analysis of the dream” mode while i was asleep. i started wondering as to why i had this dream. I had never been part of such an experience. No one had ever picked my pocket nor had i seen someone do it. i was surprised, as this ploy seemed perfect for a pickpocket gang with one member working to distract the person while another takes the wallet. Is it a sign of things to come? I dunno!
My first post through the DSL connection at home. Don’t be surprised, i have survived so many years on the internet on dial-up. Okay, i use the office connection too, but all the internet activity from home has been on dial-up. Finally, after the arrival of Akshara, i had move to high speed internet, as the demand for photos could just not be met through dial-up. I have always been slow for catching up on technology. When the world moved to the iphones, i moved from the Nokia 3310 to the wap-enabled Nokia 3330, not that i needed/used WAP. Sometime early this year, i was forced to change phones, as the usually very resilient Nokia 3330 didn’t survive a 4 floor fall. So, i got myself a Nokia 6610 released just 5 years ago, a very new model for my standards. Compared to my way with phones, i have been pretty okay with respect to cameras. The Nikon coolpix 2500, a trendy and stylish 2 MP camera was released late february 2002 and i purchased it around mid-march and instantly became the trendsetter. Similarly, when i upgraded to Nikon D70, which was incidentally the camera of the year 2004, i was one of the very few (in my office circle) who had a digital SLR. Okay, now that i have the DSL, let me put it to good use. Searching for BBC documentaries …
If i had been missing from the blogging scene for a while, it was for a reason. The reason is the birth of my daughter Akshara on 23rd August. After her birth, she has been keeping us busy day and night. But, in the middle of all this, i did find time to start a website in her time. By modern standards, i would have failed in my duty as a father if i hadn’t done so. So, here goes, Akshara’s very own personal blog called Child’s Play. Do drop in there from time to time for updates and photos of Akshara!
One of the most popular pages on my site is the one about Dumb Charades. I remember from back in school/college that dumbcharades was one of the most popular games played within a group, of course next to Antakshari. Another game very popular in India (and, as i found out, very popular in Cyprus too) is the game of Tambola. It is also known as Bingo or Housie. When i was working/staying in bangalore, our apartment used to organise Bingo once a month with the tickets priced at 2 rupees each. We used to be 5 guys (fresh from college s/w engineers) staying together. While other bought 1 or 2 tickets each, we used to go and buy 10 to 15 tickets each , virtually dictating the way the event was conducted. Others didn’t complain, for we contributed to the big prize money in the pool. But, more often than not, we cornered most of the prizes due to the heavy probability in our favour. I have been conducting Bingo sessions in our outdoor events at work for few years now. I do it a bit differently and as far as i know, it has been well received. Traditionally Bingos (or is it Bingoes) have cash prizes for the first five, the three rows and a full house, the cash prizes coming from the sale of the tickets. In the tambola events i organise, i do give out cash prizes, but also lot of other small gifts which can be souvenirs, fridge magnets, tshirts and pracically anything else which is not so expensive. If i do manage to get sponsors, then the big gifts come out. So, if you are organising a bingo, try to get a budget for it and then buy many small gifts and give them out apart from the cash prizes. if you don’t get a budget, make a guess as to the amount of money you will collect and then pre-buy gifts for that amount. Now that you have so many gifts, how are you going to give them away if there are only 4 prizes (3 rows + 1 full house)? This is where you have to do things differently. i have given below the list (in random order) of all bingo “events” for which i have given away prizes. You can pick and choose from the list below based on the number of gifts you have, your interest level in organising the event, the time available for the event (more the prizes, more the time ) and the interest level of the players.
Anyone with the number 1 on their ticket. If all players have bought the full column, change it to – Anyone with number 1 on their topmost ticket – i usually start off with this one giving all the ppl 1 cent/1 rupee as a prize!
Apart from the three rows, you can also give a prize for the first 4 columns i.e. the first and the last number on the first and the last row.
If you are playing Bingo with a group of really enthusiastic people, you can also add prizes for the 5 columns on a ticket. Each column is not defined as the column appearing on the ticket, but as the respective numbers. Eg: 1st column would be the 1st number on each row irrespective of where the numbers actually are.
It will be a morale-booster to also have a unlucky-one prize for the one who is the last to get a number on his ticket.
If your group contains people of both sexes and of different ages, you can give prizes based on boys/girls or kids/parents/grand parents etc i.e a prize to the kid with the most/least number of numbers marked on a ticket.
You can also play around with mathematics (if you have people buying an entire column) such a 1 number in 1 ticket, 2 numbers in another ticket and 3 numbers in another or any such combination.
You can give prizes for combination of numbers in the rows i.e. 1 number on a row, 2 on another and 3 on the other.
While selling tickets, give discounts to people buying the entire column ( 6 tickets). This will encourage people to buy the set which gives you more options to give prizes.
Giving away absolutely junk prizes in the middle will keep the audience entertained. Eg: After giving away lot of prizes, the person to receive a prize will be looking forward to a goo prize. Then you can suddenly call for a combination which you expect many to have and call all of them to get a prize. You could then give each of them a chocolate or something equally silly!
If you run out of allocated prizes for the first session on Bingo towards the end, but people are still interested, you can always give out free tickets for the next session as a prize.
Hope these tips help you in organising a good game of Bingo! Btw, if you don’t have the cards to play, you can check this post for a link with which you can print Bingo cards for free.
Celebrities never cease to amaze us ordinary folks. It’s not only them but their entire family tree which fascinates us. The world went crazy over the wedding pictures of Surya and Jyotika. It was but obvious that the craze continued with their offspring too. So, now we have the photos of surya’s and jyothika’s daughter taking the online world by storm. Maybe, these were released in competition to the photos of ajith and shalini’s daugher , Anoushka ??
Diya celebrated her first birthday with mom and dad and it looked to be a Surya/Jyotika/Sivakumar family affair.
