Comfortably Numb!

250 : An awesome cards game for 5 people!

2010-09-19T07:40:00.000-07:00

First of all, thanks to Jeet who taught me this game! :) I find it one of the best card games I've played so far, and so, thought of putting up a basic how-to-play ( rules & procedure i.e.) so that you could give it a try as well.

The ground principle^† for 250 is the same as that in games that go by the names Coatpeace / Satranga / Blind Partner / 3-2-5 / 7-8 .

Point system:
1. Three of ♠ : 30 points
2. Ace (high) to Ten (low) : 10 points each (So, for all the four colours, total points = 10*5*4 = 200)
3. Five : 5 point each (So, for all the four colours, 5*4 = 20 points)

Adding all above (30+200+20), total points in the game = 250

Initial stuff & Rules:
1. Take out Two of ♣ and ♦ , so that the total no. of cards in the deck become 50 (each player will get 10 cards in all, i.e.).

2. Bidding starts at 150 and continues in (minimum) increments of 5, in a circle... a player could pass any number of times but also, join back the bidding at any time (of course, only when it is his/her turn - see example c) below). A few examples of how a bidding could proceed:

a) 150 -> 155 -> 180 -> pass -> 190 ->
pass -> pass -> pass -> pass -> pass
b) 150 -> 170 -> pass -> pass -> 175 ->
200 -> pass -> pass -> pass -> pass
c) 150 -> 200 -> pass -> pass -> pass ->
205 -> pass -> pass -> 210 -> pass ->
pass -> pass -> pass

3. Once a bid becomes final, the player who took that bid ( in the above example, it would be a) 190, b) 200, and c) 210 ) announces two cards (say, the King of ♠ and Ace of ♥ ).
The player(s) holding these two cards is(are) his partner(s) for the game, but they are not allowed to explicitly reveal this, of course!! If the bid is at 200 or above, then he can choose two Aces, but if it's less than 200, then he can choose only one Ace at the most.

Procedure:
1. One of the players equally distributes the cards amongst all, going in two rounds (5+5 to each)

2. The player next to him bids the first. Then the bid goes on, as explained above in #2.

3. Once the bid is final, the bidder announces two cards (i.e. chooses his/her "invisible" partner(s), as explained above in #3) and then, announces the cut-colour that he/she wishes.

4. The bidder now starts the game by dropping a card, this can be a high/low/seemingly-intelligent/seemingly-stupid/whatever card!! The main objective is to get his/her partner(s) revealed as soon as possible so that they (and 'they' can be either 3 or 2 people, here) contribute constructively in obtaining as much points as possible, during the course of the game. For example, the bidder chose the King of ♠ and Ace of ♥ and he starts the game by dropping, say Three of ♥ . The player who holds the Ace of ♥ could then, on his turn (though, he is not obliged to) drop this card thus revealing his affiliation to the bidder.

Simultaneously, their opponent(s) also need to know each other, so that they can prevent the bidding team from winning, i.e. not let them cross the final bid-value. To continue the case in the above example, assume the person next to the bidder does not either have the King of ♠ or the Ace of ♥ , (so he is not a partner) and furthermore, he does not even have a single ♥ card. So, he puts some cut-colour card. Then, a partner of his (i.e. another player who does not either have the King of ♠ or the Ace of ♥ too) could let's say, drop a Jack of ♦ (because this carries 10 points) on his turn, thereby clearly showing that he belongs to the opposition camp!

One important thing to remember is to try your best that the Three of ♠ is captured by your camp, as this could provide/snatch from you, 30 points in just one shot!!!

† : The players have to form at least the designated no. of sets for themselves (or their team). For this, they throw cards of the same suit and the biggest one gets that specific set unless cutting-colour suit card(s) has(ve) been also thrown. In that case, the highest colour

cube-with-'n'-cuts problem

2010-06-01T18:44:00.000-07:00

Just a while before, I was thinking of some problem which very queerly reminded of another problem we used to tackle, while solving those mental ability questions during NTSE preparation in X standard. It's not anything special or hard, and I am pretty sure this result I've derived here would be present in an umpteen no. of books/guides; but maybe it's still nice to put it on the blogpage so that if someone is searching for a quick solution, then I believe the formalism I present here will make it easy to remember.

So the problem is - you take a cube and uniformly paint it all around, then make n equally-spaced cuts along each of the x, y and z axes. This gives you n³ smaller cubes and one needs to determine how many cubes have exactly one face coloured, or two faces coloured etc. etc.

The following formula contains the answers:

n³ = (n - 2 + 2)³
= (n - 2)³ + 6(n - 2)² + 12(n - 2) + 8

The first term is the number of cubes with none of the faces coloured, second is with exactly one coloured face and so on.... and this is pretty easy to visualize too.

The interesting thing now is, can this be generalized to higher dimensions? As in, would cutting a kube (a k dimensional cube :-P) with n cuts in each of the k dimensions (to obtain n^k kubes in all i.e.) result in q = ⁿC_k (n-2)^j 2^j being the no. of kubes with exactly j faces coloured.

Deutsche Bahn wishes you a Happy New Year... 19 times!

2010-01-22T06:29:00.000-08:00

because the current year according to them is 2029! :-D

The photo isn't the clearest one could take with a mobile phone camera, nonetheless, if you look carefully you will find all the DD MM YYYY fields as quite arbitrary!

Can't prevent writing the obvious now... but it seems so futuristic!! ;-)

Authentic Pfizer spam?

2010-01-12T03:10:00.001-08:00

I am reasonably sure you would've seen/received umpteen of spam emails from "Authentic Viagra Sellers" or some-similar-sounding-spammer kin, with the subject announcing a flattering personal/special discount of 80% off Pfizer.
It's needless to say that the subsequent action one takes is simply to delete this stupid spam. Which is what I did a few hours ago too, in my usual nonchalant way. I did a "Select: All" first and then, as I hit the "Delete forever" button, out of the corner of my eye, I noticed the subject of one of these Pfizer spams... offering a discount of 73% !!! How on the earth did they choose this number? :D
Or has it been this way and it's only that I noticed this today?

Whatever, must say I feel a bit dejected on having deleted that email now! :D

Apni to har aah ik toofan hai...

2009-04-10T09:12:00.000-07:00

Black and white is gorgeous. Add the immensely beautiful Waheeda Rehman and charismatic Dev Anand to the scene, blend it with Rafi's magic in the background, and what you get is a wonderful and lovely song! Apni to har aah ik toofan hai... Each (Even a) sigh of mine seems to bring a storm! :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuRQ-9zK75g

Here, Rafi croons a cute & flirting-so-delicately-and-sweetly-between-spirituality-and-love song that brings a light-relaxed smile on my face everytime I watch it.

Just so terrible!

2009-04-01T08:57:00.000-07:00

United Kingdom's justice system has gone bonkers!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/london/7975921.stm
I just happened to be following this incident a bit closely in the last few days, because of the extreme revulsion and disgust I had felt when I read about it for the first time.
Just four years of imprisonment for claiming a man's life is outrageous! Given that the culprit already had a few convictions before, for shoplifting etc., it's beyond my understanding why the punishment awarded is so miserably small.

As Britishers like to say, God save U.K. !

R.I.P. Rick Wright

2008-09-15T19:33:00.000-07:00

... and I am not frightened of dying,
any time will do, I don't mind.
Why should I be frightened of dying?
There's no reason for it, you gotta go sometime....

-- The Great Gig in the Sky (Dark Side Of the Moon)

Yes, indeed... everyone has to gotta go sometime... but the suddenness of this event can be so shocking and mind-numbing! It's been around 2 hours since I read about Wright, and it just fails to sink in! The music he composed is sooo immensely expressive and beautiful, even if it was on the morbid issues of death or insanity... the feeling of sheer ecstacy in 'The Great Gig in the Sky', the mind-blowing 'Echoes', or the beautiful sense of calmness in 'Remember A Day' or, the enchantingly glorious 'Us and Them'....

And now, as I was trudging back home from the university, with DSOtM flowing in my ears, I had a very poignant experience.
Through the branches of a tree with yellowing and decaying leaves, I suddenly saw a magnificent full moon that was so abundant with life... and at the same time, the magical piano that introduces 'The Great Gig in the Sky' began on my ipod... I was almost moved to tears!

Nature possesses such remarkable ways to convey to us, the circle of life & death... and Pink Floyd was, is and will be, undoubtedly the best way Nature chose, to express the same into words and music!

Shine on, Rick... we'll miss you!

Garrulity galores!

2007-05-25T18:42:00.000-07:00

During the good ol' childhood days, my parents used to bring a lot of typical English and Hindi youth magazines for us (me and my sister), like Champak, Nandan, Balhans etc etc. I remember Target as one of the most likeable ones in the English ones (don't know if it's in circulation anymore). An avid reader/follower of it, I still remember the laugh-riot cartoon series of Gardhab Das, apart from some fantastic stories. The double page in the center of the magazine used to be dedicated to humorous illustrations - I vividly recall one of them even now - and also, that serves what's-coming-ahead-in-this-article.
The description below mightn't bring the spontaneous grin that would've appeared on your face had you looked at it directly, but I'll go ahead nonetheless...
Imagine two women, standing across a fence that separates their respective gardens. One of them holds a running water hose in her hand and is so engrossed in talking with the other, that her whole garden has already flooded with almost a feet of water!! Her pet dog is shown nearby, swimming and woof-ing with an astonished expression, but as would be obvious, the women are just too absorbed to pay any heed.

And, that brings me to the topic of this article - does the trait of chattering/talking incessantly hinge on the chromosome-content (XX vs. XY, I mean!)? Further, how far does the environment dictate its developmet? As school kids, I think girls certainly had a higher propensity of talking than boys (even though we were meted out punishments more frequently.... maybe, the teachers didn't want such unnatural traits to be nurtured in boys!? :D)
Nevertheless, the following extract, that's been copy-pasted from Anne Frank - Diary of A Young Girl, contains something relevant and also, makes a good read as it's both cute & funny! :)

Mr. Keesing, the old fogey who teaches math, was mad at me for the longest time because I talked so much. After several warnings, he assigned me extra homework. An essay on the subject "A Chatterbox." A chatterbox, what can you write about that? I'd worry about that later, I decided. I jotted down the assignment in my notebook, tucked it in my bag and tried to keep quiet. That evening, after I'd finished the rest of my homework, the note about the essay caught my eye. I began thinking about the subject while chewing the tip of my fountain pen. Anyone could ramble on and leave big spaces between the words, but the trick was to come up with convincing arguments to prove the necessity of talking. I thought and thought, and suddenly I had an idea. I wrote the three pages Mr. Keesing had assigned me and was satisfied. I argued that talking is a female trait and that I would do my best to keep it under control, but that I would never be able to break myself of the habit, since my mother talked as much as I did, if not more, and that there's not much you can do about inherited traits. Mr. Keesing had a good laugh at my arguments, but when I proceeded to talk my way through the next class, he assigned me a second essay. This time it was supposed to be on "An Incorrigible Chatterbox." I handed it in, and Mr. Keesing had nothing to complain about for two whole classes. However, during the third class he'd finally had enough. "Anne Frank, as a punishment for talking in class, write an essay titled 'Quack, Quack, Quack, said Mistress Chatterback.' "

So, as we see, Anne's frank :D in confessing that loquaciousness is something that comes very naturally to her! Another such testimony-to-talkativeness could be obtained, if one attempts to categorize the phone bills of a typical family... say, parents with two children, a boy and girl - I am very sure the female section of the family shall have the scales tilted heavily in their favour, in at least 3/4th of the cases! ;)
I could even collect statistics from you bloggers/blog-readers and publish them here, time to time! So contribute, if you feel like :) But for now, I suddenly feel I've been pretty talkative myself :P sooo...... time to say, Goodbye garrulity!

Sokal Affair

2006-11-08T22:46:00.000-08:00

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sokal_Affair

Who said physicists/mathematicians don't have a sense of humor?

Err... excuse me, how many days did we have in September?

2006-10-03T04:06:00.000-07:00

Got this mail on renewal of my credit card:

Dear Citibank Cardmember,

Your renewed Card ending XXXX has been despatched to you.

In case you do not receive the same by 31-SEP-06 request you to please mail us at indiaservice@citicorp.com or call us at your nearest CitiPhone location.

Also, notice another (grammatical) shoddiness in the sentence above! Somehow it's a bit hard to swallow such blunders originating from highly professional organisations, in this particular case, it being a corporate giant like Citibank itself!! Or have we Indians (the infamous call-centre employees, i.e.) become complacent after being bestowed the title of English Grammar Pundits?
Oh and btw... can anyone now tell me now, how much profit does Citigroup make, in a single day? ;-)

Of the significance of a thing called... life!

2006-06-02T23:39:00.000-07:00

It's not exactly a whimsical irony that even this post of mine deals with the same topic as the last one - life and death.
Actually, around a week ago, in the morning, my mother gave me a tragic news - a young relative had met a fatal road accident - he's survived by his wife and just a 10-11 year old kid:-( Instantly, memories of Bansi's death flooded my mind, but the overwhelming grief soon gave into this frightening question... Am I too destined for something of this sort? Is it a neglected, blood-splattered end, that fate reserves for me?
It's not the first time I've encountered this scary thought - the utterly miserable state of traffic and roads in Pune give ample chances to invoke this brooding - but this time, it somehow shuddered me to the very last of my nerves! Maybe a personal mishap that took place last month could've been the cause for this unfortunate dwelling of panic in my mind...

Nonetheless, my post is rather about the abject lack of concern about the importance of life, in our country. Sometimes I wonder... how can human psyche across the world be so starkly different? Do the economic conditions and the culture (perhaps?) dictate so powerfully, something so crucial as the sanctity of human life? I, basically allude to the other end of spectrum, i.e. nations like US, where the measures to protect life can even verge towards paranoia (or maybe that my mind is incapable of assimilating the standards these countries have set, to save a citizen's life). But of course, it's not the criticism of `over', but that of the `under' which forms the essence of my article.
The foremost is we, ourselves being the culprit first and the victim later! Insensitivity shown by driving recklessly, jumping red-lights, talking on mobile phones while driving - why have these become so commonplace? They could've been kept under check, had the traffic rules been enforced strictly! Unfortunately, these habits amongst people have perpetuated and so, it's a rather grim state now...
The next is - why do we so sadly lack the infrastructure for addressing accidental emergencies - this includes the sparse number of hospitals in most of the areas - add to that the usual apathy and need of "paperwork first, admission later"? Infact, there's almost a complete absence of even basic care units to provide first-aid along the major highways.
And if this is not enough, there is the high-handedness and unsympathetic ways of the police in dealing with the victim(s) and their helper(s), to tackle with.

Is it not possible to demand from the government the "right to live" - no, I'm not asking for a constitutional amendment to add the "right to life and property" to the list of fundamental rights, now - what I mean is the need to live safely and soundly holds in itself, an intrinsic fundamentalness and hence should be provided at the basic possible level.

Is it really possible to address this? Or am I too naive?

Before I sign off, here's a traffic display that echoes the lament:

1940 - Pune is crowned as "Oxford of the East"
2006 - Pune is selected as the most undiscplined city of India

Maut tu ek kavita hai...

2006-04-05T22:07:00.000-07:00

Maut tu ek kavita hai....
Mujhse ek kavita ka vadaa hai, milegi mujhko ...

Doobti nabzon mein jab dard ko neend aane lage
Zard sa chehra liye chaand ufaq tak pahunche ...
Din abhi paani mein ho, raat kinare ke kareeb
Na andhera ho, na ujala ho ...
Na aadhi raat, na din
Jism jab khatm ho aur rooh ko saans aae ...

Mujhse ek kavita ka vadaa hai milegi mujhko....

These brilliant lines compose such a vivid description of life delicately balanced on the verge of death, that everytime I read them, I'm taken apart by their sheer force of poignance! They are from the poem that Amitabh recites to Rajesh Khanna (in the movie "Anand" - one of my all time favourites).... unfortunately, I don't have a clue if it's Gulzar who's penned this poem or someone else? But if you've an idea about the poet, do write me in a comment!
Anyhow, I shall make an endeavour now to translate the poem in English, even though a loss of spontaneity, richness and meaning shall be evident/obvious, but then, that's all about the power of a language over the other in certain aspects... and hence, something that can't be helped.

O death! You're like poetry
And I've been promised by a poem, that it shall be mine

As the pulse (of life) recedes, the pain & suffering go to (an eternal) sleep
And a yellowish (young) moon starts to rise and reach its zenith
The day is yet to sink in water, as the night waits, nigh, to the shore
It's not dark, it's not bright
it's neither midnight nor high noon
And as the body loses material, the free soul gets seeped with (fresh) air

The poem has (fulfilled the) promise of being mine!

Halting that hiatus!

2005-08-05T02:05:00.000-07:00

Hmmm... just visited my own blogpage after what could be described as slightly-less-than-a-small-fraction-of-an-eon. Found it (un-contray to expectations) to be covered with dust and cobwebs and so am all set to change that!
Firstly, a (somewhat delayed) thanks to Jeet for gifting me an awesome Pink Floyd T-Shirt having the Pig hovering over Battersea Power Station (from Floyd's 1977's Animals cover). I'll soon upload a more-than-a-mugshot of mine wearing that shirt.
Ehm... now that we've (so-very-incidentally :-D) touched upon another of Floyd's projects, let's discuss it further. My appreciation for this classic album (Animals i.e.), has grown manyfolds since the last few days. George Orwell's 'Animal Farm' (recommended by someone very dear! :-)) holds a major contribution in that. The hard hitting lyrics, the usual unusually-wierd-sounding music may not appeal in your very first attempt, infact it might give an impression of something unfriendly and repulsive! But a few times over, it gradually begins to seep in... and soon, there is no possibility of reversing back!
Waters' deeply infested cynicism, reflected throughout the course of this album is too, said to've been partially inspired by Animal Farm, a major difference being that Orwell's attack was on the communism government where as Floyd targets capitalism (and it's bunch of related evils - absolutism, hypocricy and corruption amongst politicians; to name a few). He particularly launches a seething attack on a certain Mary Whitehouse, who was some sort of a head of some sort of a censorboard and in her missive to sustain and improve *moral* standards had unduly disapproved and criticized Pink Floyd. The lyrics make it all pretty clear:

Hey you White house, ha ha, charade you are
You house proud town mouse, ha ha, charade you are
You're trying to keep our feelings of the street
You're nearly a real treat
All tight lips cold feet
And do you feel abused?

So.... in a nutshell, Animals might've been lost between the two magnum opus-es 'Dark Side of The Moon' and 'The Wall', but with it's very forthright and focussed concept and vast amounts of psychedelia, it still is a great and highly listenable Floyd project.

Why?

2005-06-09T00:24:00.000-07:00

Why does Pune suck so badly, despite so many good things?

A few weeks before, I went to the RTO (Regional Transport Office) to have a new driving license made, since my previous license was on the verge of expiry. I'd just entered the area and was making enquiries with the gatekeeper, when a few touts gheraoed me and started offering help.... in marathi! But that was merely the first nail in the coffin. Around 2 hours later, armed with signed & stamped documents, in which more than 3/4th of the stuff was written in (yeah, you guessed it right - marathi!) - I entered the office to get a receipt for the test. To my growing resentment, I found that all the traffic signboard explanations, notices, instructions were again in the ghati lingo! X-( Another hour of wait, and I heard my name announced - and told that my seat no. was "daah" (fortunately, knew that this was 10 and not 2).
But now, to my utter consternation, the instructions for the exams were too delivered in marathi! This was the height, but to take on the system at that point of time would've been futile, because all it would've done would be jeopardising the process of license making. My knowledge of Hindi and a general logic did save my day (got 8/10, but deserved 9), but I was really confounded why this has never been challenged?
This one issue makes me despise this "ghat-land" so much. Everyone, right from autowallahs to someone seeking directions, takes you to be a by-default-pundit on marathi.
Anyhow, I'm preparing myself to face the ordeal - Part II now, as I need to convert the learners' license to a permanent one very soon! Someone give me the strength and patience to tolerate this, please!!!

Us and Them

2005-05-17T23:42:00.000-07:00

"Us and Them...
And after all, we're only ordinary men"

Wordweb defines "ordinary" as :
Not exceptional in any way especially in quality or ability or size or degree.

It was a few evenings before, when the biggest irony in this mesmerizingly mellifluous song struck me all of a sudden.... certainly, the genius of these four gentlemen: Roger Waters, David Gilmour, Nick Mason & Rick Wright, i.e., can render even the word 'extraordinary' mild! And they sing "And after all... we're only ordinary men!" Man o man!!!

A related story - We were watching some episodes of VH1 - Legends, a story about how Pink Floyd came into existance, how did they evolve after the initial setbacks and so on... As (almost) expected, the focus throughout was on The Piper, Syd Barrett. At one juncture, Waters remarked something like "As the influence of drugs on Syd kept growing, his associations that were already strange and wierd began to become bizzare, resulting in those psychedelicly beyond-imagination lyrics".
All I could lend to this comment was a very deep sigh... when someone of the stature of Waters says that he found the lyrics "bizarre", then I think you aren't left with much alternatives but to just dole out such deeply-wonderstruck-sighs! :-)

Oh and something on the fun side... the same day... uh night, rather, we finally *managed* to get our first warning from our neighbours for the high pitch of music being played! :-D (Jeet, are you reading? :-P) I truthfully confess that it wasn't exactly unwarranted, given that at 0015 hours in the morning, we were playing the distortingly bizzare music of "Echoes"... But then, we were all fired and inspired up by these episodes. And so... to hell with those warnings! :-D

Heaven!

2005-05-04T07:05:00.000-07:00

2005-04-26T05:55:00.000-07:00

Saw Jeet's blog today. Must confess that it looked more like a well-maintained-series personal diary entries :-P (obviously, with only a meagre bit of that *personal* thing! :-D).
BTW, not far from my passion for Pink Floyd is Bill Waterson's creation - Calvin & Hobbes, i.e. . I rummage C&H through the Internet almost on daily basis (90% of that Internet being orkut, as of now :-D).
Hmm... I think I'll have to change "Here's my today's strip of the day:" to "I would've liked to upload my calvin and hobbes strip of the day", because blogger is not allowing me uploading any files, as of now. But I'll finish nonetheless with a wonderful dialogue Calvin has with Hobbes:

Calvin:Today at school, I tried to decide whether to cheat on my test or not. I wondered, is it better to do the right thing and fail ... or is it better to do the wrong thing and succeed? On the one hand, undeserved success gives no satisfaction ... but on the other hand, well-deserved failure gives no satisfaction either. Of course, most everybody cheats some time or other. People always bend the rules if they think they can get away with it ... then again, that doesn't justify my cheating. Then I thought, look, cheating on one little test isn't such a big deal. It doesn't hurt anyone ... but then I wondered if I was just rationalizing my unwillingness to accept the consequence of not studying. Still, in the real world, people care about success, not principles ... then again, maybe that's why the world is in such a mess. What a dilemma!
Hobbes: So what did you decide?
Calvin: Nothing. I ran out of time and I had to turn in a blank paper.
Hobbes: Anymore, simply acknowledging the issue is a moral victory.
Calvin: Well, it just seemed wrong to cheat on an ethics test.

Umhh....

2005-04-20T02:03:00.000-07:00

Have never done this before... I guess, this should be some kind of welcoming you readers-of-my-blog and stuff, which (unfortunately?) I'm not very good at! :-D
Let's (try to) begin anyways! Actually, me got bitten by blog bug only a couple of days earlier, after I came across this blog http://dreamsatwork.blogspot.com/. Found a magnificent poem there and it was then it crossed my mind that you poor earthlings were getting deprived of something! :-P
Anways, for those, who maybe wondering at the loooong URL of my blog, I'm a passionate Pink Floyd fan, and Dark Side Of the Moon is an intensely evocative album that they produced in 1973. In short, it is about the simple and often trivial pressures of daily life that can lead one to insanity. It is also one of their best-ever selling albums, hmmm... I'm tempted to engage, at this point, in some trivia;-) DSoM remained in BillBoard Top 200 charts for a fabulous FIFTEEN years (~ 730 weeks) !!! and is still estimated to sell greater than 10, 000 copies per week around the world!
Needless to say now, it's my favourite compilation as well...
The (current) title of the blog might be much more familiar. Comfortably Numb would be the best psychedelic score ever written and sung in the history of music. It sort of is a give-away-description of mine as well! And I think, I'd like to exercise it right now :-D and say adioz!