27.7.10

got balls ?? SOLVE this simple puzzle

Many hundreds of years ago in a small Italian town, a merchant had the misfortune of owing a large sum of money to the moneylender. The moneylender, who was old and ugly, fancied the merchant's beautiful daughter so he proposed a bargain. He said he would forgo the merchant's debt if he could marry the daughter. Both the merchant and his daughter were horrified by the proposal.

The moneylender told them that he would put a black pebble and a white pebble into an empty bag. The girl would then have to pick one pebble from the bag. If she picked the black pebble, she would become the moneylender's wife and her father's debt would be forgiven. If she picked the white pebble she need not marry him and her father's debt would still be forgiven. But if she refused to pick a pebble, her father would be thrown into jail.

They were standing on a pebble strewn path in the merchant's garden. As they talked, the moneylender bent over to pick up two pebbles. As he picked them up, the sharp-eyed girl noticed that he had picked up two black pebbles and put them into the bag. He then asked the girl to pick her pebble from the bag.

What would you have done if you were the girl? If you had to advise her, what would you have told her? Careful analysis would produce three possibilities:

1. The girl should refuse to take a pebble.
2. The girl should show that there were two black pebbles in the bag and expose the moneylender as a cheat.
3. The girl should pick a black pebble and sacrifice herself in order to save her father from his debt and imprisonment.

Solve & mail me the answer.
Hint: The girl does nothing from the above 3 given options. But then too she saves her father of the debt AND also saves herself out of the marriage trap.

16.7.10

Uday Kumar, an IIT Bombay post-graduate, gives Indian currency "Rupee" a symbol


Uday Kumar (IIT B grad.) with the symbol of Indian Rupee that he designed

Until now the Indian currency "Rupee" has been denoted by the abbreviation 'Rs' or INRs to distinguish it from neighboring countries like Pakistan and Sri Lanka which also have rupees as their currencies.

From now onIndia will have the Hindi character closest to 'R' with a horizontal line crossing the middle as the symbol of Indian currency "Rupee".

The new design will now be incorporated into India's IT systems and feature on computer keyboards.

Introducing it into commercial use is expected to be expensive – the advent of the euro in 1999 is believed to have cost companies more than $50 billion.

Ambika Soni, India's information minister, said the new design will "distinguish the rupee from other currencies."

The symbol will catapult the rupee into the company of four ‘elite’ currencies which have similarly distinct identities — the US dollar, euro, yen and British pound.

The symbol has been designed by D Udaya Kumar, an IIT Bombay post-graduate , who has just joined as a teacher at IIT Guwahati. Kumar will receive a prize money of Rs 2.5 lakh for his efforts. The symbol will standardize the expression for the Indian rupee in different languages, both within and outside the country.

‘‘ It’s a big statement on the Indian currency. It would distinguish the rupee from those countries whose currencies are also designated as rupee or rupiah, such as Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Indonesia,’’ I&B minister Ambika Soni said after the Cabinet meeting. The symbol, she added, would reflect the strength and robustness of the Indian economy.


an Indian government official showing the symbol of Indian Rupee