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Shrikant's Train Adventure
This is a feeble translation of a story by humourist Shibram Chakraborty. Shrikant doesn't like to travel with his uncle because
Uncle makes him carry all the luggage. Uncle is a miser; while travelling he carries everything from the house with him so that he
doesn't have to buy things again. So, he travels with a mountain of luggage, which poor Shrikant has to manage. Shrikant has to load the
things into the train and remove them when they reach their destination. Uncle never hires a porter.
But whether he likes it or not, Shrikant has to travel. He is going to Madanpur, and Uncle is carrying a mountain of luggage as usual. But, luck is on Shrikant's side this time. The train is about to leave and there is no time to be lost; Uncle has to hire porters to get the things into the train, else they will miss the train. But, of course, Shrikant will have to unload the heavy bags at the destination station. But, here too, Shrikant is saved from the trouble owing to some quick thinking by the uncle, and his own skill of barking like a dog.
(This story is being republished)
A S(h)ocking Tale!
I don't approve of this method of obtaining a seat in a train, but a friend found it useful and explained the method to me with a straight face.
The friend, when he was a student, studied in a college, which was about 100 kilometres away from his hometown. He, lived in a hostel. A number of his classmates from school had enrolled in the same college, and so there was never a dull moment. Now, 100 kilometres is hardly any distance ... just a matter of two hours by train. But they avoided coming home during the weekends because they had a lot of assignments to complete and submissions to make.
Long vacations, like the summer vacations, were a different matter. They had to come home! A two-hour train journey, even if they have to travel standing in an overcrowded train, is not a backbreaking task for a bunch of college students. Since their journeys were always unplanned and impromptu, the boys never had the time to make reservations; they had to travel in general coaches, which were always overcrowded. Although the boys could travel standing, a seat was always welcome.
(This story is being republished)
Another Round of Handshakes
A certain number of people meet at a party. Each of them shakes hands with exactly three others (not a handshake
more and not a handshake less). There were 24 handshakes in all. Can you tell me how many people were there at the
party?
(This puzzle is being republished)
Some useful links for
your career:
- Union Public Service Commission - www.upsc.gov.in
- IIT-Kharagpur - www.iitkgp.ac.in
- Indian Statistical Institute - www.isical.ac.in
- Indian Institute of Technology Madras - www.iitm.ac.in
- Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad - www.iimahd.ernet.in
- Indian Institute of Mass Commission - www.iimc.nic.in
- IIT Bombay - www.iitb.ac.in
- Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad - www.ismdhanbad.ac.in
- Birla Institute of Technology, Ranchi - www.bitmesra.ac.in
- Central Institute of Fisheries Nautical and Engineering Training - www.cifnet.nic.in
- Indian Institute of Information Technology, Allahabad (Deemed University) - www.iiita.ac.in
- Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute, Kochi - www.cmfri.com
- Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai - www.tiss.edu