a trip to hampi...

last weekend, we had a great time at hampi... it was really a wonderful trip, except that temperature is just too much to bear... almost all of us returned with black-painted faces... too many destroyed temples, too much temperature, too much dust, and too much of fun... simply, everything is too much!!! a very nice place to visit... you can see the two extremes from very sunny and dusty to very cold and green locations!!!

don't miss to dine at 'under mango tree restaurant'... of course, they are charging much for the food, but it's worth paying... dining under mango tree shade with beautiful ambiance is a nice experience!!!

thali at under-mango-tree-restaurant...

view from the same restaurant...

there is a mantapa constructed with pillars, which when tapped, will produce all different musical notes... we are not allowed to tap them due to security reasons, but it is interesting to know that there was such a technology in those olden days!!!

musical mantapa

deer at tungabhadra dam park

a beautiful flower in tungabhadra gardens

saawan...

in the evening, i was feeling utterly bored and watching some lowsy movie on my SONY (this is my computer's name)... slowly, the cold breeze started coming from my balcony and in five minutes the entire scene has changed... first drop, second drop, more drops... and, it's raining... wow! we were longing for it since a month... the smell from soil during the first rain is too good... what a romantic aroma!!! i've started dancing and humming "hu la lla la laa lla laa llaa lley"...

these summer showers have brought with them some old sweet memories... last year, we were staying in those old (old is a very small adjective, i should say ancient) hostel rooms... and bangalore weather is too good and there used to be rain everyday... our rooms are in soo pathetic condition that, there are cracks in the walls and window glasses are broken... due to that cold breeze during nights, by the time we get up in the morning, my nose is filled/blocked with loads of phlegm, my voice changed to some vibrating south indian cinema hero, and head spinning like a top!!! thankfully, we are comfortably alloted rooms in new hostels (without cracks in walls and unbroken windows)... but still, those days were so sweet... of course, only to recollect but not to reexperience!!!

though the spring season is almost ended, most of the trees are still blooming with their colorful flowers... particularly, gulmohar are too good to see these days! thanks to ecological sciences department who are giving lot of scientific information about these flora... haaaaaaaa... i love this place!!! hope this cool weather remains till we leave iisc!!!

a nice advertisement!!!

a puzzle that haunted me!!!

here is a puzzle that haunted me for a while today... finally, i solved it after struggling for a couple of hours... try this out!!! if you get the solution, you are intelligent... if you don't get it and seriously interested in knowing the solution, mail me for the same... otherwise, you can wait for few days so that i will post the solution too!!!

here it goes: there are twelve balls looking identical (shape, size and color)... but, only one of them is weighing differently (it is not given whether lighter or heavier than the rest)... the puzzle is to find that odd one using a simple balance (without any weights) for only three times!!! also, you should be able to tell whether the odd one is lighter or heavier than the rest!!!

just for fun, i am giving you a c-program below to check whether your logic is correct or not!!! make sure that you change those square brackets to include header files to angular brackets... try it... all the best!

the program

#include[stdlib.h]
#include[math.h]
#include[ctype.h]
#include[stdio.h]
void balance(int, int []);
main()
{
int V[13];
int n,i,k;
int choice,correct,weight,weighed;
float dummy;

for(i=1;i<=12;i++) V[i]=3;
srand(time(NULL));
dummy=rand();
correct=(int)((dummy/RAND_MAX)*12)+1;
dummy=(float)rand()/RAND_MAX;
if(dummy<=0.5) { V[correct]=V[correct]-2; weight=0;}
else { V[correct]=V[correct]+2; weight=1;}
printf("program to find odd man out from a group of 12\n");
printf("you are allowed to use the balance for 3 times\n");
for(k=1;k<=3;k++) { printf("\nyour chance number %d\n",k);
err1: printf("enter the number of objects in each plate:");
scanf("%d",&n);
if(n>6) {printf("\ninvalid choice\n");goto err1;}
else
balance(n,V);
}
printf("\n\nenter the index of odd man:");
scanf("%d",&choice);
if(choice==correct)
{
printf("\nis it heavier or lighter?");
err2: printf("\n1:heavier\t\t0:lighter");
scanf("%d",&weighed);
if((weighed!=0)&&(weighed!=1))
{ printf("\ninvalid choice!"); goto err2;}
if(weighed==weight)
printf("\n\ncongrats! your logic is correct");
else printf("\n\noops! you got it wrong!");
}
else printf("\n\noops! you got it wrong!");
}

void balance(int n,int V[])
{
int i,sumL,sumR,L[6],R[6];
sumL=sumR=0;
for(i=1;i<=n;i++)
{
printf("\nenter L[%d]:",i);
scanf("%d",&L[i]); sumL=sumL+V[L[i]];
}
for(i=1;i<=n;i++)
{
printf("\nenter R[%d]:",i);
scanf("%d",&R[i]); sumR=sumR+V[R[i]];
}
if(sumL==sumR) printf("both sides equal\n");
else if(sumL > sumR) printf("left pan heavier\n");
else printf("right pan heavier");
}

phir milenge!

today, i watched this wonderful movie "phir milenge"... the second masterpiece by revathy after her first one "mitr-my friend"... very thought provocating and informative... the story line basically focuses on HIV affected people and their right to live their life in the society!! the obvious but still baseless fear of general public towards HIV affected people is well protrayed... the photography, screenplay, and the protrayal of characters is too good! nonetheless, performance by abhishek, silpashetty, and nasser is an added value to the film... hats off to revathy, who has proved herself the best in direction too!!!

few observations!!!

life is monotonous and boring these days... after spending around 20 months in this campus, finally the time has come for wrapping up everything and get out/lost!!! only three more months left... the countdown has started... 90... 89... 88... i remember how my senior batch students left this place, smiling (trying hard to conceal their sadness) at us!!! and now, it's our turn to do the same...

two days back, i was walking with krishna towards coffee-board... he was damn too silent, and i could hardly resist myself from keeping a grinning face... i asked him, "shall i tell you a fact?"... coming out of his thoughts, he looked at me with an affirmative look, curious to listen what i was about to tell... i told, "indira gandhi was shot dead by her body gaurd"... he was so annoyed and cursed me with his usual words "worssst felloooooow" and started laughing... a bad joke, but it worked!!!

last week, i happened to watch the movie "the pursuit of happyness"... it was truly inspiring story... at that very moment, i have decided... decided to work hard, really hard to become great!!! after that, i thought why shouldn't i start working from tomorrow? and that tomorrow has not yet arrived!!! and i strongly doubt whether it will arrive at all ;-)

yesterday, after a very small nap of 4 hours in the afternoon, i went to our gymkhana terrace, with an intention to watch sunset... by the time i reached there, sun was still bright enough to stop me staring at him... my eyes caught a beautiful girl sitting on the stadium steps (incidentally, with marvelous curves), and i kept watching her... after a while, i realized that i was not watching sunset and turned back... sunset is over already... still, it was a beautiful evening!!!

rubik's revenge!!!

since long, i was having fun solving rubik's cube... it is always fun to kill time trying to solve it in the minimum possible time... it took one month for me to understand the logic by myself, and to solve it for the first time... so far, my best solution time is 2minutes 15seconds... the world record is 10.48 seconds!!! amazing enough to blink our eyes, right??? recently, when i was watching Will Smith's new movie The pursuit of happyness, i felt sudden love for my good old game... incidentally, i came to know that there are extended versions of the same game with 4x4x4 (Rubik's revenge) and 5x5x5 (Professor's cube)... just for a change, i wanted to try the next level, the Rubik's revenge, and tried to find it in Bangalore... after 4 or 5 hours of futile search in all the leading shopping malls and toy stores, i tried to buy it online... but, no seller is ready to ship it to India... can somebody help me in this regard?

Updates: I have finally solved Rubiks revenge yesterday (24th April 2011). And, the latest price of this, on ebay, is around 19 dollars.