Along with the wisecracks, there were riddles, too… and each had an engaging tale with a juicy little arithmetic core at the heart of it… Here’s one about the eternal Sardar pair of Santa and Banta .....
In the days not-so-long-ago, when electricity was unheard of except in the cities, and there was, on the average, one shop to five villages, Santa and Banta decided to replenish their stock of kerosene. Now, kerosene available at the government fair price shops, is rationed at 8 litres per family. So Santa carried his big canister of 8 liters, and Banta brought out his two smaller cans, one of 5 liters and one of 3 liters, and both set out on a walk to the next village, 5 miles away.
It was at the fair price shop that they learnt of the oil crisis being faced by the govt; and that consequently each would get only half his scheduled ration. A quick calculation showed that this brought the total amount of kerosene available to both of them to eight litres, which would fit snugly into Santa’s gherkin. So they topped up the big can, and promptly used the remaining cash to top themselves up at the nearest toddy shop.
The liquor was good, and by the time they left the shop on the trek back home, the whole world outside looked good too. Except for the fact that Santa’s moustache was an overgrown piece of shrubbage, the world was perfect to the t. Consequently, it came as a bit of surprise to Banta that when he tried to remove this last bit of imperfection by pulling out the weedy growth from Santa’s face, he was faced with stiff resistance from Santa himself! One word led to another, till finally each came to the independent decision that he could no longer continue walking on the same path that was infested with the most degraded species of humanity. Having decided to part their ways, the only problem remained was to divvy up the kerosene equally. With only two empty cans of five and three liters; and neither being able to think too clearly at the moment, the Sardars are in a bit of a spot. Can you help them out?
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