This morning, in his much watched address to the nation. PM-ji posed a math puzzle, sent in by Dr K S of Chennai. He said in the land of Bhaskara, Arya Bhata, Brahma Gupta and Ramanujan, every Indian should be able to solve it:
Ramu and Kichu are out for a picnic, with 5 chappatis and 3 chappatis each. Their old friend Mustafa comes there. It is lunch time, they are all hungry. Mustafa has no chappatis, so they share what they have brought equally. As they leave, Mustafa takes out eight gold coins and gives them in gratitude for sharing the chappatis, saying they should split the coins fairly. What is the mathematically correct way to split the 8 ashrafis (gold coins) between Ramu and Kichu?
In the 9 O'clock DEBATE ON R.PUBLIC TV, goswami is banging the table, tearing his hair, and shouting "SILENCE, SILENCE. THE NATION WANTS TO KNOW, WHAT IS THE RIGHT WAY TO SPLIT THE COINS?"
There is an eminent panel of people with a bemused expression. They have just been recovering from the outbursts about 2G and Adarsh. But they are paid to appear here, and they will oblige Goswami.
The first panellist is Anand Kumar, of the Super 30 fame. He trains poor urchins in Bihar for free to crack IIT entrance exams ( so far 350+ have done it!).
He answers, " PM-ji has asked the right question. Math is easy, it is just not taught well. Take this problem. Since they share the chappatis equally i.e. 8/3 chappatis each, Ramu gives Mustafa 15/3 (=5 chappatis he had)-8/3= 7/3 chappatis. And Kichu gives Mustafa 9/3-8/3=1/3. So they should split it as 7 and 1 coin each.
Goswami bangs the table. 'HOW CAN YOU SAY THAT? IS OUR REPUBLIC NOT ALL ABOUT EQUALITY?" and turns to Dr. Subramanian Swamy.
Dr. Swamy is grave as usual, and non-chalant. " This is originally a problem posed by Ramanujan at Cambridge. I taught Math also at Harvard. The answer Kumar gave is correct, but makes no economic sense. One ashrafi can buy 1000 chappatis which should be shared with proper indexing. They should simply invest the remaining 7 coins in a Gold Bond as an equal partnership."
Goswami looks searchingly at Owaisi, the firebrand from Hyderabad. He replies, " PM-ji is asking the right question. Today, many hard-working Mustafas are bringing gold into the nation and we should recognise them. The answer would be that Ramu and Kichu should give the coins back. As the Prophet said, nobody should take money for giving food."
The next panellist bursts out. Yogi from UP says, " Owaisi sahab, please appreciate our hard-working farmers. Golden wheat and rice from UP are world famous. PM-ji is leading the effort to clean up the Ganga and build the Ram temple. The coins should go for that."
Manu Singhvi bangs the table. " Look at the shameful way the BJP is politicising this. The gold coins are nothing new for us. We should appreciate Mustafa and nominate him to the Rajya Sabha. and Ramu and Kichu should stop believing the lies of PM-ji."
Shobhaa De (yes!) butts in. "You folks are thinking of these men eating chappatis and growing fat. I like gold. Mustafa, instead of giving the coins to his wife who stayed behind, is throwing them away literally. A liberated woman would first ransack his luggage on arrival to prevent this type of nonsense".
As usual, GOSWAMI has the last word. It is a pity most viewers have moved on to Star Sports. He says, 'R.PUBLIC TV WILL KEEP THIS DEBATE ALIVE. THE NATION WANTS TO KNOW. BUTTERED OR PLAIN, CHAPPATIS ARE THE HOT TOPIC OF DEBATE FOR EVERYONE. WE SHALL PURSUE TRUTH TO ITS LOGICAL END. THAT'S WHY WE ARE NUMBER ONE IN NEWS, ALWAYS."
The next panellist bursts out. Yogi from UP says, " Owaisi sahab, please appreciate our hard-working farmers. Golden wheat and rice from UP are world famous. PM-ji is leading the effort to clean up the Ganga and build the Ram temple. The coins should go for that."
Manu Singhvi bangs the table. " Look at the shameful way the BJP is politicising this. The gold coins are nothing new for us. We should appreciate Mustafa and nominate him to the Rajya Sabha. and Ramu and Kichu should stop believing the lies of PM-ji."
Shobhaa De (yes!) butts in. "You folks are thinking of these men eating chappatis and growing fat. I like gold. Mustafa, instead of giving the coins to his wife who stayed behind, is throwing them away literally. A liberated woman would first ransack his luggage on arrival to prevent this type of nonsense".
As usual, GOSWAMI has the last word. It is a pity most viewers have moved on to Star Sports. He says, 'R.PUBLIC TV WILL KEEP THIS DEBATE ALIVE. THE NATION WANTS TO KNOW. BUTTERED OR PLAIN, CHAPPATIS ARE THE HOT TOPIC OF DEBATE FOR EVERYONE. WE SHALL PURSUE TRUTH TO ITS LOGICAL END. THAT'S WHY WE ARE NUMBER ONE IN NEWS, ALWAYS."
