Porcupyn's 1st (and thus far only) Law of Conservation ... of Smartness

Porcupyn hereby postulates that the total amount of smartness possessed by a human is a finite quantity which, should the said human acquire 'smart' objects (such as a "smartphone"), will be redistributed among the human and his/her possessions (including the aforementioned smartphone). Sample this:

Porcupyn recently acquired a smartphone (not the smartest in circulation, but certainly well imbued compared to his previous flip-up phone) and was very happy about it.

On a recent commute to drop off his daughter at school, he got stuck at a traffic light. Somehow he was inclined to take a photo of his daughter, sitting in the backseat, selfie style. Unfortunately, daughter did not want to cooperate. In an attempt to squeeze both subjects - the willing and the unwilling - into the shot, our budding selfographer forgot where he was and failed to espy the cars in front of him pulling away.

By the time some smartness came back to him from his phone, the light had changed to yellow and he barely managed to cross the intersection in the same cycle; however, that could not be said about the cars patiently waiting behind him. He failed to get that well-deserved honk. But he did get a good data point to bear out his law!

Back to blogging once more - Katya's cousin's tale

My niece, i.e., Katya's cousin, had gone for a vacation in India with her family and returned recently. As part of the transportation arrangements, the family engaged a driver whose name is Ghalib. Now, for the most part, kids growing up in the USA are not really used to non-Christian names. That was definitely the case with my niece.

So it was that my niece was unsure about Ghalib's name. It was a tongue-twister for her. One of the names she called him was 'gulaab' - but that was not the most hilarious. It was when she called him 'gulaab jaamun' ;-)

Humpty Dumpty ... and the coefficient of restitution

The original Humpty Dumpty's coefficient was, obviously, 0. Mine is closer to 1. Let me explain: We were at a carrom tournament yesterday (wish I could say I won it all). The tournament was in an auditorium/cafeteria. Carrom boards were all around the hall. On a stage were kids playing with these humongous exercise balls. Unofficial cameraman, yours truly, was trolling around taking photos at random, when one of those huge balls leapt off the stage, ably assisted by a kid. Camera in one hand, I attempted a classic football/soccer move to kick the ball where it came from. Unfortunately for me (and for mother Earth), my planted foot slid along the ground thanks to the diffused carrom powder. In my defense, the ball would be ashamed by my elasticity, as I bounced right back onto my feet before the admiring (really?) onlookers could say my name (which, being desis, they wouldn't need a lot of time for) or come to assist me or check me out. Checking all my extremities, I counted myself lucky that my wrist is the only part that came out the worse for the wear. And the camera thankfully still works.