When we were young we used to go to my grandmother’s house for holidays. My uncle used to teach us swimming and cycling. My sisters learnt cooking and embroidery from my aunts. Grandmother was the source of entertainment. She used tell us a number of stories from Ramayana and Mahabharata. Nothing could beat her bedtime stories. We returned to the city half-heartedly.

This is my turn to entertain my grand children. During summer holidays my grand children landed to stay with us for a fortnight. I drove them in my old ambassador car(trade name of a car here) to my farmhouse. We stayed there for a week. I missed my uncle and aunts. The rest were the same. I felt that for the children it was not that interesting. The only attraction for them perhaps was the horse and the mule. They enjoyed horse riding. I took them to swim in the well where I learnt my swimming lessons from my uncle. But they refused to get inside the ‘stagnant, dirty water with algae masses. Grandmother’s (my wife’s) bedtime stories were dull and uninteresting to the children, as they had already seen them on Pogo and Cartoon TV. Therefore I had to invent some new games to keep them busy. We discussed the programme at length and breadth. It was decided to have some time allotted for mathematics riddles.

Accordingly the game started. The first riddle came from the eldest of the group. The boy asked me to solve the riddle. The riddle was, “There are three dozen apples in the basket you have taken a dozen out of it. How many do you have? I told the wrong answer (24).He said the correct answer was 12. That’s what I had in my person and the rest was only in the basket. The little girl came with another riddle. It ran somewhat like this.” There are one hundred birds in a tree. When one bird was shot by a hunter how many were there in the tree?.I told 99 and the correct answer was none as the other birds would have flown after hearing the gun shot.

It was my turn. I asked them to think a number below ten. Multiply it by 2 and add 2.Again multiply the total by 5 and add 5. Again multiply it by ten and add ten. What is the total? They told 365. I told them that the number they thought is 2.The boy wanted me to tell another one. I asked them to think any number. Get a loan of the same amount. Add that. I give you 500/Add that .Divide the total cum by 2. Return the loan. You have left with 250/=.They were surprised,. What I had learnt from my mathematics teachers came for my rescue. Let their souls rest in peace.