Finally, I am now completely assured that I have more or less burnt all my bridges with sanity and reality. (This normally happens during exams). But I think this time, the damage is irreparable. I’ve finally completed transformation into a loser. It’s happened; I am now completely and totally oblivious to the world around me. I’ve become like John Nash (Refer ‘A Beautiful Mind’). I have finally started showing the first signs of schizophrenia.
Remember the scene where he’s at a bar, and the guys see a pretty blond. But Mr.Nash sees the probability that any of them would get laid that night is zero if they all go for the blond. Basically, he’s focusing on the probability rather than the intent of the exercise. Let me explain. I was at Café Coffee Day with some friends. Decided I needed some fresh air after sitting and being grouchy at home all day. One friend happened to mention about some probability question from her GMAT test; and that was it. Close the book on me being sane. Until then, I guess I was pretty normal, enjoying the view (wink wink).
Next minute, like a dog that’s heard a whistle somewhere, I was all ears. I couldn’t solve the darn thing in my head, so I actually asked the waiter for some tissue paper and a pen, and begun solving. My friend had just taken a guess and got the answer right, and I wasn’t getting anywhere near it. That drove me up the wall. I asked for more paper, and would not relent until I got the answer. I asked her to even explain and all she would say was it was a guess, accept it. Period.
But would I accept stuff just like that??? Nu-uh!!!! I had to get the answer at any cost. All my logic, all my formula, nothing seemed to be getting me close to the answer. And all she did was guess, so that drove me even more nuts. I had to get the answer.
So there I was. Had gone out with the intention of clearing up my mind, but what did I do? I ended up being more frustrated and annoyed with myself. What’s worse, I was totally oblivious to everyone around me; I didn’t even realize the waiter had got my coffee. I was so engrossed in permutations and combinations, that everything else was a blur. I must have been the only maniac who goes to coffee day and instead of talking to the people you’ve gone with or checking out the sights, I was solving math problems on tissue papers. I was screaming out the logic at my friends who were all like, “Dude! We’ll disown you if this madness doesn’t stop! People are looking.”. I was screaming,"There is no way in hell that if I have to select 5 out of 7 people, I can do it in 6 ways. According to the basic laws of selection, the answer is given by 7C5….which is 7! divided by ( 5! x 2!) which is 21…..my answer has to be a factor of 21….I cant be wrong…!!!!” People at the other tables actually turned to look. Ok! Look is an inappropriate word; they were ‘staring’ at the nut case.
My buddies tried taking my mind of it by giving me some advice on well….forget that….I did not relent even at dinner. I mean, its simple logic, there is no way that 6 could have been the right answer. I’ve come home and spent half an hour staring at the scribbling I’ve done and am still convinced that my logic is flawless. Need to get in touch with my tutor to get this out of my head. Until then, someone isn’t getting any sleep tonight!!!
I hate exams !!! Period !!! They seriously mess with my mind !!!
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