Monday, July 28, 2008

Part IV-Le Code De Newton Hints:

1. Try viewing upside down.
2. Try to spot something that doesn't belong to the map.

Saturday, July 26, 2008

Part IV:Le Code De Newton:

NULLIUS IN VERBA-" Nothing in words." Ahh, sounds simpler than it actually is.
Now, Let me take you back to the same day:
Curbing the ripple of excitement in my jittery nerves and submerging to rational conscience, I, finally, carefully, etched out the magic words on the astonishingly white marble disks gracing the gleaming gold Cryptex.
A click!! And a small golden semi-orb protruded at one end as if it had, very unseemingly, been there all the time as an unpredictable opening. Pulling along the length, I was careful enough not to disturb the vivaciously anhydrous acid inside. And there, I watched, with unpalpable pride, as a pencil sized golden cylinder enveloped in a parchment emerged from the Cryptex. And so, I beheld with inflated chest, in my hand, what we expected to be the final treasure map, our deemed path to unstoppable victory.
Unfurling was no easy job. It was ruffled and jammed intra-layerly and we, just could not allow the already withered and battered parchment to suffer more, even in the slightest possible measure. Resting upon the better of options, we sought professional help. PINKLED antiquites was the shop we betted upon after thoroughly browsing the Yellow Pages.
The next day:
" Hey you, Welcome to PL antiquities, On a great day for freedom, when everything's coming back to life, how can my time, rescue your faces from the dark side of the moon?"said a man who introduced himself as Vikesh. " Now I know wherefore Pink originates...But Led?? " wondered UG. But he got his answer soon. " Nevermind...Dazed and confused as he is, he might as well fight the Battle of Evermore as rock and roll. Sorry for the communication breakdown." said the other duskier guy, who till now was hidden behind some Chapman book.
We thought it better to leave and we would have accomplished the escape, had the rain fancied better intentions. In the meantime, we learnt that Vikesh addressed the other guy as RS the GOD!! though, the RS guy called Vikesh by a number....9.58333!! Wondering what that meant, we tipped over our own topic into their hot, though tragically dyadic discussion that exhaustively included Wikipedia, Rock and Google besides MATLAB and JAVA. Cutting the rest of the crap, we started working on the parchment and came up with the final model by the next day.
Dolefully, Harry and UG had to depart owing to the reopening of their college back in India. They had been an exorbitantly great company and I, probably would have never advanced so far without their astonishing abstract intelligence. "Being the boys back home, ehh" said 9.58333 as he took the courtesy to drop them off at the airport. And thereby, I was left alone amidst strange people in a strange nation (not to mention the two whatevers who joined in).
"Going to California, no, Kashmir??" RS said as he pondered over the map, for a change. "Can you think of anything but Led?" I had to say, as I glanced at the map again.


P.S- The author expresses grave apologies to those who might not be
aware of the existence of Pink Floyd or Led Zeppelin.

P.P.S-Pink Floyd is GOD.
(nothing to do with the code)

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Part III: Le Code De Newton-HINTS

1. Try deciphering each verse separately .
2. Think ??? all the same.(all three ??? are the same letter. Try googling.)
3. Hmm.....Give away- Think England. Think London.
4. Think laws.
5. C'mon. Think of an organisation. Its purpose.

(I have never given so many of them.)

SOLUTION: The answer is NULLIUS IN VERBA- the motto of Royal London Society-
1. The first verse- Three laws of motion i.e Isaac Newton.
2. The second verse- Hooke's law i.e Robert Hooke.
(Both were the earliest and most influential members of the society)
3. The third verse- The Society itself.
4. Its motto means 'Nothing in words'.

CRACKERS: Hardeep Singh(again), Aaditya.

Monday, July 21, 2008

Part III - Le Code De Newton:

ATTENTION!!!-You might have a problem with the content (not the puzzle) if you haven't read TEC Part I and Part II...and if you haven't...PLEASE DO. Because believe me, 'The juice is worth the squeeze'. And yes, check out Part II's solution in the Hints post.

Josephites beat the IITians! Hardeep Singh (Harry) took just half an hour to crumble the jumble created by Isaac Newton himself. I and UG were back in India , barred by some financial shortcomings. This time, I decided to add another sharp guy to the group, and Harry was too happy to ignore. We took a Kingfisher (obviously the plane) to the Heathrow and the journey was eventless but for Harry's singing of his 'Space Settlement' heroics at NASA and UG's usual air-hostess flirting stuff.

We took a small lounge at a cheap roadside hotel, a 5 minute distance from the Westminster Abbey, the place where lay, 'A Knight, a Pope interred' burried with all his intricate perplexities. We started on the second anagram, and all thanks to Larry Page and Sergey Bin, cracked it within an hour. 'Close the letter I lit' became 'The Little Cloister', the name of a small haunted garden in a remote corner of The Abbey Church, long believed to harbour the darkest secrets of great men. Tired and exhausted, we took the first day off.I lay fancying the laurels to shower, though, a little part of me believed it was a fake, a prank played upon me by the Gods. Meanwhile, on the other bed, Harry and UG slept 'Happy and Gay'. I wondered how sharp guys get mixed up so easily. The rain started splattering, I watched the pertinent drops pouting on the window sill and sulking quietly unto the force of gravity. Then, I don't know when, I dozed off.

Endless sea of dust.....yawning nothingness...People all around...The world in 1955....No, much older...
Swoosh, and gone!!!

I was sitting on 'the chair' opposite to a meagre old fellow. Frankly, I had never seen him and he resembled the shabby panhandler one often gets to see by the roadside. He occupied the dilapidated chair once sat upon by Einstein. I looked around and except the shimmering of the intensely spider-webbed dim bulb(as close to death as the man in front of me) and the slight whoo-whooing of the wind, there was nothing but pitch-black. And then, a voice broke my reverie:
Unknown: Hey son, You know me...Don't you??
AD:(My answer was spot on) No.
Unknown: I (long pause) am Isaac Newton.
AD:(I was speechless and my Larynx added to my embarressment with a high pitched laugh)

And then, it came to me. He was the other guy, the other person who could dream teleport, Einstein's godfather, the Time Machine creator, he was 'the Knight'. I had to stop.

IN: My boy, you have been fooled. (My heart left me, as did my lower jaw). Einstein has fooled you around.
AD:(I wanted to say,"Why didn't you tell me earlier, A**hole?? Why??" And I said it) Why didn't you tell me earlier, sir?
IN: Because after 380 years of death,my ability to dream teleport has been severely hampered and I can't bend much space. But now, that you're close enough to my grave, I have come.
AD:Ohh.
IN:Anyways, how were you fool enough to believe the Maggot-shit of the silly Einstein kid. How could it be that a puzzle I created has a picture of my grave (the blurred pic).

I sank, feeling empty, as if life and emotion were drifting apart. Nothing, but a hollow infinity remained, drowning me in its vastness. No time Machine, no adventure, no glory.I thought of the money, the hard earned money I spent, the time, the priceless time I wasted. All for nothing. I was at the verge of letting the pool of tears blocking my vision apart when he spoke again.

IN: Now, listen carefully., I think that Einstein kid created two puzzles out of himself, probably the only good thing he did, probably, to make you strive even to reach here, to me. Didn't you find them too easy, too childish? Boy, the Time Machine exists. And, so does a code. Only, this is the place where your quest just begins. The Einstein Code's over, Le Code De Newton begins!!! I love French.

Now, I let the pool flow.(Though, I made a Hindi corollary of it...Ley, code dey Newton)

AD: Thank you (was all I managed).

And then, it began to fade. His image deluring and the distance widening. I heard him say, "For you, a special gift".
IN: The Dark Entry. Isaac in numbers. Nothing else.

Harry woke me up. The rain had silenced. We took a bath (individually), had our breakfast and were off to the Abbey. Since, we had no idea about the The Dark Entry UG went towards the main church, Harry decided to go search near Newton's grave, while, I went towards The Little Cloister. I found it, and a man there. Went straight to him, standing face to face muttered...
919113 !! He looked me in the eyes, turned around and took me through a secret vault into the dungeon below. I was standing right below the fountain of the Cloister, amidst hundreds of mysteries. He opened a locker and landed me something. I hid it safely in my bagpack and went for UG and Harry.

The next day:
"A Cryptex , ehh", UG said while Harry explained what it was (he had read the Da Vinci code) and how it would break at a wrong answer and the map inside will dissolve(though this one had many more disks). Alongwith the gleaming golden cylinder was a rough piece of paper. I read out aloud.

"
You can stop not what you started,
Shake it mate, and you have it though,
The answer's a legend, hidden from none,
In the end, you reap what you sow.

Ceii-no???-ttuv, the scientist says,
Has he lost his sane, has he no remorse,
Anagram and translation serve the purpose,
" As is extension, so is the force ".

A flock of minds elite enough,
Addressed by Wren, and a gentry was born,
Both the legends were a part of it,
As were many including 3 Barons.

All we have in common,
An adage, a purpose, as we are no nerds,
The coat of arms bears the words,
That mean nothing but, 'Nothing in words.'
"

P.S-Hints available tomorrow midnight.

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Hints-The Einstein Code Part II:

Here I go:
(Starting bottom clockwise)
PIC1:
In London lies a Pope, a Knight interred;
His labour's fruit a Holy wrath incurred.
PIC2:
The Building(your answer)'s flag.
Also flown on following occasions:
1.The sovereign's official birthday.
2.The Foundation Day.
PIC3:
Let me think... I wonder if an anvil will drop like an apple?

Give away- ANAGRAM.
SOLUTION:
The answer as many of you got is - Westminster Abbey (LONDON). It is the place where Newton's 'buried'.
1.PIC1- The grave.These are the words used as a code for newton's grave(Courtesy: The Da Vinci Code)
2.PIC2-The Abbey flag.
3.PIC3-Newton's last words.
CRACKERS: Hardeep Singh, Ujjawal Goel(again), Amit the Bakarlord

THE EINSTEIN CODE Part II:

Hurray!! The first step climbed, all thanks to this guy- Ujjawal Goel (UG), who was bang on to excavate the solution from the intriguing puzzle(Not to mention the chocolate for which he did that). Now, was the time to proceed.I decided to take him with me to the US of A and he, was more than happy, Probably, sharp guys around could make things click- I thought. With our passports all set and visas updated, we were ready for the expedition of our lives. So, off we were to The Liberty Island, with escalated hearts and a week in our hands to achieve what Einstein had failed to.

DAY 0: We boarded our British Airlines A-101 from IGIA, preferring it over Air India, the sole reason beeing UG's obsession with air-hostesses. The plane left the Indian soil and UG dozed
off(almost synchronously), while a sudden surge rose from within me, I could sense the adventure coming, waiting for the maze to unfurl and reveal something as glorious as
'The Triwizard Cup'-or even more.Skipping the journey details- We landed at the JFK airport at 3:00 PM the same day and took a cab to a cheap downtown hotel. Our cabby, a sardarji
struck up a conversation about American politics, he seemed to be angry upon some local minister on how he discriminated the Indians, "I tell you these western ministers.."
"Abbey yaar, See this!!" This came from UG as we passed the concrete jungle of Manhattan. He had said the same four words all along, whenever he saw something worthy of my
observation.

DAY 1: Well, the good thing was that our jetlag actually helped us, so that we actually slept at night and were up by 7:00, the next day. Deciding not to waste time, already limited, we took a ferry to The Liberty Island. The first day was futile, yielding nothing more than establishment of absolutely no relation between Einstein or Newton and The Statue Of Liberty . That night, UG made an interesting point, "Probably, it has nothing to do with the statue, in Newton's time it wasn't even there, though there might be something to do with'the island' ". I broke from a dejected slumber and gave it a thought. After all, he could have reformed the puzzle in the 300yr. hellspan but not the location of the clue, which might have as much to do with The Statue as Saddam Hussain with Gautam Gambhir(in short, not much).

DAY 2: The next day, we were out on the 'Treasure Island' and by afternoon, sweating in the sun, fretting upon our mission and cursing Newton, still clueless. I decided for a disconap in the cool tree shade expecting Einstein to return in my dreams, while UG was too happy to go checking out 'blondes and brunettes'. I don't know, but after what seemed a considerable span, my eyelids decided to move and drifted apart lazily- as a sun rose carelessly between two spectacular mountains, my eyeball(not the sun) witnessed the world again.I saw a woodpecker perched on a tree bathing in the filtered sunlight. Then, I saw......I saw!!!!! I held my breath and my heart skipped a beat, I could not believe the grotesque sight in front of me, it was right there. Was the bird a messenger of gods???
--No time to think--!!
I ran for UG and found him involved in a deep converstaion with a blonde. I dragged him forcefully and brought him to the spot,after a short search though. At first, he threw me a 'killer look', followed by a quzzical one and then, he saw...He saw!!!! He jumped like a monkey, we both did, drained in sweat and drowned with excitement.

There lied our answer, right in front of us, what was it doing out there. A tree, 'An Apple Tree', a loner among pines and maples, it was surely not by nature's mistake. Newton must have planted it with a purpose more important than protecting the environment. Avoiding many eyes, we started digging the cool grassy sand with our hands, drawing heaps of it before UG struck something close to solid. We took out the box, refilled the void we had created and removed our a**es from the island as soon as possible. Back at the hotel, I opened the box, took out the old parchment that lay inside, worn by the misery of time, still as precious as a DeBeers. I opened it, held my breath for the second time in a day, and read the etched words:

'WATER STEMS IN YEBB'

'Close the letter I lit' (IGNORE THIS)

The other side was this:







PS:IGNORE THIS means ignore it.
PPS:Hints at midnight(without them its absurd).
PPPS:Blur Intended.

Saturday, July 12, 2008

Hints TEC Part I

Hmm...No legitimate guesses force me to let the hints loose:
1. The island I am talking about is really small(smaller than you can imagine).
2. This island belongs to land of gifts and prizes.
3. The answer is the name of a monument.
4. In the poem, land everywhere means a nation.
Second set of hints tomorrow morning.
MORE HINTS:
A Give Away , France-USA

THE EINSTEIN CODE (Part I):

It is strange!! Isn't it? I mean, how many times do you get to meet people you wanted to murder.

It was a hot July afternoon, and I, unusually was reading; reading about a 'famous someone' who dwelled Gaia in the early nineteenth century. The next thing I know, I was lying amidst an endless sea of dust. A yawning nothingness- a dilemna or a nightmare could have been better.
Dilusion, swoosh and gone!!
This time I stood amidst an endless sea-only this time it was of people, roaming here and there unaware of their destiny and wary of their destination. The world in 1955 seemed to be....Stop!! Did I see someone? A 'famous someone' whom I had seen many times- haunting my dreams primarily before exams, his long locks fluttering and his mouth speaking the words, "Jaani, yeh energy mass equation hai, first law of motion nahi, galat ho jaaye, to zero mil jaata hai".
Dilusion, swoosh and gone!!
My eyes took time to adjust to the dark of the gloomy place. Then, I saw. I was sitting right opposite to someone . A 'famous someone' who was sitting on his dilapidated chair giving me a look that scared me rightaway. My jaw dropped and I felt jitters trickle down my spine. A dim bulb shone between us as if aware of some disaster that was arriving. Then I listened. The air was silent except for a single breathing sound and the slight whoo-whooing of the wind, in that world or another. Then I heard something else. Some croaked, heavy voice as of a frog.

FS: Do you know who I am??

I knew or did I? I preffered the latter.

AD: Do I? How the hell am I supposed to know??
FS: My boy, I am Albert Einstein.
AD: F***.(The word almost left me as my last fear was realised).Where am I?
AE: You are in 2008. But, you're seeing 1956. This is my observatory, a place where you're as safe as your girlfriend's home.

I did'nt get the joke. Well, thats why probably my friends call me a 'Tubelight'.

AD: How did I get in here??

He seemed to take longer than usual. Probably, he had realised I wasn't the sharpest of beings and he would have to remould many times to confide in me the biggest secret of his life.

AE: Well, this is dream teleportation. A phenomena I discovered and mastered when I was three. There was another person who could do it. I came to know about it
when I was twenty. This man came in my dream and introduced himself as 'Isaac Newton'. He went on to be my godfather. He tought me about his laws, then,
the flaws in his laws that he found out after 300 yrs. of extensive research in hell, primarily his omission of non-inertial FOR. Then he tought me his work on Relativity,
Energy-mass equation, and many more things that were as Greek to me as Greek itself. But, he asked me to publish the work in my name and that I did as soon as my reverie broke.
AD: So, thats the secret of your unworthy fame? (I was frenzied though nonplussed at the same moment)

Suddenly, I felt better and at ease with him knowing that he was no 'ghissu' and belonged to my category only.

AE: Well, no that's just between me and you. Because, believe me no one will believe you for that...Hehe. These people have been fool enough already to offer me the
post of Israel's president which I obviously, out of fear, rejected and they accepted it as my humility...Shitheads!! My boy, the biggest secret's still waiting.
AD:(I, needless to say, was excited) Whats that? Tell me(tell me...damnit...tell me, the readers don't have much of time either).
He already knew it was a mistake, but continued.
AE: My godfather told me about me about this machine- A Time Machine. He had made it with the help of Priyanka Chopra by dream teleporting into her while she was shooting for some damn movie , and hid it somewhere but he won't tell. Instead, he landed me a puzzle which I wasn't able to solve in my lifetime. You see, he had it all planned out, initially he gave me his work so that I became famous and none would doubt me when I discovered the Time Machine. But, the only thing he gave me to do myself, solve the puzzle, I couldn't do it. Now, I am going to pass it on to you and I believe you do the same if you are not able to solve it. So, here goes the puzzle boy:
Engulfed around by water,
This landmass arises,
There lies the secret,
In the land of gifts and prizes.

First, the island was barren,
But now, has recieved fame,
The monument on this island,
Has a virtue in its name.

Itself, is a gift,
To a land, by a land,
Gathers respect from all over,
Because the purpose is grand.

The land of gifts and prizes,
And many, many varieties,
Nomads and Aborigines started it,
Now, money and power are dieties.

....Money and power....Gifts and prizes.....Abhinav!! wake up....Virtue in its name.....Get up you jughead!!....Nomads and aborigines.....Jaag jaa oye!!!




PS: Hints available at midnight.