(2) Murphey Radio!? अले वाह!!
Pankaj Khanna
9424810575
Previous/Next Blog Posts:
(1) Beauty Squarely
This piece picks up from where the earlier introduction (Beauty Squarely) left off. But beware — this isn’t just a continuation, it’s an evolution! A darker twist laced with humor, where the nefarious meets the hilarious...!
If you think scams are a 'digital age' phenomenon, bless your naive heart!
Our ancestors were just as good at bilking people; they just used pamphlets, flyers, and a 'trusty' P.O. box instead of email and crypto. Fraud has always been offline. The internet only gave it fiber-optic speed. Digital fraud is just next generation of Analog fraud!
Old timers of my generation may recall the above type of Pamphlets/Flyers distributed with News Papers and Magazines in Seventies.
Normally such Pamphlets used to be written in Hindi. Having seen Kuber Yantra earlier, when chanced upon the above type of Flyer for the first time; got immediately hooked to the Magic Square puzzle due to the kind of prizes!
The Murphy Radio was the biggest attraction! The prizes were like कुबेर का खजाना (Kuber's Treasure) for us street urchins of Parsi Mohalla! After seeing the prizes we kids only could utter, like the famed Murphy Boy: अले वाह!!!
The Murphy Radio became the ultimate dream. It remained stuck to my ears while placed on my shoulders; in my daydreams!
Solving the puzzle was only the first step. The real challenge? The logistics! We were talking about a covert operation requiring envelopes, the exact right stamp denomination, and the epic trek to the GPO full 100 meters away from our home across the old and famous AB Road—a journey that absolutely demanded the help of an adult co-conspirator!
My older brother and sister tried to play the role of 'wise elders,' droning on about how the pamphlets were fake. I, naturally, deduced the real reason at the matured age of elevan years: They were terrified of the puzzle's difficulty and were desperately trying to sabotage my inevitable victory!
Having been successfully rebuffed by the elder siblings, I took my brilliant proposal to the highest authority: Mother. After an extremely convincing presentation involving minimal whining, she was swayed!
Thus began the highly classified Mother-Son joint operation. Step one: Mother, treating the challenge like a State Secret, painstakingly copied the puzzle into a special notebook. Step two: She then executed a flawless security maneuver, stashing the "Murphy Radio" (the pamphlet) deep inside the forbidden zone of her almirah, a vault only accessible to her. Because clearly, this was a document of such immense value it needed protection from... the rest of the family's disbelief.
Mother tried. She tried tirelessly with the intensity of an Olympic athlete, but the puzzle stubbornly refused to yield its secrets! Driven by a desperate need to deliver glory to her son, the Covert Operation expanded!
She discreetly circulated the puzzle among her trusted Mohalla Intelligence Network (her neighborhood friends) which was far more powerful than today's Whatsapp groups. Result? Still, absolute failure! Not a single friend could crack the code!
Finally, in a moment of inspired desperation, she contacted a freshly recruited Bank Clerk from the Mohalla. He was useless as far as the puzzle was concerned; but he proved to be a valuable liaison! He 'escalated' the matter to his superior, a Bank Probationary Officer (PO), who turned out to be a devotee of Lord Kuber! His desk prominently displayed Kuber Yantra with the Magic Square below the expensive Glass Top.
He treated the 'Magic Square' like a high-priority financial query. His genius (or just an educated guess) was simple : Write the smallest number (10) next to the smallest number (20) of Kuber's Magic Square and so on! Boom! The scam's logic was defeated by pure arithmetic bureaucracy! All it needed was to write 1 in place of 2 in the Original Kuber Square!
The Mother-Son Holy Alliance retrieved the 'prized' pamphlet from the Almirah Vault. Numbers were meticulously entered, the envelope sealed, and the final, sacred act performed: posting the letter with a Certificate of Posting!
Out came the reply soon from the Company informing that we had won the first prize!
But, there was a catch! They demanded postal charges. And this was quite a hefty amount!
Her face turned slight yellow. Got slightly suspicious too. But there was no option left. Boldly she sent the money. Afterall she had to win the Murphy Radio for her own little Murphy Boy!
(For most mothers of that era their boy was the real Murphy boy! अले,अले,अले!! मेला मल्फ़ी बॉय!)
And the box supposed to be containing the prize did arrive within a few days through VPP (Value Payable Post). Mother paid whatever amount was asked by the Company through the postman!
The moment had finally arrived! With trembling, eager hands, Mother tore into the cardboard 'coffin'. My heart was pounding like a drum against my ribs. (Was it Rib Sangeet/पसली संगीत cousin of तवा संगीत!?)
Mother finally applied her full force and took out the gift triumphantly and brandished it in the air!
"Brick?!" I shrieked, clutching my chest as if suffering a deep mortal wound. They sent us a 'foundation' instead of a 'frequency'! We had been robbed! Bamboozled! The dream had died!!
।n the evening father came to know about the fraud! He asked mother about this. She pointed a finger at me!!!
Father stared angrily at me and gave me a tight one! Suddenly there was a small puddle of piddle formed on the spot! Seeing the shaking and micturating Son, father left the room! Mother took over, gave me a nice bath and informed generously that we already had a much better and bigger radio than the Murphy one! I sobbed and agreed with her!
The cheaters taught me great lessons! First, not to be greedy and hoodwinked again in life by anyone. The second lesson was about the Magic Square that it can certainly be solved if efforts are made! And that Maths including Magic Squares is the real treasure, Kuber's Treasure!
So the magic squaring starts now! We will start with a mathematical logic to solve any 3x3 square in the next article.
After reading the next few Articles, you won't ever have to go to a PO for solving a magic Square puzzle of size 3x3 or 4x4 or higher!
Pankaj Khanna
9424810575
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मेरे कुछ अन्य ब्लॉग:
हिन्दी में:
तवा संगीत : ग्रामोफोन का संगीत और कुछ किस्सागोई।
रेल संगीत: रेल और रेल पर बने हिंदी गानों के बारे में।
साइकल संगीत: साइकल पर आधारित हिंदी गाने।
कुछ भी: विभिन्न विषयों पर लेख।
तवा भाजी: वन्य भाजियों को बनाने की विधियां!
मालवा का ठिलवा बैंड: पिंचिस का आर्केस्टा!
ईक्षक इंदौरी: इंदौर के पर्यटक स्थल। (लेखन जारी है।)
अंग्रेजी में:
Love Thy Numbers : गणित में रुचि रखने वालों के लिए।
Epeolatry: अंग्रेजी भाषा में रुचि रखने वालों के लिए।
CAT-a-LOG: CAT-IIM कोचिंग।छात्र और पालक सभी पढ़ें।
Corruption in Oil Companies: HPCL के बारे में जहां 1984 से 2007 तक काम किया।
