The House in Pudukkottai That Woke Up at 5AM

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By 5AM, the house in Pudukkottai was already awake. The old tape recorder would be blaring Pithukuli Murugados songs somewhere inside, and above everything else you could hear the steady creak of the wooden swing moving back and forth. My athai paati — my grandfather’s sister — would often be on that swing, singing “Gopala Krishna Swamy Gokulathiley,” a soft Krishna lullaby . She had been widowed young and lived the rest of her life in that house, and to me she always felt like someone straight out of an RK Narayan story. For us, summer meant Pudukkottai and Gobichettipalayam. A couple of days after the final exam, we would take the overnight Trichy Express from Bangalore, then a bus onward, and by the next morning we would be inside that long, bustling house full of cousins, relatives, and noise. Athai Paati with the kids on the swing The house itself stretched from one street to another, a lon...
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Teaser!

On a lazy afternoon, as I was getting ready to do something in my research, I got this forward from Deepak Challa. Post your answers in the comments.

The question reads thus:

You are on a game show.

The host tells you, ‘I want you to open one of these three doors. Behind two of the doors is a bale of hay. Behind one of the doors is a million dollars. Choose a door’.

You choose door number one.

The host, who knows what is behind each door, says, ‘Before I open door number one for you, let me show you what is behind door number two’.

He opens door number two, revealing a bale of hay and then says, "Now I can open door number one for you, or if you want, you can switch doors and choose door number three, what do you want to do?"

What should you do, and why? Or does it even matter what you do?


Comments

  1. AnonymousApril 4, 2006 at 10:10 PM

    It was an unwarranted action by the host to unveil the contents of one door. If you are an optimist, you would go ahead with opening the door of your original choice ,a pessimist, you would open the other door. For me it matters what you do, because people will always keep springing surprises on you, but you have got to keep going, believe in yourself, and believe that you are destined to succeed. There is always a door open for the eternal optimist.

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  2. AnonymousApril 6, 2006 at 11:51 AM

    Probability increased from 33% to 50%. Its like tossing a coin in air.
    You live with your call. I stick with the first one. If I get hay in that,
    I would probably sell it to a farmer and get make a burger out of it :-)
    Dude, Smitha and her hubby Suhas visited this weekend from Wwashington.
    Had loads of fun together.

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