What exactly is a humorous article supposed to do? Make you laugh, bring a smile on your face or atleast make you appreciate the wit of the writer. Ofcourse, it can also make you bang your head on the wall several times over, or want to kill the person who dared to pen such a thing. But, for the time being lets concentrate on “humorus” write-ups. The articles that belong to the first category.
But even with this, have you ever been on the other side of the fence. Have you ever tried to write a humor article. To be very frank, it doesnot feel very good, especially when it feels like an assignment that you have to complete and submit to your proffessors. Once you are done with it, and if the stuff is good, it makes you proud. But, before the baby is born the labour pains are definitely there, and do they hurt?
I was asked to give an article of “around” 800 words. Now, would somebody tell me, why 800? Why was it not, 500 or 1000? What is so special about 800? Is it that below that number the article seems too short for you to realize that it was humorous, and bigger than that its hard for you to comprehend. But what is so special about “800”. Whatever your reasons are, I found some of the reasons world wide.
Before entering into the 800-mahima, I would like to tell every single one of you reading this baby of mine, I considered a lot of “topics” on which I could write. Movies. why is the fourth version of die hard accompanied with a decimal number? Biggest question, when will bruce willis realize that he is old enough to stop firing guns and running after crooks? Why don’t people in
But somehow, somewhere, “800” stuck up there. Is this number special? Ofcourse, it is. Did you know it’s a “harshad number”? haven’t heard about it? Well don’t worry, even I hadn’t before today. Although the number is so not-rare that I really ponder, was there really a need to give this a name. afterall, the first 200 natural numbers has 59 of them. Now, definitely I am not going to explain this to you. Find it yourself on wikipedia, you good for nothing souls. But this gives me a thought, I think I will start an anti-harshad number. This series would contain, all the numbers that are not harshad. Well, I am sure wikipedia will be more than happy to give some web-space for this. And even if it doesn’t, Uncyclopedia is always there.
What else could be special about 800? Did you know,
- The original toll-free area code for telephone calls in North American Numbering Plan and some other countries.
- It’s the sum of four consecutive prime numbers (193+197+199+211)
- It’s the international direct dial code for toll-free international phone calls.
- In the ISO rating standard (aka ISO 5800), it’s a common film speed for photographic films
- It’s the flight number of TWA flight 800.
- The Atari 800 home computer
- A perfect score for an individual section of the SAT test or on one of the SAT subject tests.
For me, 800 means
- “Dabba Gaadi” (Maruti 800)
- My conveyance allowance
- My cab rent per month. (coincidence? I don’t think so)
- My last month’s phone bill. (ok, it was 805.4 /-, but they said around 800, right?)
Anyways, I think I should stop this ramblings now with this summary of the article. The whole point of my writing this article was to make you understand the seriousness of the issue I raised, and to make you realize how we can help the society by being a true Indian. So, if you think you are a true Indian do vote for TAJ MAHAL to make it one of the seven wonders of the world. To know more details, goto the net and search for the link, I don’t remember that now. Also, I think you would have already got hundreds of forwards telling you to do the same.
And yeah by the way, the word count is 818. I guess its “around” 800.
3 comments:
awesome
really refreshing piece, i wont lie by saying that i have not read a piece describing a number before, but the way it has been put, it is definitely a first
and i have already voted for the Taj, way before most of the forward originators knew about the campaign. [:P]
You have added a pic also, a very apt one. Loved the write-up. Cool... Very Cool... epitome of sarcasm. :) I won't be surprised/shocked, if couple of years down the line, you are typing stories rather than analyzing or typing reports. :)))
Your a very good writter. I like the topic you choose. Very apropos :-P You would do well writting articals for magizes as a living.The picture doesn't look like you at all. He,he,he....I voted! I do hope Indian makes top wonder of the world.
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