SARDARJI MATH There was this group of 7 sardars who planned on going to Delhi to thank the president Dr. Zail Singh for his revolutionary policies, from which they had greatly benefited. Moreover they were his old friends and longed to dine with the president. They agree that it would be appropriate to use a taxi and decided to call a taxi waala. So they go to a taxi driver and ask him how much a ride would cost. The driver fretted a little and told them." Saab! If only four of you were to be there I would charge you just the meter rate but then since seven of you would be there, you have to give me 10 Rs more. The sardars agreed and decided to take the taxi. The taxi driver took them to the Rashtrapathi Bhavan and the meter read 18 Rs. So the taxi waala said " You have to pay me 28 Rs ". The sardars had to divide this sum and so they decided to divide the total 28 by the number of people that is 7. This is how they did the calculation to arrive at the answer : 7 ____ \| 28 = 13 ( 7 x 1 = 7, 7 x 3 = 21 ). 7 -- 21 21 -- 0 -- The driver was exceedingly happy upon receiving 13 Rs from each of these fellows. He thanked then profusely and the feeling of excultant happiness was writtern on his face as he left them and proceeded in his way. Seeing this the sardars felt that they may have made a mistake. They decided to ask Zail Singh about it. After all the fellow was the president of the nation. After all the initial formalities were completed, they asked Zail Singh to check their calculation of the taxi fare. Zail Singh pondered over tha calculations and finally said. "See I am not good at division. The process just boggles me but addition is something I am an expert at. let us add all the amounts you guys gave to the taxi driver and check the result. This is how I do for those tax forms I get very often. The process is slow but is sure." The other sardars nodded their head in appreciation. The president wrote as shown below and also explained as he wrote on : 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 -- 28 -- i.e. 3+3+3+3+3+3+3= 21 and 21+1+1+1+1+1+1+1=28 so this checks out. He said then " yes its correct. But I can also call my close friend and finance minister Manmohan Singh. It is always better that he recheck it. After all, he is a finance man you know." Manmohan Singh arrives and when told he replies that he doesn't think it is a bad deal but says " No problem! I will verify it via mathematical computation. I'll verify it with multiplication. That is the best technique for this you see " . While others watch in admiration manmohan goes on to write as shown :- 13 x7 --- 21 7 -- 28 -- -- This checks out as well. Then he said " This is really fine. there should be no problem President saab. After all it is correct in all the methods." Peace lasted at the presidents residence as the inhabitants and guests remained in quite contentedness while they reminisced about their astute abilities on solving a problem in a successful fashion.