Advantage of Abstraction

A bat and a ball cost $1.10 in total. The bat costs $1.00 more than the ball. How much does the ball cost?
A. $1.10
B. $0.10
C. $0.05
D. $1.00
E. $0.15

Whaddya think? If you said (B) please think again.

On Such a Winter's Day..

I just got my ticket!

What Content!

Today I was looking at some old code design documents (I love archaelogical excavations of code design documents and other related stuff in general) and the following song lyrics could have captured my sentiments just in the right way:

परदे में रहने दो परदा न उठाओ
परदा जो उठ गया तो भेद खुल जाएगा
अल्लाह मेरी तौबा - अल्लाह मेरी तौबा

मेरे परदे में लाखों जलवे हें,
कैसे मुझसे नाज़र मिलोगे
जब जरा भी नाकुँब उठौंगी
याद रखना के जल ही जाओगे
परदे में रहने दो ......

हुस्न जब बेनकाब होता है
वोह समां लाजवाब होता है
ख़ुद को खुद्की ख़बर नहीं रहती -
होशवाल्ला भी होश खोता है
परदे में रहने दो ......

हाय जिसने मुझे बनाया है
वोह भी मुझको समझ न पाया है
मुझको सजदे किए हें इंसान ने
इन फरिश्तों ने सर झुकाया
परदे में रहने दो

Sorry if you dont understand Urdu. Sometimes I feel like you need to be a philologist as a prerequisite to understand anything not in your own culture.

An Unusual Book: Part 2

See how prophetic this was given the fact that the Government didnt announce the identity of the killer of Gandhi till 2 days after the murder and this conversation happens between the author and the guy who runs the caravan (the whole nation atleast was secular in its mourning):

"In a way, it was Gandhi's personal integrity which made him a target for so many criticisms, for a man cannot be a friend to everyone without also being in onesense an enemy of all"

"

It seems all our feelings about Gandhi are bound up with our feelings about ourselves, about our history as a people.Inspite of the errors the Mahatma might have made in his political career,he has given us more than he could ever takeaway.He has given us our pride as a nation again" .

He continued,"You have got to think of what India was in order toappreciate how we feel;you have got to remember that prior to Gandhi we were like a whole race of people ashamed of themselves. The worst crime of our conquerors was not that they stole our country's resources or the wealth of our princes. They robbed our people of their self-respect. This was the most awful thing of all. When Gandhi came we were embarassed and abject before the superiority of the British raj. As fast as they could,our leaders were becoming more British than the men who ruled the country!

"

He was deeply moved now.

"You cannot imagine it, but we felt out of place. In our own country out of place! As if all our traditions,our very religion were a series of errors which the Englishcould correct. 'We must make you ready for self-government,' they told us.But what they meant was'We must make you exactly like ourselves.We must give you our accent,we must ive you our outlook, and when your skin turns white, you will be ready!' And what fools ournational leaders were! They agreed, and even when they fought the British, itwasin striped pants and long coats,in parliamentary debates.They had surrendered their cause in the act ofdefending it! No wonder we felt ashamed of ourselves. No wonder we tried to learn the foreigners' language.Whole generations of our people grew up convinced our own was gibberish because our conquerors told us that.They sent politicians to change our government,missionaries to teach us whom we must worship.And so convinced were they of their superiority that gradually we began to believe in it too. Our clothes were wrong? Then we would dress like theEnglishman,even if he laughed at us and thought we were foolish. Our foods were barbaric? Even our Rajah and Durbars took to eating boiled fish and puddings.But it was never right.When we lived our own lives we were subjects of pity and condescension. And when we tried to adapt it, it was just bad,for we are never more than a poor imitation."

"And then Gandhi came! You cannot undertand..."

"

Then Gandhi came,and overnight this changed. He did not go to British in the coats and trousers.They came to him and he received them in his dhoti!But the best thing about it was that Gandhi had been one of them. He had gone to their schools and practiced in their courts. He had all that the West could offer our country, and he returned it and said it was not enough!Not enough.For years,generations,the white man had been almost God to thepeople of Asia.And now Gandhi has said it was not enough and had given them back the whole culture of the west

"

"Well, my God!...Once again we could hold up our heads; we could worship ourgods without feeling ashamed. We could aspire to something greater and moredecent than being highly paid servants of a foreign government"

He paused.

"

You see, Gandhi was not a politician. He was a spiritual leader,a father of his people.And the very measure of his greatness was that they were willing to follow him even when they knew he was wrong. We followed him out oflove,not conviction,really.We followed him,tolerant of temporal blunders,because we knew that without him we would not even be men,but 'coolies' and 'natives' with no choice at all ......

..

..
"

The Sangh is not a collection of crackpots who decided to kill Gandhi as agesture or a threat.They are the dagger arm of a well established group,established in government as wellas in the villages.They are few themselves,but their actual membership is just a quarter or a tenth
of their actual strength. The Sangh- you could squash it as you would smash a dungbeetle,but the trouble is,it would mean no more either."

"

Once the babus decided that Gandhi was more an enemy to their class than an ally,his death was virtually inevitable, and apprehending one group ofplotterswould not have stopped it. You have spent enough time in the villages to see how powerful the banias and Brahmins are! Can you dismiss a group as strong as this with such careless words as'foolish clowns'?"

"But not all banias and Brahmins are Sanghamites", I objected.

"

If they are not it is because they do not have to be" he replied."Where their power is not challenged,of course they are peaceful.But where it is-well,look around you, my friend"

I argued. "But Swamiji, if this is so obvious, then why havent othervillagers seen it? The majority, I'm convinced,think a Moslem killed Gandhi.They arent even considering the R.S.S"

Swamiji sighed."Thats true.I'm afraid,but its only becausethey have been fooled by Congress with its ridiculous doctrine that the country is united on all of the serious fundamental issues.Its a leftover from the days of the British,I suppose,when it is true that we wanted the same thing.We wanted independence,and thats as far as it went.Now we see Independence meant something different to each of us.Of course the villagers think a Moslem killed Gandhi.He is the very symbol ofuntiy of all Hindus. But now thesymbol,like the unity,is no more.Perhaps it will bring the people to their senses"

"Well, if it does," I insisted,"the Sangh will have miscalculated.""Yes." he replied. "Thats the risk they have taken. But they apparently decided that it is no longer neccesary to placate the liberals and the lower castes.For a long time their clique has made use of the Mahatma. There was much in what he stood for that supported their position. His religiosity,that was easy to use.Most of all,the Mahatma was forever cautioning against violence regardless of the justice of the cause.Better far to live virtuous and poor,he told us,than to seize what is ours by force.According to Gandhi we were to get what we wanted by appealing to the better nature of those in power.

Ahh! How the bania seized on this doctrine.It was a better protection than cannons would have been!" I was confused."You make it seem," I insisted,"that Gandhi was actually on the side of Sangh!"

"No," Swamiji corrected me, "he was not on their side, but he was on the side of nonviolenceand it amounted to the same thing"

"As you know, the upper castes are already in power.All they have to do is retaintheir position,so anyone who opposes a violent change is defending them,whether he wants or not. Of course, Gandhi wanted to bring about a change;he wanted to give the cultivator his rights.But he wanted to do it through moral persuasion,and all the banias had to do was not to be persuaded.

"But I was still dissatisfied. "Then why," I asked "should the sangh ever have decided to kill Gandhi?I should think that if all you say is true they would have had most to lose by his death"Swamiji smiled. "A few years ago what you say would have been entirely right," he agreed."That is exactly why Gandhi's death is important. It proves that the Sangh has come into its own. You see,now the Sanghamites are not going to be satisfied to assert the rights they already have.They are actually anxious to strengthen their positions,to press their abuses even further than before. They feel strong enough to do this now,and they feel they have enough backing in the government. Believe me,the meaning of Gandhi's death is that the traditional powers are taking the offensive"..."The whole machinery of the government had been built up to serve the will of some vestedinterest. Well,vested interests there were in plenty, and now it wasobvious they were making their bid.The death of gandhi? It sudeenly paled into the insignificant event it was,just one small move on the master plan that had been carefully worked out by the Mahasabha and the Sangh.Yes,as Swamiji said,Gandhi's death was inevitable once we posited the existence of the sangh.And the existence of the sangh was just as inevitable in the light of the inflexible caste structure in the villages.I began to see that the relaxation of caste might simply be a part of the breakdown of India,a function of her decadence of the last few centuries rather than the result of any progress or enlightenment.And if that were the case, it followed too logically that with the rejuvenation of the country, caste would be rejuvenated. Certainly there were those who were willing to fight for it,and apparently they were growing bolder by the hour"

An Unusual Book: Part 1

I had this head rush of reading this 310 page non-fiction book straight from jacket to the blurb without putting it down. Interview with India is a travelogue written by John Frederick Muehl and published in 1950. One of the perks living in Boston is that you can get to buy these old and rare books (I got the first edition) easily as there are many stores in this area and a readers' market for it.

Essentially it is a travelogue where he travels through the country's villages (breathtakingly beautiful and astonishingly ugly as he says) just from independence to that of 1948 early spring. The author starts in Rajputana covering Kathiawar and proceeds on a horse to North Gujarat,South Gujarat and into Maharashtra. Finally he winds up covering the Kanara coast on foot and Tamilnad on a bullock cart where by the end of journey he collapses on his way to Kurnool because of heath exhaustion.

Firstly, he has a gift for words and his style is very similar to the one used by Naipaul India: A Wounded Civilisation as well as Rushdie in The Jaguar Smile. It was his keen perception and lovely conclusions that are the hallmark of this work. For example, he starts the book at the onset of India's Independence and the parition he describes the news-announcers of partition as : "were telling us about mass murders in the same tones they use for weather reports"

Let me sample a few lines for you to get a flavor for this highly insightful memoir:

"Whether the British had or hadnt encouraged the trouble, the British were gone. It was upto India to stop it"

"Untouchables incapable of writing their names could tell stories that would put Edgar Allan Poe to shame"

"It was the case of Germany and Jews all over again, of a racist means to an economic end, for if the sudras and harijans were directed against the moslems,the Brahmins and Vaisyas could retain their positions"

"While the British had left, their empire had not...There was a synthetic middle class that had been bred in the corruptions of an Imperial system,willing to support anyspecial interest that would allow its habitual abuses and dishonesties"

"It was as if Freedom,like an application for drivers' license, had got lost under a shuffle of official papers"

"Six months passed since Independence and Zamindars are still as secure and as powerful as they were before inspite of the fact that feudal land tenure was one of the primary arguments for Swaraj....Of course it takes years toaccomplish if you table the Zemandari act while you discuss the merits of national prohibition.Of course it takes years when the governments of provinces devote their earliest revolutionary energy to the tasks of censoring kissing scenes in theaters and outlawing the western vice of mixed dancing. It takes forever if all things take precedence over the raising of rural standard of living,if the national leaders go on a moralistic witch hunt while a third of its population is on the verge of starvation"

"And yet why should we call them leaders at all?There is no one who has less confidence in the people than they have, these khaddar-clad congressmen who never seem to tire of blaming their ineptness on the Indian masses"

"And only it was when I had abandones my self-conscious attempts that I was able to learn anything that I wanted to know"

"A roguish vanity that all Rajputs affect..Conversation is a pastime rather than a discipline where men talk for pleasure rather than enlightenment"

"Where there is money, it is hard for the banias to establish themselves"

"Halvad had a more diverse agricultural and industrial life than its present inhabitants dare to imagine"

" There was never a collapse but simply a dimunition of vitality at the center of the state.The state settled down to devouring itself. ...This broken jaw of our lost kingdoms"

"..were entitled to an explanation of anything that did not make immediate sense to them"

"..is the author of their poverty, that is habitual usury that is most clearly the cause of disruption of the traditional village economy.The bania encouraged the people to cultivate the tastes beyond their means,lending money that they never need to pay back the principal (rate was 40%). It was the bania who subsidized the opium additcion of the durbars so that they would relinquish even their small pretense at government and it is the banias who are most anxious that the villagers should continue their senseless competition over marriage expenses"

"the brahmins were permitted to exist because the banias have decided that it would be cheaper to buy than defeat them"

"to have plenty to eat is to be wealthy in the villages"

"It was a vacant smile that was the refinement of unhappiness, a smile that had no connection with feeling, the smile of a man who remembered an expression but had forgotten the occasions on which it was appropriate"

"..carryover value of a white face was so great,even now that there was no government to back up its authority"

"self satisfied provincialism in which the communal spirit characterstically flourishes"

"the corruption of the police and the power of banias together present an unassailable front..the basis of the relationship was more social than economic. The motives were not gain,but self-preservation"

"A congressman is a man with a great deal of money and very little sympathy,who distributes the sympathy and keeps the money!"

"Legal Panchayats were suppressed by very reason of their governmental sanction,which made them far more dangerous than otherwise to the local magistrates and police officials"

"The life of legal panchayat was short.It was inevitable that the bania should recognize it as a threat and it was just inevitable that after such recognition,they should find some means of crippling or destroying it. In the case of Bursad it was easy, After a decision that was particularly unfavorable to their interests,the challenged the judges and, purporting to have evidence of bribery and conspiracy,they brought them before the magistrate's court. Of course, in the end the charges were dismissed,but by the time the judges had been held for so long that their fields ripened and gone to seed and their families contracted enoromous debts. They were released,acquitted, but the banias had won,for after that no one would serve in the panchayat except banias themselves,who proceeded to pack its membership with those representative of them. And of course the system collapsed soon after that, for it was as corrupt as the regular magistrate's court"

"the fertility of the land itself,which permits the banias and Brahmins to live well at less cost to the villager than in poorer sections"

"It is not the weak man,but the strong man who does not fear to laugh at himself. And it is not the weak but a confident regime that knows it can tolerate such mild heresies"

"the truth is our sufferings and injustices are like maggots,generated directly out of our own decay"

"when the villagers really want justice more than they want their old traditions,then, and only then, they will get it"

"And the tragedy is this;they prefer it this way.While the Vysya will complain about the domination of the Brahmins,he will be the first to protest if his own caste is not given a privileged position over the Sudras and Harijans.What can the government do? It must gear in with the system,as rotten as it is,or impose one of its own. I have chosen the latter but sometimes I think it was a more selfish choice than the former would have been"

"And yet, he was right in insisting that it was impossible to learn some one great lesson to the exclusion of all others. He had reminded me that the issue was as complex as it seems,that no passion was an adequate substitute for knowledge.

"In the cities where you could see the statues in the parks,the remnants of the empire still seemed very real,but out here it was obvious that ther whole period of rule had rolled off India like water off a duck"

"The biggest sin of the british raj was that it was a people who knew better playing a filthy game, the rules of the game were not of their making,but had been laid down by India during the years of decline"

"Sindhi-Hindu refugees seemed far more critical of the Gujrati Hindus who were kind enough to offer their hospitality than they were of the Sindhi-Moslems who had driven them out but who were Sindhis like themselves...it was clear that their loyalty was not to their race but simply to the land they had formerly inhabited"

"Even after a lapse of three centuries,would sometimes stand looking at them,scratching their heads.And the Dutchmen in turn would remain aloof,so architecturally self-satisfied and so historically absured that you began to share the wonder of the villagers and to suspect that no such people has existed

There was none of the stiff and laored classicism that confronts the observer of Western ballet; the wild emotions and the violent grimaces of the dancers were like the free and uninhibited expressions of childhood.Yet, the impression was not that of primitivism or again of a self conscious romantic orgy. The whole thing was so uniformly violent and overdone that it assumed a sort of inverted austerity,like Greek tragedy.

"this country is always in a state of unrest.."

"..half truths of their gossip and the whole cloth of their fictions.."

"Mahatma as an inoffensive old fool.In its simplest version he would appear on the stage clad in nothing but the dhoti and make well-meaning but inane and pathetic generalizations over a minature spinning wheel,which never functioned correctly.Increasing complications would finally get him hopelessly tangled in its cotton. As the act proceeded, he became more and more involved in his formless philosophies till in the end he forsook the nonviolence which he was discussing by smashing the wheel into a dozen small pieces.The villagers loved it"

Tipoo's Tiger

There's this remarkable toy made for Tipoo Sultan popularly called as Tipu's Tiger and currently housed at Victoria and Albert Musuem.Its memoranda when it reached London read:

This piece of mechanism represents a royal Tyger in the act of devouring a prostrate European. There are some barrels in imitation of an Organ, within the body of the Tyger. The sounds produced by the Organ are intended to resemble the cries of a person in distress intermixed with the roar of a Tyger. The machinery is so contrived that while the Organ is playing, the hand of the European is often lifted up, to express his helpless and deplorable condition. The whole of this design was executed by Order of Tippoo Sultaun.

The object is in fact not a merely a wooden effigy but also a musical instrument and it confronts us with a number of intriguing possibilities:
(a ) Is it the memento of an actual occurence- the relic of a ghastly incident in early history
(b) Is it a royal toy designed to boost some morale in war?
(c) Only a curiosity of art-history?
(d) or does it symbolise the long-cherised hopes and national asiprations?
Given how much I like clerical language I shall go with the logbook of the library when they received this piece: "July 29th,1808. Recd. Tipoo's Musical Tiger"

Utterly Butterly Romantic

Love the lyrics of this one. Perfect for a snowy weekend!

A Gambit of Sorts

[This post isnt supposed to make sense...]

The Art of War is the modern day yuppie guide. Springing from a different part I knew my version more closely fitted the Drona Parva than the alternatives. A good dose of it came through installments of it initially trickled through Amar Chitra Katha and Chandamama which paved the way for a thorough reading later.The first rule I learnt was that you never show contempt for the opposition (because your conviction and passion of what you do right should be the driving fuel than rage against something).

Some wonder whats the use of learning such texts. One day when the time is right it would come to a great use (Ayn Rand says Value is that which one acts to gain and/or keep and "virtue" is the action by which one gains and keeps it). If you analog Corporate America to kurukshetra then you can only imagine how far these can take you. I just wanted to jot down a few notes:

In particular look how Drona masterminds the creation of a labrynthine plot like Dedalus. For he laid a Chakravyuha with himself at its Vanguard which then opened into another one called Sakatavyuha (A Wedge shaped array formation) guarded by the very brave brother of Duryodhana. If Arjuna could pass through all that (had a time constraint of finishing the mission before sunset) then he would then enter Soochyavyuha( Head of the Needle formation): This is an interesting strategy as the roster of stalwarts like Karna,Kripa, Bhurishrava, Ashwadhama, and Salya were to be passed by before you can even touch Jayadratha (who was placed at the pin point of the needle and the key person to be protected for one day)

That almost sounds like a modern day movie story. Lets look at the other side's strategy. You choose your best weapon (paasupatastra) and save it for the critical part of the mission. Then you enter the triple-formation at its weakest point (i.e the wedge formation) and mercilessly execute your operation. Once thats accomplished you are "one down! two to go " mood. Then enters your worst nemesis (in this case Drona; worst because you can never win or lose against such people) . Interestingly Arjuna still keeps fighting whereas Krishna tells him to make "forward progress" by initiating a payer and seek his blessings and rush past Drona when is about to bless (because you need to close you eyes). Now Drona cannot come chasing after you because he has to guard the entrance of the formation lest other fellows of Pandava army show up and break his outer cover (Well know strategy used by Alexander against Xerxes). Later all sorts of fundoo stuff happens. Then Satyaki enters to help and Bhima follows him and its much like any other nerve wracking,adrenalin pumping and nail biting sport

At last when they finally enter the third formation, Arjuna wants to go after Karna (they love to get at each other) but then he is promptly reminded the mission for that day was something else and tussle with Karna, while enjoyable, was not on the agenda. The key point is finally when they enter the head of the needle the sun was about to set and a rude buzzer somewhere in the world was about to beep sayin "Your time is up!" and then Krishna does something to give the illusion of sun being set (cloud cover) so that the opposition let their guard down and Arjuna takes down Jayadratha with his best weapon.You can argue a lot over this controversial point but there're a bunch of yuppie lessons to be learnt from this here.

For me, I had my share of such battles this week and our team came out winning. In sports lingo, our QB called for a hail mary and we did an absolutely amazing touchdown in the last second. Life is lived at these kinds of edges and I am raring to go after the next few ones. Forward Ho!

Of Elephants & Mice

-Dominique Ribault (French)
Professor of Mathematics, artist, Mission Laique Francaise

"Inspired by Escher and Vasarely, my artworks use recent mathematical theory about the relationships between topology and group theory. I have created tessellations involving planes, polygons, logarithmic spirals, cylinders, spheres, tori and knots for all the 19 families of plane tessellations"

John Cleese's Pythonic Twist

This was posted way back in Dec 2004 and given that we are now electing a new president I think the contents need to be redigested lest we suffer again(And you thought India was the only country craving back the colonialists)

Dear Citizens of America,

In view of your failure to elect a competent President and thus to govern yourselves, we hereby give notice of the revocation of your independence, effective immediately.

Her Sovereign Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, will resume monarchical duties over all states, commonwealths and other territories (except Kansas, which she does not fancy), as from Monday next.
Your new prime minister, Gordon Brown, will appoint a governor for America without the need for further elections. Congress and the Senate will be disbanded. A questionnaire may be circulated next year to determine whether any of you noticed.
To aid in the transition to a British Crown Dependency, the following rules are introduced with immediate effect:

1. You should look up “revocation” in the Oxford English Dictionary. Then look up “aluminium,” and check the pronunciation guide. You will be amazed at just how wrongly you have been pronouncing it.

2. The letter ‘U’ will be reinstated in words such as ‘colour’, ‘favour’ and ‘neighbour.’ Likewise, you will learn to spell ‘doughnut’ without skipping half the letters, and the suffix “ize” will be replaced by the suffix “ise.”

3. You will learn that the suffix ‘burgh’ is pronounced ‘burra’; you may elect to spell Pittsburgh as ‘Pittsberg’ if you find you simply can’t cope with correct pronunciation.

4. Generally, you will be expected to raise your vocabulary to acceptable levels (look up “vocabulary”). Using the same twenty-seven words interspersed with filler noises such as “like” and “you know” is an unacceptable and inefficient form of communication.

5. There is no such thing as “US English.” We will let Microsoft know on your behalf. The Microsoft spell-checker will be adjusted to take account of the reinstated letter ‘u’ and the elimination of “-ize.”

6. You will relearn your original national anthem, “God Save The Queen”, but only after fully carrying out Task #1 (see above).

7. July 4th will no longer be celebrated as a holiday. November 2nd will be a new national holiday, but to be celebrated only in England. It will be called “Come-Uppance Day.”

8. You will learn to resolve personal issues without using guns, lawyers or therapists. The fact that you need so many lawyers and therapists shows that you’re not adult enough to be independent. Guns should only be handled by adults. If you’re not adult enough to sort things out without suing someone or speaking to a therapist then you’re not grown up enough to handle a gun.

9. Therefore, you will no longer be allowed to own or carry anything more dangerous than a vegetable peeler. A permit will be required if you wish to carry a vegetable peeler in public.

10. All American cars are hereby banned. They are crap and this is for your own good. When we show you German cars, you will understand what we mean.

11. All intersections will be replaced with roundabouts, and you will start driving on the left with immediate effect. At the same time, you will go metric immediately and without the benefit of conversion tables… Both roundabouts and metrification will help you understand the British sense of humour.

12. The Former USA will adopt UK prices on petrol (which you have been calling “gasoline”) - roughly $8/US per gallon. Get used to it.

13. You will learn to make real chips. Those things you call french fries are not real chips, and those things you insist on calling potato chips are properly called “crisps.” Real chips are thick cut, fried in animal fat, and dressed not with catsup but with malt vinegar.

14. Waiters and waitresses will be trained to be more aggressive with customers.

15. The cold tasteless stuff you insist on calling beer is not actually beer at all. Henceforth, only proper British Bitter will be referred to as “beer,” and European brews of known and accepted provenance will be referred to as “Lager.” American brands will be referred to as “Near-Frozen Gnat’s Urine,” so that all can be sold without risk of further confusion.

16. Hollywood will be required occasionally to cast English actors as good guys. Hollywood will also be required to cast English actors as English characters. Watching Andie MacDowell attempt English dialogue in “Four Weddings and a Funeral” was an experience akin to having one’s ear removed with a cheese grater.

17. You will cease playing American “football.” There is only one kind of proper football; you call it “soccer”. Those of you brave enough, in time, will be allowed to play rugby (which has some similarities to American “football”, but does not involve stopping for a rest every twenty seconds or wearing full kevlar body armour like a bunch of Jessies - English slang for “Big Girls Blouse”).

18. Further, you will stop playing baseball. It is not reasonable to host an event called the “World Series” for a game which is not played outside of America. Since only 2.1% of you are aware that there is a world beyond your borders, your error is understandable and forgiven.

19. You must tell us who killed JFK. It’s been driving us mad.

20. An internal revenue agent (i.e. tax collector) from Her Majesty’s Government will be with you shortly to ensure the acquisition of all monies due, backdated to 1776.

Thank you for your co-operation.
John Cleese