Statistically Speaking

We were at a friends place over the long weekend.

Now M is one of those guys like Ranjan the Boxer here (do read his latest post), who first went through the hallowed halls of IIT Madras followed by the no less sacred place known as IIM Cal.

And as it turns out M's parents now feel he is ready to get settled down and should be married off suitably.

What is the hitch ? Well M does not want to. Now he being a IIT+IIM guy came up with what I would call a brilliant strategy.

He told his parents since he is so intellectually dumb (or advanced as the case maybe) he wants someone equally dumb from the other species a.k.a a bandi who has also been affixed with the tag "IIT+IIM".

Why is this brilliant strategy ? Lets analyze:

M passed out in 2001 from IIT and his parents don't want him to marry anyone older than him. So that means that we basically have bandis from 2002-2004 batches qualifying for his hand. (Another qualification was that she needs to be working so that rules out the batch of 2005 that passes out in 2007 from IIM)

Now there were 20 bandis in my IIT. So 7 IIT's put together that is 140 every year.

2002-2004 gets us to 420.

Now about half of them write CAT. That is 210.

About one in 10 get through so 21 is the number we end up.

Since most bandis anyhow get hitched up in IIT or IIM lets assume even in the best case half of them are stll single. That leaves 10.

And the parents want to be sure she is from the same state etc etc which means that that 10 would probably come down to one.

And what are the odds that the horoscopes match: close to zilch.

Seems that IIT+IIM has helped M in at least something.

Though the point is debatable whether M will ever get married if he keeps such strict entry criterion and if he does manage to do so, whether it will in anyway help anything.

P.S : Something by Mark Twain that the Indian Cricketers (esp the senior ones Sachin/Saurav) might need to be told the next time they play:

"It is not the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog that counts".