MIND GAMES
No one apes this king
Aditya Rishi

ELVIS, the most aped king, was no match for this king of apes. King Kong; if rocks roll and things start shaking all around you, we are in his territory. They say for this Arnie of the baboons that he’ll be back.

They’ll first put you in dungeon and then lock it, the vile monster will first see that his meal has been delivered and then turn to get firewood. When the monster is back in 15 minutes, he will cook and eat you. The lock is an advanced coded one: it has four top/bottom spikes in a drum, arranged in a square and invisible. You can put your two hands into the drum, feel two of the spikes (adjacent or diagonal), determine their orientation and change it as you wish. If all four spikes end up the same direction (up or down), the lock opens and you can escape. If not, the drum rotates quickly for one minute so that you do not know which spikes you have touched, and then stops, and you can try again.

Does this fate look terrible? This is what Ann had to face six weeks earlier. Did she escape? Before we answer that, answer this: could she have escaped?

Ann, lovely Ann, draws the attention of Suhail Singh Shergill, who is in class XI, I suppose. He brings her hope, although a rope is what was required. "You can easily ecape from being sacrificed," he tells her, "Every time the drum rotates, it may move ahead by 0, 1, 2 or 3 pins/pegs. The lcm of 1, 2, 3 is 6, so in order to survive, you should check the same two pegs for 6 consecutive rotations and then after 6 rotations, you should check one of the same pegs that you checked with another. You will escape in the end." King Kong was upon him before he could turn. Suhail, I have heard, is tall, and Kong will never eat tall men on Saturdays, so I do believe that he is alive, although he’ll never have Ann.

Kurt comes up with a solution: "She’ll have an 11-minute lead on the monster, if she follows these easy steps: Turn up two diagonal spikes.

Turn up two adjacent spikes. Now, either she is free or she has 3 up spikes and 1 down spike. Grab two diagonal spikes. If these are opposite, turn the down one up and she is free; otherwise, reverse one of these: now two adjacent spikes are up and two are down.

Grab two adjacent spikes. If these are co-oriented, reverse both and she is free; otherwise, reverse both anyway: now two diagonal spikes are up and two other diagonal spikes are down. Reverse two diagonal spikes and she is now free."

That’s the best that can be done under the situation, but 11 minutes... I think they don’t know Kong.

Dense jungle (day): Ann is stumbling... the allosaur positions its head for the final lunge, jaws open.

From out of the jungle, Kong charges. He meets Ann and the dinosaur head-on at full speed. Kong swings his fist, smashing into the allosaur’s head. Ann has to throw herself against a tree as the dinosaur sprawls onto the ground beside her. In a flash, Kong is on top of the allosaur, pounding his fist down. The allosaur lies still. Ann’s legs turn to jelly and she collapses. Kong is clearly startled... he gently takes her in his hand. She falls... this time in love. "Cute monkey."

(There were two more letters containing solutions, one of which was correct. Next time, do write your name. Write at Mind Games, Windows, The Tribune, or aditya@tribunemail.com)