Which Queue?

It's the second post in the row which erupted from my visit to Landmark. Also the second post in a row which resulted from a very chaotic experience at Landmark.

I have always had a tough 2 minutes to make my mind about which of the 8 queues I would be joining at the Landmark check-out counter. In my 5th year, we had to attend a course on Modelling, supervised by Prof. N. B. Ballal. By the end of the first lecture, I was a fan of the course, and ofcourse of the great professor. That's what happens when the professor asks you to make your own equation for the shape of the flame (the craziest thing I have done) using as many assumptions and parameters as you want.

Even better when - and then you really do it :) Our class did make an equation, and it was a good learning exercise.

If I had the patience, I would have made another model for my "Which Queue" problem. However, here are some of the parameters that my head thinks of when I am making that decision (note: the decision making has to be as quick as that of a sportsman - the queue conditions change just as the ... shape of the flame ... ):

• The length of the queue. Of course, a shorter queue is not the answer. The other parameters come into play very soon. But the shortest queue is the first one I observe.
• The person behind the counter. Somehow I feel (call me an MCP - I am just being practical here) that the ladies are not very good with the gadgets. Hence, if the check-out system is electronic, I avoid visiting the queue with ladies behind the counter.
• The shopping carts in the queue. The lesser the number of items, the better.
• The number of 'women groups' in the queue . Women usually shop together - so it's very likely that if two or three women are standing together in a queue, they are with each other. They are, actually, just one customer.
• The kind of people in the queue. Youth are normally quick and impatient with their payment, while the seniors take their own time.
• The presence of children in the queue. The counters have so many chillad takeaways (chocolates, keyrings) - and the children invariably end up demanding them when the parent reaches the counter. The parents have to oblige, the child makes his choice, the parent searches for the change, the parent argues ... blah blah blah. This queue, in short, sucks. 
• The distance from the exit. If two queues make equal sense to me, I stand in the one closer to the exit. That way, I can save my oh-so-precious time. Almost 2-3 seconds for sure.
• The number of men in the queue. Men, like Jerry Seinfeld says, have always been hunters. For a true man, a queue is one of the most irritating places to be in. All men in the queue would do their best for the queue to be fast ... jump into this queue, folks. 

Eureka!

In the first lecture of the modelling course, Prof. Ballal (who once made me cry in his office for 15 minutes for my miserable academics in the third year - 5 minutes later I was playing bare-chested football in our H2 footer field) suggested that we either take this course, or go watch Tom & Jerry. The reason: making Tom & Jerry is one of the most creative and highly imaginative processes. I actually watch Tom & Jerry with this thought in mind - and I am left amused and amazed about how these guys even think of the various gimmicks!

MeraSport has taken a newer leap. The site is pretty plain now - we'll soon add the caricatures from the previous MeraSport.

My system never cras