Friday 25 April, 2008

Ugly music

A big filmstar is going to host another one of those horrible reality shows where, probably, families will challenge each other in who sings most off key. The ads are up across the city. I noticed two.

Each features a Hindu family and a Muslim family.

By chance? Unlikely.

India is 80.5% Hindu, 13.4% Muslim. If you pick 4 Indian families at random, the chance that you'll end up with two of each religion is 1.16% (sq0.805 X sq0.134).

Having done this 50:50 picking, your chances of following up with a 50:50 pairing is 2/3 (H1, H2, M1 and M2 can be paired thus: H1M1 & H2M2, H1M2 & H2M1, and H1H2 & M1M2).

Combining, we find that there's only 0.78% (0.0116X 2/3) probability that filmstar & Co ended up with the Hindu vs. Muslim pairs by chance.

I have assumed there are only two ads. If there are more, and they have inter-religious pairing too, then the chances would go down further.

I cannot but see these Hindu-Muslim ads with jaundiced eyes. Ostensibly, they invite the country to make music together. Underneath, one suspects, lies a sinister if silly intent.

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