My thunder comes before the lightning; my lightning comes before clouds; my rain dries all the land it touches. What am I?

Replace the (?) with the correct mathematical signs to make the expression equal to 59.

18 ? 12 ? 4 ? 5 = 59

A man says, "Brothers and sisters, have I none, but that man's father is my father's son." Who is that man?

A man started to town with a fox, a goose, and a sack of corn. He came to a stream which he had to cross in a tiny boat. He could only take one across at a time. He could not leave the fox alone with the goose or the goose alone with the corn. How did he get them all safely over the stream?

There are three light switches outside a room. One of the switches is connected to a light bulb inside the room.
Each of the three switches can be either 'ON' or 'OFF'.

You are allowed to set each switch the way you want it and then enter the room(note: you can enter the room only once)

Your task is to then determine which switch controls the bulb?

Known by all without exception, Forever here, for your protection, Sometimes strong, sometimes weak, Right after the night I come - hot and chic. And while millions of miles away, I always get to you, I find my way. No life around could do without me, Can you guess what I might be?

A man has eighty-one cows ( numbered 1,2,3...81 as such). The beauty is that cow no. 1 gives 1ltr of milk, cow no. 2 gives 2ltrs of milk and so on. The man wants to equally distribute the cows among his nine sons so that each one of them gets the same quantity of milk.

Chhote se Chintu Miyan,
Lambi si Pooch.
Jahan Jaye Chintu Miyan,
Wahan Jaye Pooch.

छोटे से चींटू मियाँ,
लंबी सी पूंछ।
जहाँ जाये चींटू मियाँ,
वहाँ जाये पूंछ।

Bolo kya?

You are trapped into a death trap by the famous jigsaw killer. As usual, a screen flashes in front of you and explains you the trap game. There are 100 pearls kept in a bowl in front of you and an empty bowl. Among the 100 pearls, 50 are white and 50 are black. You can divide them as you like into the two bowls. Once you are done, you will pull a lever, which will turn the room pitch black. The bowls will move and shuffle around. In the dark, you have to pick up one pearl from any bowl. Once you do that, the room will flood with lights again. If the peral you have in your hand is white, you will be allowed to live, but if the pearl you picked is black, the room will be filled with poisonous gas and you will die. How will divide the pearls to increase your chances of survival?

There are two words one resembles the "state of rest" and the other is related to "writing/reading material".

Can you name these two words which also sound similar?