National Unity Day

We can have a good and bad memory associated with a date. But how we would want to remember the date is our choice; 31st October provides us with such a choice. While the 31st October is widely known for an event in 1984 in which country's only woman and one of the most popular Prime Ministers ever was assassinated; followed by a wide scale application of misdirected hatred in which thousands of her own countrymen lost their lives. On the other hand 31st October is also the day on which one of independent India's most popular and powerful leaders, a leader who gave shape to the map of Indian union, was born.

Thanks to propaganda the death of Indira Gandhi has for decades received much more public attention than the birth of Sardar Patel. The assassination of a reigning prime-minister was an unfortunate event but even more unfortunate were the reprisals unleashed on a particular community whose lineage of serving the sub-continent is unparalleled. While a leader was glorified, an entire community was vilified. In simple terms the events on or after 31st October, 1984 represent the 'divisive' facet of India and brings to fore the deep cracks within our diverse country.

On the contrary it would not be exaggerating to say what Sardar Patel achieved in the few years between independence and his death in 1950 united India as a nation is it we know today. If you tend to disagree, then have a look at this map of India at the time of independence. More than 35% of the entire sub-continent area was at that point of time under the control of princely states numbering more than 500. All of whom had no obligation to join the Indian union and could have declared independence on their own.

Our colonial masters were very happy to leave behind a disintegrated country which would have fought years of civil war to settle their territorial disputes. It would have ultimately led to a sub-continent split into scores of small countries; may be something like the Soviet blocs of Eastern Europe. The seventh largest country in the world would have been Argentina and not India. But that was not to be since India had a certain Sardar Patel as the Home Minister. It was the only time when a Home Minister was the Commander-in-Chief of India's armed forces (later on President) and only time when the Home Minister was equally if not more important that the Prime Minister. While the PM was more focused in stamping India's presence at the global stage, the Home Minister was very much aware that the situation at home has to steadfastly handled.

The chaos that was, is unimaginable. On one hand there were millions displaced and tortured by the partition caused by an imaginary line. And on the other side was the task of stitching together the country with a hostile neighbor breathing over the shoulder. With the help of his trusted secretary V.P. Menon, Patel was able to achieve accession of most of the princely states through diplomacy and negotiations. In some cases, as like for Junagadh, Hyderabad and ultimately Kashmir force had to be used.

It is quite doubtful had it not been for their contributions, whether the nation that we see on map today would have ever come into shape. A case in point is surely that of Kashmir, in which the advisories from Patel and his team were sidestepped by the higher authorities until the very last moment, resulting in a quagmire of never ending dispute between the two neighboring countries which now yearly drains millions from exchequer along with loss of lives. It is noted that Patel's cautious view points w.r.t to relationships with China were also over looked and for which country paid the price later.

As a political leader Sardar Patel's contributions before Independence had been many but his achievements in the integration process remains unparalleled. Considering the diverse and divisive landscape, integrating most of the states within just 2 years post independence is a super-human achievement. His other contributions in curving out an efficient bureaucracy in the form of IAS and IPS and laying the seeds of White Revolution though formation of Amul's parent cooperative society tend to get ignored in comparison.

In memory of such a tall act, today the tallest statue in the world will be inaugurated by the Prime Minister. Though it is quite debatable whether it is the most appropriate way to honor this great son of India by building an immovable statue for INR 3000 crore within just 3 years. It is interesting to note that one of the sub-contractors for this massive statute is a Chinese firm.

It almost seems that it's payback time for all the years when his legacy had been pushed into oblivion and his contributions skillfully omitted from the pages of history text books in school. However, leaving those divisive thoughts aside let's celebrate the National Unity Day in memory of the 'Iron Man of India'. Hope soon to get awestruck by this magnanimous Statue of Unity.

A day's trip to Kusu Island, Singapore

During our stay in Singapore for a few years we had the opportunity to travel in and around the island country to a great extent. Apart from Singapore we made to some of the popular tourist destinations in Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand.

Singapore as we know is an island country. However apart from the main island there are a number of small islands around Singapore which are also part of the country. Most of these islands are uninhabited or used for military and industrial purposes. The uninhabited islands are promoted for tourism purpose. One of those many sister islands is the Kusu Island.

A day's trip to the island can easily be undertaken from Marina Pier. Ferries depart from the pier at regular intervals. As of last visit there was no over night lodging facility available on the island.

History of the Island:

In March 1616 Dom Jose De Silva, Spanish Governor of the Philippines was homeward bound with his fleet of 10 galleons and 2 galleys when his galleon grounded on a reef in the vicinity. Tradition has it that the accident took place at the Kusu Reef itself and hence the island became first known in the 17th Century as "Governor's Island" and Singapore Straits as the "Governor Straits".

A journey by Grapevine Vintage Railroad

We recently undertook a journey on the Grapevine Vintage Railroad from Main Street Station of Grapevine to Fort Worth Stockyards. It is a 21 mile route which is part of the once St. Louis South Western Railway also called the 'The Cotton Belt Route'. It generally operates with a 1896 ear steam engine or a diesel engine. The steam locomotive is called 'Puffy' and is the oldest continuously operated steam loco in the south. The diesel locomotive is known and 'Vinny' and is of 1953 make. 

The coaches are from 1920s era and are well maintained. There is one which is air-conditioned and one which is open; no windows. Guests can choose from either of the options. The coaches are well maintained and there are few refreshment options available on-board as well.we

Main Street Station of Grapevine is a historic station which dates back to 1888. The Fort Worth Stockyards came up in late 1880s to stock cattle which the the railroads reached the region. The current Stockyards station is housed in a building which was originally built in 1912.

Reminiscing Durga Puja days

When I was young I really thought whether Durga Puja is the exclusive festival of Durgapur; my birth place. Obviously that is not so but to me and many alike the definition of Durga Puja is stilled limited to the boundaries of this small town of West Bengal. Every puja holiday, I have so far afforded,  has been spent in Durgapur only. It is beyond doubt that celebrations in Kolkata overshadows anything anywhere but the soul doesn't achieves satisfaction till the lungs breath air of the hometown.

The meaning and way of celebrating Durga Puja in Durgapur has changed with time. When I was young it would start with the initiation of the Puja holidays. Though the holidays would start from Panchami, books would be packed for good right from Mahalaya. Those were the days of no FM or YouTube, so if you want to listen to Birendra babu it has to be on All India Radio at 4:30 am on the day of Mahalaya. The Mahalaya on radio would be followed by one on Doordarshan 1 at around 6:30 am; a more logical time to get up specially on a holiday.

The period between Mahalaya to Panchami would be spent around the under-construction pandal of our para puja. Climbing the bamboo structure along-with playing  hide and seek around the pandal would comprise our evening games. My para puja at that time was Edison Madhyapalli which used to be held in the field of Balaka Manimela; the pandal wouldn't be dismantled before Laxmi Puja. On Panchami evening we would celebrate our school closure with a prolonged adda in the fields of Central Puja. The adda would not end before 9 or 9:30 pm; which was almost equivalent to past midnight in those days.

Storm Cloud Formations Today (10/09/2018)

Today morning observed some threatening storm cloud formations over the city. There were warnings of severe thunderstorm and local tornadoes. Rain lashed all through the day but nothing extreme took place. However the cloud images captured today are not surely of regular occurrence. 

Place: Allen, Texas

Date: 10/09/2018

Camera: Samsung J7 phone camera

Who and Why | Nobel Prize in Economics 2018

Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award 2018 Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel commonly referred as the Nobel Prize in Economics to:

William D. Nordhaus (one half of the prize) "for integrating climate change into long-run macroeconomic analysis" (on left of picture below)

Paul M. Romer (one half of the prize) 'for integrating technological innovations into long-run macroeconomic analysis" (on right of picture below)

Did colonial loot and slave trade fund this Ivy League school?

Yale University is one of the oldest universities in USA having it's roots in the Connecticut Collegiate School founded in 1701 in the colony of New Haven. It is a premier Ivy League University ranked consistently as one of the top across the globe. It is the alma-mater of a numerous Nobel Laureates and a number of US Presidents as well.

But did it's founding fathers took grants from someone about whom history is not that glorious? I first read about this in a book by Indian economist Sanjeev Sanyal.

The university is named after a Boston born businesses man Elihu Yale who was once the director of British East India Company as well. As we all know to an extent the treacherous ways adopted by promoters of the company to plunder the wealth of India. In the process some of company officials became ultra rich and Elihu Yale was one of them.

Elihu Yale joined the East India Company as a low level clerk who rose to the position of director of the company. He was the President of Madras (Fort St George) between 1684 till 1692. As the President of Madras Yale was at the node of the slave trade routes in the Indian Ocean which linked South East Asia, Middle East and Africa. As per documents available from Fort St George, a minimum of 10 slaves were ordered into outbound European ships. It cannot be said that Yale was the only one who profited from this endeavor but he was surely one of the.

The other half of 2nd October

26th January, 15th August and 2nd October are holidays which no Indian would ever miss. These are dates which are embossed in the collective memory of the nation and are the only three national holidays which have a fixed place in the calendar of any organization, public or private, in any part of the country. There are a few other national holidays but the dates of them vary from state to state or from year to year. But these 3 dates are never ever contested.

What is written on your license plate? Do you know why?

When I first time had a car in the United States in the state of New Jersey, the license plate had a legend which said 'Garden State'. I assumed that it could be a reference to the gardens and parks which the state has but, as I now know, my assumption was naive and incorrect. Then when I moved to Texas, the legend on the license plate changed to 'The Lone Star State'. However I didn't think much about it and it didn't arouse much curiosity in me.

But recently when I was travelling to North Carolina the tag on the license plates had me thinking. It mentioned 'First in Flight'. Now this had me thinking. Why was it that every state had a different legend on the license plate and what each of them meant? As usual did some online research and below are the results.

The story of Insulin - the first genetically engineered therapeutic agent

The importance of insulin cannot be overstated to any person who is himself a diabetes patient or has a family member suffering from that. And it's lifesaving value cannot be attributed to the price tag. India is often called the diabetes capital of the world with about 9% of its population suffering from the ailment. India has more than 70 million adult diabetes patients and some studies indicate diabetes reaching the scale of a potential epidemic in India.

Diabetes results when our pancreas don't produce the insulin hormone (Type 1 Diabetes) or if the produced hormone doesn't function in the expected manner (Type 2 Diabetes). To counter these situations today we have externally synthesized insulin shots which can be taken to supplement body's need for the hormone. However this was not achieved over night.

How was life of a diabetic patient before insulin was discovered? Considering the fact that even in 2015 we had 1.6 million deaths directly attributed to diabetes, it can easily be understood the importance of insulin. Before the discovery of insulin shots, the only known way to treat diabetic patients was to put them on a low calorie diet. However, that often led to death by starvation. Children diagnosed with diabetes rarely lived; more than 80% died within 10 years of first detection. Having Type 1 Diabetes was effectively a death sentence.

The discovery of bio-synthetic insulin currently in use is a process which took more than 100 years to achieve its ultimate objective. It contains years of hard work and toil from hundreds of researchers working across the world. As many as 4 Nobel prizes were awarded for work directly related to discovery of insulin and many more with indirect association.

The famous Cattle Drive Sculptures at Pioneer Plaza, Dallas

Texas is famous for it's long horn cattles first introduced to the New World by early European settlers. Texas has a long tradition of these cattles being driven from the south to railroads and business centers in the north. Shawnee Trail was the Eastern most and earliest of these trails which passed through the current area of Dallas, Austin and Waco. Drovers used to drive hundreds of cattles collected from this area along the trail to northern rail heads. Shawnee Trail was in use before and after the American Civil War but gradually declined because of protests from farmers of the territory through which the trail passed. Later on Friday other trails to the west developed and Shawnee Trail was gradually closed down.

A trip to Frisco Heritage Museum - Glimpses into the History of Frisco

Frisco is one of the many cities in the Dallas Fort-Worth Area and is one the fastest growing ones. We recently visited the Frisco Heritage Museum and having gone through some of the artifacts over there followed by some reading over internet could well appreciate the fact that Frisco's history dates back more than 150 years. And railways has got a central to play in this history.

The early settlers came down following the Preston Trail, current Preston Road, and settled in the area around 1840s. The first community to be formed was called Lebanon as some of the settlers had their roads in Lebanon, Tennessee. In 1902 a line of the St. Louis - San Francisco railroad was built through the area and they had a watering stop for the steam engine around 4 miles west of where the community was setup initially. Many of the Lebanon community moved to around this new location. The dwellers of this new town called it Frisco City after the name of railway line; later shortened to Frisco. The city even derives it's current coat of arms from the logo of St. Louis - San Francisco railroad. The Frisco Heritage Museum preserves a part of that history. It is a nice small museum where you could spend couple of hours browsing through Frisco's history.

Jachymov's unique place in the history of science

While reading books at times you come across anecdotes which turn out to be quite interesting. And your mind wants to look out for more. You search internet, read through articles and skim through Wikipedia to investigate further.
I encountered one such interesting anecdote while reading this book on the origins of quantum physics.

A visit to Fort Worth Zoo, Texas

Forth Worth Zoo is a 64 acre zoological garden situated in Fort Worth, Texas. Opened in 1909 the zoo is more than 100 years old now. It is the second largest zoo in the DFW area just behind Dallas Zoo. We recently visited the zoo and here are some pictures of the Zoo inmates. It is definitely worth a day's visit if you are in town. Children would specially find it enjoyable.

There are many more animals in the zoo apart from the ones captured below. But for rest of them the pictures available are not of good quality. All pictures are taken by the writer using Huawei Honor 4x.

Book Review - Uncertainity: Einstein, Heisenberg, Bohr and the struggle for the soul of science

Completed this wonderful book on the history of quantum science by David Lindley. A gripping read which charts the history of quantum physics from the early decades of the 20th century till the years after the conclusion of the Second World War. The book starts with Robert Brown and his Brownian Motion, ending with the Uncertainty Principle of Heisenberg.

Reading this book I got to know more closely each of the characters involved in this journey chief among them being Bohr and Heisenberg; Bohr was the god while Heisenberg was his prophet.

Understanding the personality of the geniuses like Bohr, Heisenberg, Pauli, Schrodinger and others is an enriching journey. We have all read about the concepts like Uncertainty principle,  Schrodinger wave equation or the wave-particle duality of matter in our high school physics but to know how these theories evolved over decades of brainstorming discussions is a different experience.

Playing with God's own creation

• Ladakh, 2010 - officially more than 250
• Uttarakhand, 2013 - officially more than 5700
• Kerala, 2018 - officially more than 1000 so far and counting, estimated damages in the order of $3 billion

As the fight rages on social media as to who should give the money for aid / relief and who should be taking that, let's take a moment to retrospect on what caused this deluge in Kerala. A crisp answer to this question would be simple: 'unprecedented heavy rainfall' which is way more than the expected average. But was that all? It is no doubt excessive rainfall is the reason for Kerala as was for Ladakh and Uttarakhand but there is something more to the tragic story every time.

For Ladakh the amount of water the cloudburst dumped on 6th August, 2017 was truly exceptional. The region is a cold desert and on an average receives around 100 mm of rainfall all through the year. However in that one night within a few hours time span it received more than 250 mm rainfall.

A tribute to Bharat Ratna Atal Bihari Vajpayee..

When I think of Bharat Ratna Atal Bihari Vajpayee (ABV) as a Prime Minister, I remember him along with PV Narasimha Rao as the two stalwarts who provided stability to the seat from the early 90s, from after the death of Rajiv Gandhi, till the last decade of the last century. They both led the country during very similar and tumultuous periods.
Their tenures brought an end to the instability which was making a mockery of Indian democracy. Vajpayee came at a time when dirty coalition politics was creating havoc and prime ministers were getting changed at whims and fancies of hitherto irrelevant policians.

During his first tenure Vajpayee and his cabinet resigned just after being 13 days in power. His speech at the end of this first premiership is yet another display of his masterly oratory skills and teaches how to look for hope in defeat as well. The same number 13 turned out to be lucky for him when he stitched a strong NDA alliance to truly become the 10th Prime Minister winning a majority in the 13th Lok Sabha elections. After having sat for decades on the opposition side he ushered an eventful second tenure as Prime Minister of India.

Even now in present time we have BJP in power at the center but differences can't go unnoticed between now and then. There was less of hatred and religious mongering all around; notwithstanding the fact Vajpayee had to keep under control a radical Deputy Prime Minister.

How far unbiased are the competitive examinations in India?

When it comes to education few countries in the world are as close to India in terms of competition; well on second thoughts China would be one. Considering the population of either of these countries it's not surprising that competition to get entry into one of the top institutions would be so cut throat. After all the students know getting entry into a good college is the assured way to secure a good future for themselves and their families. Thousands of students appear for entrance examinations every year at the culmination of a journey which involves a lot of sacrifices in both monetary and emotional terms.

Thus it is important that tests organized for admission to these institutes are unbiased to the maximum extent possible; any bias could provide an undue advantage to one group of students over the other. In India there are a number of entrance examinations conducted some at an all India level and some at State levels. And for each of them we have quite often heard how one section of students is at disadvantage over the other. For example, it is widely known that students pursuing plus 2 in CBSE board are more at advantage (because of the syllabus content and coverage) than the students pursuing a State board for plus 2 study. And hence to counter this the State level competitive examinations are tuned to the State board syllabus.

Book Review | Numbers Rule Your World - Kaiser Fung

Numbers present a fascinating view of the world. In every day working we knowingly or unknowingly engage with numbers and probability in different forms. When we open our daily newspaper in the morning we are bombarded with a deluge of numbers which are scattered across all the pages; cricket scores, match statistics, player analysis, stock market performance, social and human development indicators just to name.

Numbers, their statistical analysis and visual representation is a wide field of study with application in almost every field of study. The title of this 'Numbers Rule Your World' is more than appropriate. This is a wonderful read on how number and statistics are prevalent in the world we live.
A book on statistics generally tends to be boring for a layman if it is more academic oriented and involves usage of a lot of technical jargon. However this book is not one of that type. In this book the author establishes relationship between statistical concepts and how they have come to influence events in modern times.

The book is segregated into 5 chapters each dealing with one fundamental concept from the world of statistics followed by a concluding section and a most important section on 'notes'.

Indians with Nobel in Mathematics | Part 1 - Abel Prize

It is often asked, answered and debated why Alfred Nobel didn't include Mathematics as one of the subjects along with Physics, Chemistry and Physiology or Medicine when he first instituted the first five Nobel Prizes; Literature and Peace being the other two.

There are multiple explanations for the exclusion of Mathematics. Some say Mathematics was not considered as a fundamental science which could directly human well being. Some say that there were plans of a prize being instituted by the King of Norway and Sweden, who himself was also a mathematician, for excellence in Mathematics. While some other points out to personal angle wherein it is said that the woman he proposed to rejected his proposal in favor of a Swedish mathematician of the period, Gösta Mittag-Leffler, and hence he despised of mathematicians and mathematics.

Movie Ratings | The Program, Race

Biopics are a very interesting genre of films and anything on the lives of sporting legends evokes special interest. Recently I watched two of this type each of quite different nature.

First one is Race on the life of Jesse Owens. Actually his name was J. C. Owens but his teacher in school had some problem in understanding his pronunciation and so he became 'Jesse'. Jesse Ownes was a born genius and he was quite destined to scale great heights notwithstanding the massive racial discrimination still prevalent in American society.

The movie tracks his life from being spotted by Ohio University coach Larry Snyder played by Jason Sudeikis. The movie depicts close and important relationship Jesse shared with his coach without whom there were chances the great talent would have been lost.

England's 1000th Test - Analyzing England's Test Cricket history

England is taking on India for it's 1000th Test match at Headingly, Birmingham starting 1st August. As inventors of this modern game, it is quite appropriate that they are the first team to achieve this unique feat.

They played the first Test match against Australia in 1877 at Melbourne. Below are landmark Tests which they had played in their long journey. Looks like they didn't had much of a success in those; winning only their 700th and 900th Tests. England lost their 1st Test and 100th Test to Australia, while drew their 500th Test with Pakistan.

India were their opponents for the 300th, 400th and upcoming 1000th Tests.

Mathematician Jadav Chandra Chakravarti (1855-1920)

When I was in school I had this red book in my shelf. It had just a bright red cover nothing written on the back and only two words in the front; 'Arithmetic' at the top in larger don't and 'Chakravarti' in the lower right corner with a smaller font. That was the legendary book on Arithmetic by Jadav Chandra Chakravarti written by Bengali mathematician more than 100 years earlier.

Jadav Chandra Chakravarti whom we mostly refer as JCC was born in current Bangladesh in a village near Sirajganj in 1855. His father was a priest and it need not be said that he grew up in poverty. His father passed in his childhood but notwithstanding extreme poverty he continues his studies in the village school. Not much details I could find about his personal life or childhood.

It seems he completed his master's from Presidency College in Calcutta, which definitely points to his abilities as bridging the distance between an obscure village of Bengal to Presidency is not an easy job to be done. JCC completed his M.A. in Mathematics from Presidency.

Movie Ratings | Pi, 6 Below, Emperor, Bibaho Diaries, Byomesh Pawrbo

Time for some quick movie reviews. Picked up a good stock from the local library and trying to finish those gradually. Here are few which I saw during the last week or so.

Pi (1998)- This one is a psychological thriller based on a eccentric insomniac mathematician living in a New York City apartment pursuing the search for a magic number which can help him unearth a stock market pattern. In the journey he gets exploited by some religious groups, trading cartels etc. all of whom wanted to get hold of the number for unlawful gains.

This movie was the debut movie of the director Darren Aronofsky and the lead role was portrayed by Sean Guellete. The movie is shot in high contrast black-white which adds to it's psychedelic effect.
The movie  was a successful  one but it didn't appeal appeal to me much as a thriller. To me it lacked the thrill factor and concentrated more on the psychological distortions of the protagonist.

My Rating would be 2.5 out of 5.

World Cup in Russia | Racism and contrasting situations in France and Germany

With the winning of World Cup by France, the immigration debate has entered the world of soccer with a force. In this World Cup France was the team most of whose players had roots outside the country i.e. they were descendants of immigrants to France; mostly from countries which were once colonized by France.
All this has led to the often used reference of the World Cup being won by Africa, which got a bit more serious with the French ambassador replying to an American comedian and talk show host.

Indians must be pretty familiar with this scenario. We have a large diaspora scattered all through the world who continue to achieve great success and glory for their adopted countries. However we in India also boast about the Indian origin of the greats and the achievers do not themselves shy away from such accolades. After all who would not want to loved and respected in the country from where they or their parents hailed.

Shyama Prasad Mukherjee and Calcutta University

Shyama Prasad Mukherjee is one of the most eminent sons of Bengal but he didn't mostly receive his due recognition. In recent years though there has been an attempt by BJP to resurrect the Bengal connection through it's founder but that evidently is for political gains; as West Bengal still continues to be an outlier amidst the electoral tsunami unleashed by BJP across the country.

However apart from being a politician there has been a distinctive phase in his career when he was a educationist during which he was mostly associated with Calcutta University. His 28 years of public service life can be clearly demarcated into two phases; the first phase from 1924 till 1938 as an educationist and the later phase 1938 till his death as a politician. Unfortunately this great son of India passed away when he was 52 only thus depriving the country of his able guidance.
In this article we will briefly discuss his contributions during his years of association with Calcutta University.

Movie Ratings | A Hologram for the King, The Manhattan Project, Contagion, October, Sacred Games

A Hologram for the King :Tom Hanks plays the lead role in this 2016 movie which is around the story of a sales executive from a US based technology company who lands up in Saudi Arabia to secure an IT deal. It's about the challenges he faces in this new country which is vastly different from his homeland. Added to that are the downs in his own personal life where he is going through a divorce.
However with time he gets accustomed to the new country, makes friends and even makes it his new home. Other lead characters in the movie are played by Sarita Choudhury and Alexander Black.
Overall a nice watch but fails to.meet the expectations set by a Tom Hanks movie.

My Rating: 3 out of 5

World Cup in Russia | And the Grand Finale

 At the end of a month long journey involving 32 national teams playing 64 matches we have one champion and that is France. No first time winner, no surprise but France.  Along with Uruguay, Argentina it became the third country to win the cup twice; Brazil, Germany and Italy have won it many times over.

France made through the tougher half of the draw. On to the way they beat some of the heavy weight names in world football in the knockout stages; Argentina, Uruguay, Belgium. They beat Argentina, Uruguay convincingly and escaped a talented but reluctant to win Belgium. Never did their knockout stage matches went to extra time; which is actually the first a champion team has achieved so.

Croatia had on the other side managed to win all their knockout games in the extra time; twice even on penalties. All the games were won after being initially down by a goal. They were a battle hardened unit, relentless in their pursuit of victory. On the way they bettered Denmark, Russia and England.

World in Russia | Unlikely Finalists in an Unpredictable World Cup

We are all set for the final showdown in this edition of the FIFA World Cup. And it's France against first time challengers Croatia. Who would have predicted Croatia in the final but again that's the beauty of the game.

This world cup also highlights the supremacy of European football in all aspects. In the quarterfinals we had 6 European teams against 2 from South America. Both the South American teams were eliminated in the quarterfinals and we were left with an all European semifinal. Last time that happened was in 2006 when too France was the finalist.

The quarterfinal stages had 4 previous winners and 4 aspirants competing for the cup. And appropriately we have 1 previous winner and 1 aspirant making it to the finals. Last time an aspirant reached the final was Spain in 2010; which they won.

If Croatia wins the world cup it will be a record of sorts; it would probably the smallest country since Uruguay in 1950 to achieve that feat. And surely the youngest one having been born just in 1991 as a nation.

So as we edge towards the finish line lets take quick re-look of the matches in the quarter and semi final stages as I had done so for the group stages and round of 16 in my earlier posts.

Movie / Show Ratings | Rishta.com, The 33, Raazi, Sanju

Over the past few weeks I completed few movies and Netflix series. Doesn't quite makes sense to have a dedicated post for each of them, so I would just try to write to combine few of them together here. I am starting in the order their viewing was completed; not any ranking.

Rishta.com - This was a refreshing watch. The pairing of Shruti Seth as Isha Mirchandani and Kavi Shastri as Rohan Mehra had a touch of freshness about it. The story is about colleges buddies who partner to start a matrimony startup. Each episode is about their experience while dealing with a wide variety of clientele. Every episode had an unique story line. Even though the series is quite an old one, aired in 2010 on Sony, it is still has a touch about it which made me hooked to it. It's quite a family entertainer which you would definitely love watching. In fact the coolness and the smart of sense of humor which Rohan Mehra's character had was quite contagious. This series streams on Netflix and that's where I watched it.

My Rating for this overall show is 3.5 out 5. Quite recommended if you are looking for a relaxing watch.

On the need of tests

Amid all the frenzy surrounding world cup, the Jadavpur University situation has been quietly brewing up. I have been following it through the reporting of the events in The Telegraph and also through the timelines of my friends. First of all one positive take away which the students have taken from previous agitations is that they lifted the 'gherao' on VC and other professors; allowed them to leave and adopted alternate mode of protests. 'Gherao' is disgusting, an encroachment on basic civil rights and a developed society should not approve of the same.

JU student unions are known to be anti-establishment in stance and any student wing of the ruling party in the past or present has not been able to make much in-roads into the campus. That's something the students should be proud of because it has kept the University campus from turning into a dirty turf for political warfare as has most of the other campuses in the state has turned out to.

But at the same time the blind-folded anti-establishment stance clouds the ability to judge a situation or decision on it's merits. Sometimes it boils down to countering a decision only because the flow has been top down.

World Cup in Russia | Fall of Data Science

This world cup has turned out to be the death bed for Data Science and Machine Learning algorithms. Before the world cup I had seen at least two prediction reports coming from well established sources. One from UBS and the other from Goldman Sachs both concluding that it would Germany yet again.

Today I saw another prediction done by Sports Illustrated (image by the side) after the conclusion of the group stages. This one predicted a Brazil - Spain final.

World Cup in Russia | Recap of the Round of 16

The quarter-finals will be starting tomorrow. So here is a quick recap of what happened in the round of 16. The first day of this round was quite tragic with two of the best footballers of our times being eliminated. While that was on the first day, the next 3 days were no less interesting.

Spain vs Russia: I am not sure if result of this match could really be termed as a surprise. To me Russia were the clear favorites coming into the contest. The handball of Pique for which the penalty was awarded was comical. I have never seen a footballer jumping with his one hand up to head the ball. Reminded me of the way Ganguly used to duck the bouncer keeping his bat still hoisted; he even got out once because of such an awkward positioning of the bat.

Though Spain had the lion’s share of ball possession and passes, those are useless stats if the scoreboard reflects a different story. In the penalty shootout Russian keeper Akinfeev did tremendous job by stopping twice while Russians didn’t miss any against deGea. I always think Spain plays a regressive football keeping the ball to themselves. Their football only attains the charisma because of the scoring abilities of Messi and Ronaldo. This match also was the last international appearance of another legend; Iniesta.

Reading the Menu

How often do you go through the menu card at a restaurant with great detail? If the restaurant is one of your regular ones, then you mostly know what to order. However, if it is a new one where you want to try our do you really read through the entire menu? How do you selectively move through the menu and arrive at your choice?

Definitely there are certain patterns to that and it is that a carefully designed menu card would exploit. The below images are taken from an article published in the Readers Digest magazine. While going through the article I really appreciated the fact how much it is relevant and how many times my choice is guided by the menu card's design and not by the exact know-how of the food.

Some of the often used tricks are items priced like 9.95 / 9.99, items marked in box or marked as 'chef's choice'.

One other point which I frequently observe in the menu card, but not listed in this article, is the calorific value of the food. Consider how health conscious our generation has turned out to be, mentioning the calorific value do drives people choices.

(The pictures below are sourced from July-August 2018 issue Reader Digest magazine)

Movies I Like | Kon -Tiki

This is one beautiful movie which I watched recently; borrowed from the public library. This movie is based on the Kon-Tiki expedition which was undertaken by Norwegian adventurer Thor Heyerdahl in 1947. It was a 100-day expedition to trace the course taken by South Americans to reach Polynesia. This was a new theory proposed by Thor and he understood the journey to prove the same. Prior to this expedition the prevalent belief was that Polynesia was populated by people from Asia.

This movie was made in 2012 and based upon a best-selling book on the expedition written by Thor. There was a documentary made on the journey which became an Oscar winner.

The movie is a well dramatized version which captures nicely the highs and lows of the journey and emotions of the men who shared that rickety raft for 100 days. The movie speaks enormously of the self-belief, conviction and confidence of Thor Heyerdahl. the movie provides an insight into the small roles played by each member of the crew in making the expedition a success.

The film is well made but I suppose to get a better feel of such a journey reading the book makes more sense. It's difficult for a 120-minute feature film to capture a 100-day journey across the Pacific in a wooden raft in all it's complexity, toughness and endurance. Still the feature film is a great attempt and is an experience good to have.

The movie was nominated for Oscar and Golden Globe in the Best Foreign Language Film category.

My Rating would be 3.5 out of 5.

World Cup in Russia | Exit of the legends

Yesterday was a day not to be remembered in the history of FIFA World Cup. It was the day which saw the fall of two of the greatest footballers our time has seen. Both Messi and Ronaldo exited the world cup on the same day.

It was not that the results were unexpected but having seen these two men spin magic over the years, the heart always felt some last minute magic to happen. But alas that was not to be.

First match of the pre-quarter-finals had Argentina against France. It is not that France was a much more superior side and their football so far didn't display anything convincing. There were chances that a strategized approach from Argentina could help them. France was the faster team. They had young players like Mbappe whose speed couldn't be matched by Argentine defenders.

World Cup in Russia | Preparing for the knock-out stage

So here is the second post on FIFA World Cup following first one few days back listing the Top 10 matches till Match Day 2 of the competition. All the groups completed their Match Day 3 yesterday and today is a rest day after the conclusion of a grueling group stage.

Match Day 3 virtually was a pre-quarterfinal stage for many of the teams. Some of the them like Uruguay, Russia, France, Croatia, Belgium and England had already qualified for the knock-out stages after having won both of their first 2 matches. But for others the fight for survival was still on. Teams with large following like Argentina and Germany were still on the brink of an early exit.

The last 4 days of the competition generated quite a few surprises. And its time to take a stock of those before we start the Quarter Finals from tomorrow.

Book Reading | The Gene: An Intimate History

There can be nothing better than reading books but it becomes quite a luxury when we add the time constraint. Having oversubscribed myself to quite a good number of magazines, I find it hard to commit myself for a book.
However, the other day while browsing through the non-fiction section of the Public Library I stumbled upon the second book by Siddhartha Mukherjee; The Gene: An Intimate History.

I had always longed to read the first and Pulitzer winning book by this author - The Emperor of Maladies. So when I saw ‘The Gene’ available on the rack I couldn’t avoid grasping it. The book is voluminous but still I decided to take up the challenge. And I have been doing pretty good at that.
It would be futile attempt for a person like me who last read biology in 10th standard to write an academic review of the book. But I would rather limit myself to writing why this book is a worthy read for a person who loves science.
‘The Gene: An Intimate History’ as the name suggests tracks historically one of most important discoveries of science right from the ancient times, when it was just as concept to the ancient thinkers and philosophers, to the modern day unraveling of the mysteries related to the unit of heredity.
I have always had a liking for history but the history of science is something we get very seldom to read. We have well documented history of society, politics, war but science lacks its share. What we get of science history are only the first one or two pages at the beginning of text-books which are written as part of the introduction. We always miss the point that it is important to know the history behind a scientific discovery or invention to understand its importance. It is also important to know the society and politics of the time and then we will understand the weight-age of what Galileo, Copernicus, Darwin or others had achieved.

World Cup in Russia | Top 10 matches from the first 10 days

FIFA World Cup in unarguably the greatest single sport extravaganza in the world. Even though the Summer Olympics would have a worldwide viewership and following which challenges the World Cup but consider that it’s a multi-sport event with participation from way large number of countries. The final stages of the FIFA World Cup is a contest between mere 32 countries.

Russia won the bid to host the 2018 edition of the cup. There were some questions raised regarding the initial bidding process and how Russia won it; nevertheless, Russia has so far been doing a great job. 

The event which started on 14th June has so far traversed the journey of 10 days. For all the groups 2 match days have been completed. It’s time to take a stab at the 10 most interesting matches played so far. The matches are arranged in the order they were played and not any other ranking