European football season 2011-12

14 May 2012 2 Comments

by Krishanu in Demystify, Sports

Out of the big four European leagues, three – English, Spanish and Italian – ended yesterday, with the German league being wrapped up last weekend.

From some interesting facts and numbers from around Europe, one thing is very clear: The disparity between the top 2 teams in each league and the rest is getting to be too great a chasm for the rest to catch up. The top 2 teams in all the 4 countries seemed to be playing in a league of their own!

Have a look at the standing of the top 6 in each country.


English Premier League – City clinched win with 2 late stoppage time goals to draw level with United on points, on the last game day, and win the championship on goal difference!

Difference between 1st and 2nd placed team:

  • 0 points
  • 8 goal difference

Difference between 2nd and 3rd placed team:

  • 19 points
  • 31 goal difference


German Bundesliga – Munich’s fight ended when Dortmund clinically rode to a solitary goal victory over them on matchday 30

Difference between 1st and 2nd placed team:

  • 8 points
  • 0 goal difference

Difference between 2nd and 3rd placed team:

  • 9 points
  • 25 goal difference


Italian Serie A – Milan’s capitulation to city rivals Inter on the penultimate game day was the last nail in their coffin, though Juve controlled their own destiny

Difference between 1st and 2nd placed team:

  • 4 points
  • 7 goal difference

Difference between 2nd and 3rd placed team:

  • 16 points
  • 24 goal difference


Spanish La Liga – Nowhere is this great divide more apparent than in Spain. Barca’s 4th straight championship dreams were dashed by CR7′s poised finish on matchday 35

Difference between 1st and 2nd placed team:

  • 9 points
  • 4 goal difference

Difference between 2nd and 3rd placed team:

  • 30 points
  • 70 goal difference

Anyone who still says that money can’t buy you trophies?!

[All snapshots courtesy Goal.com]

What do you mean, Racism?

30 Apr 2012 1 Comment

by Krishanu in Culture, Demystify

Indians are racist. Or let me rephrase that, most Indians are racist. Whether they know it or acknowledge it, they (or rather we, as I’m an Indian) are. As the dictionary definition goes, most Indians perpetrate acts which would be considered racist when looked from a neutral point of view.

Here is the definition of racism:

1:  a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race
2:  racial prejudice or discrimination, based on such a belief

There are so many types of racism prevalent in India and among Indians, it is hard to nail them all down!

A very common example: Most Hindus still wouldn’t want their children to marry a Muslim, and vice-versa. They would in fact launch a staunch opposition if their children brought this up. Why? Because they know the other religion to be ‘very different’ (read ‘inferior’) to their own religion. This is religion based racism.

Another – rarely talked about, but ever-present – prejudice, is caste-ism. This is where people from the same religion discriminate against people in their religion but lower social standing; these ‘standings’ based on centuries old traditions and the work that their ancestors once did.

The plethora of ‘whitening’ creams and lotions and magic formula out in the Indian market is proof of colour based racism, where the white skin considered to be a sign of some higher kind of the human species. Looking down at darker skinned people, whether Indians or people from other countries, is still very much in practice.

The inter-state based cultural racism that you see between the Marathi ‘Manoos’ and the Bihari immigrants. The Telengana dispute. Already 3 new states have been formed based on the purported cultural division of the people of the same freaking state!

And then you have the racist behaviour shown against white people, where they are perceived to be ‘culturally deficient’, morally hollow and good-to-have-as-friends-but-never-as-family type mentality. This isn’t just practiced by people living in India, but also Indians living abroad amidst white people.

Most Indians still hold on to some or other type of the prejudices mentioned above, or a mix of them. And here is the best/worst part: most won’t even acknowledge the fact that they are being racists! The racist behaviour is ingrained as ‘fact’ or ‘reality’ and these notions won’t ever be up for any kind of consideration. God forbid if you point out to someone who is clearly being a racist – you’ll be labeled as someone who’s going ‘against values and tradition’ or ‘bringing shame to the family’!

On the other hand, charging more for a bottle of soda or entry to a national monument to white people (in India) are NOT examples of racism. This act is simply because the dollar/euro/pound are valued much higher than the Indian Rupee. Forty, 50, 60 times in value. And a white person, unarguably in the eyes of the common person in India, is not indigenous to India and coming from a place where there is presumed to be greater riches, as their income in dollar/euro/pound makes them rake in more money than a common Indian. Does this make this act justifiable? Of course NOT. But this doesn’t make it a racist act.

[This post developed from a comment I left here.]

New calendar and no time zones

15 Mar 2012 4 Comments

by Krishanu in Demystify

Two professors at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore has come up with a new calendar. This calendar has the potential to replace the globally used Gregorian calendar that has been in use since the late 16th century.

Dr. Steven Hanke and Prof. Richard Henry had this publication out a couple of months ago. I would urge anyone who is going to read this post to first go and check that out.

Apart from the proposal for a permanent (yes, every holiday would be on the same date every year!) calendar with equal number of days every quarter, they have also proposed the abolition of all time zones and adoption of the UTC (a.k.a. GMT) all over the world.

[picture courtesy: http://www.cato.org/images/hanke-henry-permanent-calendar.jpg]

I’m all up for the new calendar but I have my reservations about doing away with all time zones. So I wrote an e-mail to both the professors. Here is my mail below.

Hello Dr. Hanke and Prof. Henry,

Recently I came across the article that you published on a new calendar. I am intrigued, to say the least! The new calendar that you have proposed makes a lot sense, with respect to the continued unchanged-ness of a calendar that predicts each holiday the same day, every year. I am sure that there will be cultural and social backlash to such a proposed upending of centuries of custom and tradition – specially those regions which follows the lunar calendar as opposed to the solar Gregorian one – but I think in due course of time, this has a good chance of being adopted universally. For most of the people on earth, changing (or rather making it constant) the day of Easter or Memorial Day or Holi (the Indian festival of colours) is not such an earth shattering event. For all business (retail, stock markets, IT are the ones that readily comes mind) this would be a boon of the highest order.
 
The thing that I couldn’t wrap my head around was the proposal to abolish all time zones and make UTC the only time prevalent all over the world. By this aren’t you proposing that people all over the world (except for the British folks!) to change their daily schedule? Schedule that has been molded into habit, over periods of multiple generations. Going by the UTC as the one time zone across the world: When a banker opens his branch in London at 8 am, the business analyst of the same bank working in Minneapolis, Minnesota (which is by the current standard 6 hours behind UTC and at 2 am) would have to consider this as HIS 8 am and go to work. Aren’t you changing the very definition of day and night; of changing the basic human instinct of waking up when there is light and going to bed when it is dark; of working during the day and resting during the night; to face the world when it is bright and retreat into your cocoon when it is not as much? Or is my understanding of your proposal drastically different from what you are actually proposing? If my understanding is correct, this is far more earth shattering to me, not unlike, say, the poles on the earth shifting from their current North and South locations to East and West!
 
I would love to hear back from you.

I actually heard back from Prof. Henry in few minutes! This is what he had to say.

The only thing that changes is the reading on the clocks. Which you would quickly get used to. Nothing else changes. Easy!

What do you think?

Name

27 Feb 2012 5 Comments

by Krishanu in Culture, Language, Rant

I find it incredible that my name has a greater chance of being pronounced correctly by an American than an Indian.

Krishanu is not a common Indian name. It is intrinsically a Bengali name, and it is not even a common Bengali name. For this reason (not that it is justified), most Indians who hear my name for the first time somehow automatically processes it as one of the similar sounding name listed below, without registering what I just told them. Two seconds ago.

Krishna – I hate this the most. Specially when they ask me, if my name is derived from this. It is not.

Krishnu – A combo of Krishna and Vishnu, or what?

Krishnanu – What? How?

Krishnau – This is mostly South India specific.

Krishnendu - This is very specific to Bengalees as this valid Bengali name is more popular than mine.

Ok, if this happens the first time ever you are talking to me, I’ll grant you the benefit of doubt. But for this to happen not only the first time I’ve corrected them, but also in subsequent conversations, or even the same one, is not pardonable.

Americans on the other hand take a few seconds to play back in their mind what I told them and make an effort to make it sound right. Most of the time they get it. If my name is printed on paper or on the screen, it becomes easier as I just have to tell them, “It is pronounced just the way it is spelt. Kri-sha-nu”. Done.

I was talking to this Indian guy from work on the phone the other day. We have worked together before, though not recently. We have exchanged emails. He addressed me as Krishna when I called him. First time, I thought, I’ll let it pass. During the conversation he kept the Krishna going. Just before hanging up, I brought up what my name really is. He was flustered and said, “Oh I’m sorry, Krishnu!”

Really? If you are, you’ll send me 500 written lines of “I will call you Krishanu“.

Or take the example of this person who e-mails me back, changing my name to Krishnau and insists on calling that. So I replied back to him with letters in his own name juxtaposed incorrectly, deliberately. That got his attention! Next time when we talked on the phone, he asked, “I think I’m not saying your name right ..” and I corrected him. Again.

Now compare this with the numerous Americans who I have interacted with at work and while playing football (soccer). They might require a second hearing, but when they say it loud, most get my name first time. Some ask me if there is a shorter version – like Kris or Krish – but then get on.

Not that I haven’t had Americans calling me variations of my name, mostly Krishana. The association is then with the more common Chrissana (which is a girl name!).

In college and subsequently in my work life in India, which were out of Kolkata, I have had more instances of people – Indians – mispronouncing my name, than I’ve encountered in my life in the US.

Is this a cultural thing where something as important as a name is not given a second thought and people take it on themselves to say it whichever way they please to? Is it because the US is such a melting pot and people are cognizant of so many variation and forms of names that they make it point to say it out correctly?

Footnote: I am very comfortable with my name and I thank my parents for coming up with something so unique. Krishanu is a synonym of ‘fire’ in old Bengali.

Extremes

13 Jan 2012 Leave a Comment

by Krishanu in Economics, Rant, Sports, Weather

Last January I had a post on an 80 deg change in weather - that was a change from Kolkata (in West Bengal, India, Asia) to Minneapolis (in Minnesota, US, North America). Understandable, right. Now consider this scenario, and judge which is worse:

This Tuesday – January 10th, 2012 – we had a high of 53° F (12° C), an all time high for this date ever recorded in The Cities. After a high of a breezy 38° F on Wednesday afternoon, we hit a low of 19° F at night. By Thursday, we were back to a normal(!) 12° F (-11° C). A 41° F change in temperature in the course of 2 days. Not in 2 continents, or in 2 countries, or in 2 states, or even in 2 cities in the same state. In the same freaking city.

Talking about extremes, the mortgage rate for 30-year old loans fell to 3.89% in the US on Thursday, January 12th. This is the lowest on record dating to 1971. Refinancing, anyone?

Another (soon going to ‘record’) low: Team India, after falling to 161 in their 1st innings against Australia in the 3rd test in Perth in the current series, are well and truly on course to their 7th straight loss (and 8th as well, taking the 4th Test in consideration) in away Test matches. After their record 17 straight loss in away Tests from 1959 to 1968, this current streak is the longest. Anymore talk about the ‘golden generation’ is unadulterated balderdash. The IPL killed the Test-star (sing it along the tune of Video killed the radio star).

Now a personal extreme: This week was the 1st 5-day work-week for me since the week ending December 9th, 2011. We might see a 42° F change in 2 days, in the future; the way the mortgage rates have been dropping, another new record low might be just around the corner; Team India might touch new lows. But for me to have 4 consecutive less-than-5-day work week …now that is some record that would be hard to beat!

11 hours

29 Dec 2011 1 Comment

by Krishanu in Life, Weather

That’s how long I slept from last night to this morning! This feels heavenly!

While watching India slump inexorably towards defeat against Australia, I turned the TV on and lay down on the couch. Rachel Maddow started at 11 pm on MSNBC. The last thing I remember was, Zaheer Khan popping a catch to forward short leg. Woke up a few minutes past 3 am, saw the same Rachel Maddow show on (probably the 4th re-run of the night), turned off the TV and the laptop, and trudged off to bed. The internal clock made me peek at the alarm at 7 am but this indiscretion wasn’t allowed to bloom. Finally my body had enough. Woke up, tired, a little after 10 am. Why tired, you may ask. Well, which other activity do you do for 11 straight hours and not be tired at the end?! I was tired after sleeping for 11 hours and needed some rest. So for the rest of the day I’m going to lounge and read River of Smoke by Amitav Ghosh. Possibly till Tuesday.

That brings to me another astounding fact. I’m on a 5 day work-free binge! Saturday, Sunday and Monday are official holidays. And I had 2 remaining vacation days from 2011, which is either use it or lose it. So here I am – enjoying my time at home, alone, while my wife slaves on at work :D

Since we are on a roll with numbers, here is another statistic (this one on weather, enough about myself): After the 4th highest snowfall in recorded history in the Minneapolis area in 2010-11 winter with 86.6″ of snow, this winter (2011-12) we’ve had  about 10″ of snow till now, and almost all of that is gone from the ground. This was my first ‘brown Christmas’ (as opposed to white Christmas) in all my years in Minneapolis. With today’s temperature of 39 deg F, and New Year to be 40-45 deg F, this December is on course to be the 9th warmest in recorded history.

Ponder on the stats above. Such extremes of climactic changes can mean only one thing. The Mayans were right. The end is near.

Thanksgiving in Duluth

06 Dec 2011 Leave a Comment

by Krishanu in Loves, We

We spent the Thanksgiving weekend in Duluth,MN with Vivian’s parents and brother. The day after Thanksgiving we went down to the lake shore to see the Bentleyville lights. It was chilling – the weather, not the lights!

I haven’t said this aloud (ever), but I’m thankful for all that is there in my life.  Every single one of them – people, memories, achievements, even things. I wouldn’t trade them for anything else.

Here are some photographs from that weekend. All taken with my new (bought used, but new to me) Nikkor 80-200mm f/2.8, a veritable beast!

[Click on the first one and you'll be able to see them as a slideshow.]

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