England vs. Germany: Comparison of football match and WW-2

The 2010 FIFA World Cup finals have brought out a lot of comparisons and analogies. The most famous one is the comparison with World War II. I would like to jump this bandwagon of comparisons and analyse the game between Germany and England in the knock-out stages of the 2010 FIFA World Cup played on 27th June. Just trying to judge the similarities and differences between the game and WW-II.

Similarities

1. Blitzkrieg format: Germany relied on the blitzkrieg form of war in WW-II. It was this very tactic that gave it victories in the initial stages. In the game too, the mid-fielders and forwards launched a blitzkrieg and caught the English defence by surprise. Remember, the second goal scored by Klose. This helped them demolish the English defence completely. And Ozil's run from mid-field to the penalty area in the 69th minute, to create a chance for Muller was just too fast for England to realise what is happening.
2. Germans' initial dominance: Both in the WW, as well as the game, the Germans dominated initially. Although England had more possession of the ball, the German attack was breathing down the English defences' necks.
   
3. English rally around one person: In WW-II, the English rallied around one person who inspired them to fight. That was Winston Churchill. In this match, the attack strategy revolved around Wane Rooney. While both names start with a 'W', alas, Rooney couldn't inspire as Churchill did.
4. Germany's leading men from Munich: In WW-II, the leader of Nazi Germany, Adolf Hitler, made his political career in Munich. Germany's football captain Philip Lahm, too, made his career with Bayern Munich.
5. Weak neutral authority: The League of Nations was weak to undo any injustice, and the referees in the game had weak eye-sight, thus acting as a morale-booster for Germany.
   

Differences

1. German dominance continues: Unlike the war, the Germans dominated till the end of the game. The German attacks demolished the English defence. And the German defence managed to cage the attacking Rooney.
2. English Channel: While the English channel acted as a natural defensive structure in the WW, the channel (gap) between the mid-field and English defence, worked to Germany's advantage in the game.
3. Role of USA: In the WW, US helped England crush Germany, but in the world cup, US were the reason England faced Germany. If England had emerged victorious against USA, they would have faced Ghana and USA would have faced Germany.

Finally, at the end of the 2010 Football World Cup, there is a great probability that Europe's power will be diminished and the (South) American continent's power would be on the rise.

Acts and Penal Codes in India

The Indian Constitution and legal administration is one of the most comprehensive collections in the world. Legislative acts and the IPC cover almost every aspect of life in India. And they are planning to cover more. But, apart from the seriousness of these acts, and penal codes they have a funny side too. Their names sound funny, the aspect they cover sometimes sounds funny and sometimes, their existence itself sounds funny. Here is a list of a few acts and IPC sections, which might tickle your funny bone

1. COFEPOSA: Does this sound like your neighbourhood coffee shop? Not your fault entirely. It stands for Conservation of Foreign Exchange and Prevention of Smuggling Activities Act. Enacted in 1974.
2. MISA: Maintenance of Internal Security Act. Enacted in 1973, by Indira Gandhi. It was then repealed by the Janata government in 1977. Lalu Prasad Yadav named his daughter Misa Bharti, after this act, as she was born when he was in jail under this act.
   
3. Sarais Act, 1867: Enacted to regulate the sarais or inns in India. It has peculiar provisions. Under this act, it is compulsory for any inn-keeper or provider of food in his premises, to serve water free of cost. Sometime back, a five-star hotel was pulled in the Supreme Court for violation of this act. Also, the inn-keeper has to make provisions of space and amenities to bullocks, camels and horses. So, if anybody refuses to park your animal, you can take them to court.
4. Bengal Districts Act, 1836: In short, this act gives the Bengal government the power to create as many districts as it wants in its state. It is still in place.
5. Sections 44, 45 and 46: These sections of the IPC define the words injury, life and death respectively. The word "death" as per section 46 applies to the death of a human, unless the contrary appears from the context.
6. Section 375: This section defines the word "rape". However, under this section, only a man can rape a woman and not vice-versa.
7. Fort William Act, 1881: An act that makes provisions to provide for the better governence of Fort William, Calcutta. Covers lot of peculiar things, such as soil removal in unauthorised hours, beating drums or tom-toms, servants smoking hookahs in their masters' house, etc.
8. Hackney-carriage Act, 1879: It was formulated to regulate the hackney-carriages in some areas of British India. Wonder, where are hackney-carriages used anymore?
9. Kazis Act, 1880: It sets the rules for the government to appoint any person to the post of Kazi.
10. Sheriffs' Fees Act, 1850: An act for deciding the clauses for remuneration of the sheriffs of Bombay, Calcutta and Madras.
11. Sir Dinshaw Maneckji Petit Act, 1893 and Sir Jamshetji Jejeebhoy Baronetcy Act, 1915: Tried to find information on these, but couldn't get any. These are probably the only two acts in India, named after two persons.
12. MCOCA: Does this also sound like your neighbourhood hookah-serving joint? Again, not your fault totally. This stands for the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crimes Act. A very stringent act and can be used in extreme conditions only.
    

On the back of my mind

Sometimes, we hear statements that get etched on our mind for a very long time. We may forget the context in which that statement was made, who made it, etc. but the statement can be clearly recalled any time of the day. I do not know why have these statements been there in my mind for me to recall them. I have actually forgotten the context of many of those. In a few cases, I've even forgotten at what place and time did I here the statement. Sample these

1. This is sometime around 1994-95. My father and me were waiting on the New Delhi airport after the security check to board a flight, probably to Bangalore. From the public telephone, a lady was calling up somebody and suddenly she screamed into the phone- "Hailllo Papppuuuuuu !!" Me and my father just stared at each other and had a good laugh. That is all I can remember about the event. Nothing else.

2. This is some cricket match in which India was involved. A one-day international. Ajit Agarkar, at that time was relatively new and was brimming with raw pace. This was before he visited the MRF pace academy and Dennis Lillee, instead of helping him increase his pace, reduced it and thus ruined Agarkar's career. Coming back to the match. Agarkar was back into the side after being out because of injury. India was fielding, Agarkar was the bowler and Ravi Shastri was the commentator. Agarkar bowled a delivery and immediately took a wicket. I do not remember the mode of dismissal, but part of Shastri's commentary was "... and Agarkar is back, to his wicket taking ways." This piece of Shastri's commentary still rings in the back of my mind, while I remember nothing else about that match. Not even the opposition!

3. I used to attend summer camps in my childhood. I've attended two such camps. After that, I consider my childhood as over. In one such camp, we were being told a story. It was supposed to be a comedy story, as it was being told to kids. It was about some lady who had come to Pune city from a village and didn't understand the city. Somewhere in the story the lady mentions to someone, "माझा भाऽव ड्यॅक्कन कॉलेजाऽऽऽत सुपारी टुण-टुण हाय", which means, "my brother is a superintendent at Deccan College." In this case too, I do not remember the story, but this sentence has been etched into my memory.

4. This was when cable TV was new in India. They had a game show on Star Plus, called "The Crystal Maze". In the final round of this game show, the participants used to gather inside a large crystal shaped dome. Their job was to collect the maximum number of gold and silver foils in a specific time. The gold foils carried more points than silver foils. The team that scored the maximum points used to win. These foils were blown into the crystal dome using blowers that created air currents turbulent enough to set the foils in a Brownian motion. After the team had gathered into the dome and the dome gate locked, the host used to say his trademark sentence- "Will you start the fans, please." This sentence too rings at the back of my mind, though I remember very little of this show.

BTW, Breaking News, I just found old videos of The Crystal Maze on YouTube.

I find this ability of the brain pretty amazing. Retaining bits and pieces of information that have flashed only momentarily. But on the flip side, there are some equations that I see daily, but can not remember them if anybody asks about them later. There may be many more such incidents stored in the back of my mind, which I cannot recall right now, but it would be interesting to jot them down as and when I recall them.

Who surfed my blog?

I subscribe to Google Analytics to get a few details of my blog. Who visited, when, from where, how did they arrive, all sort of such stuff. Most of the time, I am interested in looking at the range of cities from where people visit my blog.

Recently, I realised about the search engine feature in Analytics. The feature allows you to see what search terms were used to arrive at your blog. Many times, the search terms used surprise you, sometimes they baffle you. You begin to think "What, this combination of search terms puts my blog on the top few pages?" This is based on the assumption that an average surfer would not go beyond the third page of a search engine. Most of the people who use the search engine would have not even gone through the post completely. They do not contribute anything as readers. I mean, I don't expect comments from every reader, but then they do not go away with the satisfaction of having read something nice/good/interesting.

The largest number of hits that my blog (or posts in the blog) received were from a search term "orkut testimonials". Over the past eight months it continues to occupy the top slot for every month's statistic. Now, I know that none of these readers would have appreciated my post on orkut testimonials as most of them are looking for testimonials that they can use. But surprisingly, my blog received the cumulative maximum number of hits from queries related to orkut testimonials. Why would one google for testimonials? I don't understand. As I have said in my post on testimonials, it should indicate the depth of friendship. Not to be used to flatter friends.

Another term that generated a lot of hits and surprises me is "Raj Thackeray". I have only one post related to Raj Thackeray, but the hits contribute to nearly 14% of the month's hits. That most of the people searching for Raj Thackeray are not exactly his fans, such gang of readers do not read and give a thought to the post. Those who are his fans, read and get happy because of the content. But only a few actually try to realise the problem.

While we have our own thoughts about the way people will try to reach our blog, search engine statistics throw up a lot of surprises. When you go through that report, the world appears to be much more stranger than earlier.

A funny scaleup

Today, I felt like having Bourbon biscuits along with tea in the afternoon. Four of us, Arun, Abhijit, Jalesh and myself bought tea and a pack of Britannia Bourbon. Britannia have come up with a new mini-pack of Bourbon biscuits, which is priced at Rs.5 and contains 4 biscuits. This pack wasn't available with the canteen vendor, so we had to buy the bigger pack that is priced at Rs. 10. I reasoned that since the mini-pack has four biscuits, this pack would have eight biscuits, thus giving each of us two pieces to relish. But lo! after the first round of four biscuits, we realised that the pack had only three more left. So, the pack we bought had only seven biscuits.

This puzzled us and bamboozled us. I mean, a pack of Rs.5 has four biscuits, while a pack of Rs. 10 has seven! If those mini-packs were available in the canteen, nobody would buy the normal pack. I can buy two mini-packs and have eight biscuits. This is a funny situation. I do not know how many people have thought about this. Does Britannia itself realise the situation. Now that this is in public domain, smart people would resort buying the mini-packs, thus pushing down the sale of regular packs. Bulk buyers would of course buy it on a per kilo basis, but then picnickers, casual eaters, impulse buyers would now (possibly) change their strategy. This actually leaves no incentive to buy the bigger pack. Normally, a pack selling a larger quantity in one go is priced at a little less than twice the cost of a pack selling half the quantity. For e.g. if a 100gm toothpaste costs Rs. 20, but a 200gm toothpaste will cost Rs. 38 (something less than Rs. 40). But this is one of the funniest scale-up I have ever seen.

Barged into Senate meeting

The senate meeting was on in full swing in the lecture theatre. BTW the senate is the apex body in IIT which decides a lot of stuff related to IIT. The presenter out there was putting forward some of his thoughts seriously. Officially the senate meeting was to end at 5 PM.

Wednesday 23 Mar 4:30 PM: In our lab, we all were gathering together to leave for Nikhil's birthday treat.

4:50 PM. We all stepped out of the lab to proceed for the treat. Suddenly some one remembered that today, Prof. Madhavan, a retired professor from our department (and a big name in control engineering) was ging to be conferred the Professor Emeritus status today at 5 PM in a ceremony at LT. All feet stopped moving and took a spontaneous turn towards the LT.

5:10 PM: Venue LT: We all thought that we are late for the function and it has already begun. I was leading the pack (this is a rare case). Hence, without even thinking about confirming what was going on inside, we opened the door and I just barged in. Seeing just too many profs around, I turned back and shouted to Ketan "abbe". That stunned the speaker for a few seconds, before he could continue. When I saw the slides that he was presenting, I understood that this is not the function we were supposed to attend. I just turned back and came out of LT even without caring to tell my friends what was going on inside. It was when Nikhil came out, that we came to know that we all had dared to barge into the senate meeting, which is one of the most high profile meetings in IIT!!

As for the conferring ceremony, we decided that Nikhil's treat gains a precedence over the ceremony and left the LT premises in a short time

Fun with Linux

Linux can be fun... Especially if you want to play pranks on newbies or on someone who uses Linux 'coz he hasn't any other option.

Try this...........
When the login screen of linux appears, you can choose the language you want. Change the language to Chinese or any other language which has no remote connection to India. Now, when anybody logs in to his account, he is going to see all the stuff in that particular language. You should just see the reaction on the user's face... It is garaunteed to be a Kodak moment..

Believe me, I've tried this and have been successful till this date... but, ur victim shouldn't be a hardcore Linux guy, or the plan will not take off at all.