The Noose!!

"The NECKTIE traces back to the time of Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) when Croatian mercenaries from the Military Frontier in French service, wearing their traditional small, knotted neckerchiefs, aroused the interest of the Parisians. Due to the slight difference between the Croatian word for Croats, Hrvati, and the French word, Croates, the garment gained the name "Cravat". The new article of clothing started a fashion craze in Europe where both men and women wore pieces of fabric around their necks. In the late seventeenth century, the men wore lace cravats that took a large amount of time and effort to arrange. These cravats were often tied in place by cravat strings, arranged neatly and tied in a bow."

- The stupid-est piece of fashion that did not disappear into oblivion in two years!!! Funny thing is, hotter the country and higher the level of education...the less like you are to question it...stupid stupid!!! 

Skye is the Limit!

Skye Bar, Sao Paulo

I am not huge on nightclubs. A television  with sports and beer will do it for me but I got to talk about this one. Syke Bar at Unique Hotel (the hotel is shaped like Noah’s ark btw…look it up!) has got to one of the best I have ever been to. Infact is by far the best nightclub I have been to. Period. Expensive but the view of Sao Paulo from the terrace is worth every single Brazilian reals (pronounced ‘hay-eyes’! No kidding…even the currency is pronounced sexy :)). I was looking up stuff to do in the city a few days later and on one of the websites one (what read like a well travelled) bloke was all about Skye. He kept raving about how he’s been all over the world but that Skye stands out as the best. I am not surprised. The terrace pool, the bar, the restaurant, the crowd, the ambience and the view.  Incredible! 

Lunch anyone???

So we come back after an early lunch and the office is like a ghost town…not a single person in sight ...I am not kidding…not one…and its 12:50 pm on a Thursday afternoon. My hung over ‘New York’ mind is thinking “what the hell is going on?”. We find out that apparently the whole office takes lunch at sharp 12:30! Every single one …for an hour…and they all go out…no lunch boxes and no fricking 'working lunch' business. As unusual as it is to see, the culture is easy to explain. The street below has great reasonably priced restaurants, incredible food, the weather is around 30 degree centigrade (back on metric units..YAY!!) and I can’t even describe the eye candy. Got to be a fool to spend lunch hour in front of a computer. Thankfully Paulistas unlike some New Yorkers (what?? I am being honest!) don’t have the ‘I work harder than you coz I even have lunch at my desk’ attitude!!

Sampa Sampa Sampa!!

Menina Bonita next to me on the flight. View of the pool from my hotel window (and I am not talking about the colour of the water duh!) Great Sushi and Sake. Lonely Planet Poor-too-gesh phrase book. Futebol on TV. Great view. Couch. Likely nap in the warm sunlight coming in through the windows. This is it!!

Best Football League in the World?? Really??

Fight for best league in the world

1. The Argument.

Which is the best football (soccer) league in the world? The question’s been asked before on the web. Yahoo Groups, Wiki Answers, Countless Blogs, et al. The overwhelming majority of the responses say English Premier League (EPL)! I am tempted to concur considering the amount EPL I watch. It surely is the most popular. It surely (you may disagree on this ‘surely’) is the most exciting. Biggest cash cow. Most watched. Talked about. And all that. But is it really the best??

Before we go any further we need to figure out what exactly are we looking for? League with the best players? The most successful clubs? Style of play? Most competitive group of clubs? Or is a blend of all these and more?? A certain X factor as some call it!! It’s complicated and some of these factors are extremely subjective. But let’s look at all of them individually and try and see if we can ‘clear the air’ a little bit. Or at least add a new dimension to the argument because lets face it… we may just have to ‘agree to disagree’ at the end of it all!

2. The Research – Part 1

The ‘league with the best players’ argument, as subjective as it is, can be used as a justification to eliminate all leagues other than the three big ones in Europe. I know it not fair and it certainly not meant to be disrespectful but most people who follow football can’t deny that the cream of football talent ply their trade in Europe. The last time someone from a club outside of England, Spain and Italy even finished 2nd in the FIFA World Player of the Year awards was Oliver Kahn of Bayern Munich way back in 2002!!! For all of Brazil’s dominance in world football, an overwhelming majority of their current squad play in the Big 3 European Leagues. The same is true for most of the big players from Africa. Coaches of Asian national teams would do anything for their ‘boys’ to get some experience in Europe. So clearly the imaginary race to get anointed as the ‘best league in the world’ is between English Premier League (EPL), Spanish Primera Division and Italian Serie A.

But can we look at the star cast and decide which one of these leagues is the best? I would much rather not. Gerrard vs Kaka. Rooney vs Benzema. Ronaldo vs Ronalidino. Eto vs Ibrahimovic. Vidic vs Gattuso. Messi. Lampard. Iniesta. David Silva. Aguero. It’s a crazy muddle of talent and honestly it’s not going to help this discussion (ok monologue). Only prolong it.

3. The Research – Part 2

Which one do you like vanilla or chocolate? Spicy Italian or Chicken Teriyaki? :) The fast paced direct English style or the ‘technically superior’ Spanish style? Or is it the cold blooded cautious approach of the Italians that whet’s your football appetite? This again is a hard one to call. Two reason. One. Its really up to the viewer what he or she wants to watch. The purist may prefer the creative Spanish but me personally…I love the frenzy of the English game. And who is to say who is right? Two. The big clubs don’t really play one particular style anymore. The influx of foreign coaches (especially in England) has lead to teams changing their tactics to suit opponent though it may be argued that the core of their approach has still remained largely unchanged.

This line of comparison leads one straight to the Champions League. How have the different styles of football matched up to each other? Over the last three seasons the English have dominated the Champions League. 3 out of the 4 semi finalist in 08-09, 07-08 and 06-07 seasons have been English clubs. No wonder the internet is full of posts declaring EPL to be the best…and invariable in every one of those posts the success of the English teams in Champions League has been used as evidence enough of EPL’s superiority!! They have a point but let’s scratch the surface just a little bit more. How has the next tier of English team done in UEFA / Europa cup?? Last time an English team made it to the finals was in 2006 when Middelsbrough lost to Sevilla. One English, four Spanish and two Italian teams have made it to the semi finals of the UEFA Cup in the last five seasons. There obviously is a hugh drop in the standards after the big four (Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool…for the folks who live in America or in a cave :)). Things are changing at a rapid pace with all the investment coming into City, West Ham and other smaller teams but can we say that the big four has had an easier time winning in the English Premier League? Does Real, Barcelona or the teams from Milan deal with a tougher set of competitors’ week in week out?

4. The Research – Part 3

How do we determine the competitiveness of each league?? Subjective again but I think some number crunching might help us look at things a little more objectively. In a world where dirhams, roubles and dollars flow in and out of clubs, changing the fortunes of players and competitiveness of leagues, 3 years is a long time in football to measure change. So I aint looking beyond the 2006-07 season for my Sunday morning research. The fundamental premise of my number crunching is that the stronger the lower half of the league…stronger the league! You are as good as your weakest link as they say or links in this case. How well are the bottom 10 teams performing in comparison to the top 10?

(For the uninitiated reader, probably an American (I am not picking on you!:)) or a cricket crazy Indian :), each of the three leagues has 20 teams playing two games against each other. One at Home and one Away. That makes for a total of 38 games for each team each season. They get three points for a win, one for a draw and none for a loss. The team with highest points at the end of 38 games is the winner. Period. No Play offs. No Post season)

The first thing to look at is the end of season point differential between the top ten and the bottom ten teams. I took a three year average of point difference between top 10 and bottom 10 teams for each of the leagues and to my surprise the Spaniards came out on top.

STAT A: Three year average of point difference between top 10 and bottom 10 teams

(Lower the difference, stronger the league)

English: 27.76666667

Spanish: 21.46666667

Italian: 28.9

I looked at the numbers again. There’s got to be some kind of mistake. The English can’t be that way off the mark. I found an excuse to redo the math. In 2007 – 2008 season, Derby County was rock bottom of the EPL table collecting only 11 points over 38 games. No other team did as badly in any of the leagues over the three seasons I was looking at. I was convinced that this lead to the anomaly. So I pretty much did the first step again except I took out the top 3 and bottom 3 teams (from each league) to try and neutralize Derby's horrendous performance in 07-08. It did not make any fricking difference!! :) I need to come up with a good one now if I have to turn it around for EPL!!

STAT B: Three year average of point difference between top (4 to 10) and bottom (11 to 17) teams

(Lower the difference, stronger the league)

English: 17.0952381

Spanish: 12.71428571

Italian: 23.76190476

What is a good team?? From the 10 years (not much by most standards) of my watching football closely, I can say, that good teams score away from home and rarely concede goals at home. A ratio of goal scored away vs. goals conceded at home is a good indicator of the team’s ability to win matches. For the sake of simplicity let me call it the Weakest Link Ratio. Can this magic ratio be the saviour? Let’s see.

STAT C: Weakest Link Ratio (Three year Average) = Average Goals Scored Away by Bottom 10 teams / Average Goals Conceded at Home by Bottom 10 teams

(Higher the Ratio Stronger the Bottom 10 teams)

English: 0.644986578

Spanish: 0.749581422

Italian: 0.721181961

Again!!!

5. The Conclusion

On all three of my STATs the Spanish Primera Division came out on top…hands down. Does it bother me?? Yes it does. Never again can I be in an argument and say “EPL is the best” without a little hesitancy in my voice!! :) You decide…but only for yourself.

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If any of you had the patience to read through this post and would be interested in looking at the spreadsheet I used to crunch the points table…feel free to write a note below with your email address and I’ll send it to you.

18° Feels Like 5°!!!

One of the less documented aspects of travel is the weather! The grandeur of ancient building, the glamour of nightlife, the aroma of food and the diversity of local culture for obvious reasons take a precedence over the oh so boring weather for most travel bloggers (me included...and I know I am shamelessly giving too much respect to my silly posts by categorizing myself :)). But isn't experiencing 115◦F heat just as memorable as seeing Taj Mahal for an Alaskan?? :) Or Snow for a South East Asian.

This was beautiful!!! In this day and age of $18 IMAX experience....thankfully the best visuals still are free and not animated!

The 'Money Order' Economy!

I have had better starts to a new year than this!! Just got back from warm and sunny Kerala to a wet and cold NYC and to add to my misery ...it sucks at work right now. But I aint bothering my accidental reader with all that. Let me think up something else to write about.

They call it ‘God's Own country’ …my little native state of Kerala, India. Its green, fertile, beautiful and was named as one of the "ten paradises of the world" and "50 places of a lifetime" by the National Geographic Traveler magazine. It’s also has one of the highest standards of living in India, highest literacy rates, high life expectancy, low infant mortality, highest per capita consumption of alcohol (YAY!!), etc etc. I can go on but honestly I got no right to brag considering how little time I have spent there (having grown up all over India). And besides it’s easier to look it up on wiki or something. That will give you the bad side as well coz I conveniently will forget to mention that bit :)

One of the more fascinating aspects of the state though is its economy. Well it’ essentially was an agricultural society and that should come as no surprise considering the amount of rain it gets (touchwood!) but it has now moved towards the Service sector. But as any Malu (short form for Malayali {native Keralites}…fondly {hopefully!} used in urban India) will tell you, as will countless articles on the web, one of the significant contributors to the Kerala economy is what they call the Non Resident Keralite (NRK) styled after the Non Resident Indian. He / she (very likely a she…and very likely a nurse!) sends a mind boggling amount of foreign remittance back home (Social scientists on the web call it the ‘Money Order’ economy) and build fancy houses that their old parents struggle to maintain (since maids are not as common a phenomenon as some other parts of India…I think it’s the prohibitive labour costs), buys land and of course gold. Nothing wrong with it. After all that’s the reason they went abroad in the first place. Financial security for themselves and their loved ones.

But I saw something quite remarkable this time I was back home. No our neighbors’ did not add a third floor to their 4000 square feet house!! A fine Indian American doctor by the name of Dr. Jose C Mantil sponsored a new state of the art school building for the village which I was told must have cost him over half a million dollars. Apparently Dr.Mantil’s father was the first principal of the school and he himself a student. Half a million dollars is a lot of money in any country and at any stage of your life. Even if there is an emotional attachment (like Dr. Mantil clearly has) rarely do Non Resident Keralites, Non Resident Indians or Non Resident Anywheres part with such large sums of money. I am not judging them but think about it. Dr.Mantil could have easily bought his kids a Cadillac each. Or done something else most of us would do. But he did not and that calls for a Thank you even though I never studied in the school and barely know anybody in the village except immediate family.

What was also interesting was that the school organized a Cultural parade around the village. Now it wasn’t exactly like the one in Rio or Macy’s but it was interesting to watch :) The school is run by some Catholic priests but the parade included traditional attire from all religions. I thought that was pretty cool. My mom woke me up from my afternoon nap and made me run half a mile just to make sure I get the event on camera :) I though it was good enough to post it in Youtube. I skipped the whole opening ceremony bit as soon as the local politicians started rambling but was told later that some old village football stars were also honored. Apparently football used to be pretty big in the village at one time. OK…that explains something!!!!

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Google induced after thought fact: Per the World Bank, India has retained its position as the highest recipient of global remittance flow at $52 billion in 2008. China, Mexico and Philippines are 2,3 and 4. Kerala accounts for almost a fifth of all NRI remittances.

God bless the Malu Nurse!!!