Anyone for quizzing?

Bill Bryson in his book "Notes from a small island" makes a comparison on the education system in UK with that in the US. Since, he uses quizzers as an example to make his point, I particularly remember this anecdote.

Anyways, the example he quotes is this- when the University challenge winners of UK and USA faced off each other in a "University challenge grand final", the UK team beat the USA team by some 17,000 to 3 margin. He adds that if you look at where the USA winners are now, some 10 years on, he claims they'd probably be the highest paid bankers on Wall Street, but the UK winners on the other hand, are more likely to be doing a Phd on "the evolution of cello music in Southern Silesia in the late 18th century" sharing an apartment with 17 others, or some such thing. (Bill Bryson and I both exaggerate like hell, but you get the general idea).

The point he was making, of course, was that while the UK education system was arguably making its students more erudite, the US education system was more practical.

I couldn't help thinking about where we (Indian quizzers) lie on the same scale. Our education system is definitely closer to the UK system than to the US system (after we did borrow heavily from the UK education system when we started off English medium education in India).

But as such, are we (Indian quizzers) closer to the southern Silesia Phd types, or the Wall street i-banker types. Scary thought. Actually looking back on the quizzers I've known over the years, I think more quizzers I know fit into the latter category than the former. Or am I just arrogantly assuming ?

Comments, (especially from quizzers) are highly welcome.

When in Rome, do as Bill Bryson does

The gist of this post is going to be "Bill Bryson rocks". Not too much more. No humorous dialogue, no exaggerated accounts of my (mis) adventures. No. If droll wit is what you were expecting, go to http://dilbertblog.typepad.com. Or better still, read the earlier posts in this very blog!

So, why Bill Bryson? He isn't what I'd call my "favourite author" (That honour goes to Douglas '42' Adams). Why indeed is Bill Bryson the 1st author to merit a mention on this blog. Well for one, atulyab.blogspot.com set out to be a travel-oriented blog with a humorous touch (or humour-oriented blog with a travelous touch, depending on my mood!) and simply put, Bill Bryson is to humorous travelogues what Rinus Michels is to total football. Furthermore, if at all I ever get down to writing a book in this lifetime, a Bryson-esque travellogue is certainly what I'd be aspiring to write (Special reference to cuplord again for pointing out how my life was worth a book being written!)

So back to the man. This whole pipe dream of book writing was largely inspired by Neither Here Nor There: Travels in Europe. It has several parallels with my own life. BB undertook a 4 month backpacking tour of Europe while in the middle of college. I did my 3 month long peregrination in the middle of college too. (Of course, like BB, I did not drop out of college at the same time. Furthermore, I could identify personally with at least 15 cities covered in the book, having been there myself. Also, unlike his other works, the book is based more on his solo observations, with more focus on the cities/countries than the people in them. Again very exchange-esque.

Of course, to enjoy a Bryson, it doesn't really matter whether you have been to the place he is describing, or even whether you plan to go there at all. A strong example is Notes from a big country. It takes super talent to write a book about arbit, out of the way locations in the USA, and still make it as interesting as it was.

A final word on Bryson's magnum opus, A Short History of Nearly Everything. In Bryson's words, "It was as if [the textbook writer] wanted to keep the good stuff secret by making all of it soberly unfathomable.
– on the state of science books used within his school"
I sometimes wonder if my electronics text books were written in the same way, would I have ever made my way towards IIMB at all! Andrew Tannenbaum is probably the closest ever attempt to 'do a Bryson'.

And finally, a pic I call "Nearly everything, of a short history". Apart from the title, it shares little with the book, if at all, but is a living and breathing example of history, as seen by the Romans. In one little snap, the site of Brutus stabbing Caesar, the site of Mark Antony's speech, the Roman senate, the 1st Catholic church in Italy, also the last pagan temple, the Settimo Severo (all victory arches are invariably modeled on this) right down to Michelangelo's Palazzo Nuevo, Monumento Vittorio Emanuelle to name a few, basically 2500 odd years of Rome through the ages, all captured in one little frame. Signature stuff from Rome!

Back to the subject. Bill Bryson rocks. Full respect to Bill Bryson.
Fuller respect to the one who introduced me to Bill Bryson, the (oddly named) Barbie.