It would be nice to say that one of my new years resolutions is to post *much* more often to this blog. However, I don't know how much I'll be able to in the next month and a half.
Next week, I'm going to be making a long-overdue trip to Kolkata (that's Calcutta for those of you who haven't been keeping up with recent government mandated spelling changes). I'll be back in time to attend the Princeton - Penn basketball game at the Palestra; it's important.
If I can find a easily accessible computer over there (which I don't think will be *that* difficult) and if I have the time (which may turn out to be difficult), I'll keep you all posted in what I see, hear, and read.
West Bengal (the province which Kolkata is the capital of) has the only democratically elected communist government in the world (in the history of the world, I believe). A few years back, to poke a snook at the United States, it changed the name of the street the US consulate was on from Harrison Road to Ho Chi Mihn Saroni (Saroni means 'road'). So, you must realize that I can't wait to read the newspapers over there (especially the non-English-language ones) and see what they say about the US and Iraq. I hope that if there is a war, it won't start until I return to the US; however, if it does commence before, I'll make sure to keep you updated.
TRIVIA QUESTION: Kolkata has been the birthplace and childhood/early adulthood home to two Nobel Prize winners. Can you name them? (And, before you say Mother Theresa, I'll tell you that she was born and raised in Europe.)
Comments (3)
Is this a trick question? Rabindranath Tagore who won it in Literature was born in Calcutta. However, none of the other five winners were born in Calcutta. Chandrasekhra Venkata Raman who won it in Physics worked at the University of Calcutta as did Amartya Sen who won it in Economics. Satyendranath Bose was born in Calcutta but he did not win a Nobel Prize.
By the way, having two Nobel Prize winners from Calcutta is no big deal. My High School (Bronx H.S. of Science) has five. Can you name them?
Posted by Richard | January 2, 2003 2:26 AM
Posted on January 2, 2003 02:26
Bronx Science gets the best kids from an extraordinary city, so it's really not *that* big of a surprize, but, five, wow, that's a lot. No, I can't name them.
The only thing I can say about my high school (well, I can say a lot about it, but on this topic) is that, at the same time in the 1990s, my high school counted both Harvard's president (Rudenstine) and the New England Patriots' All-Pro star running back (Martin) as alums. I'm surpized that there was never a Boston Globe feature about it.
BTW, I was thinking of Tagore and Sen.
Posted by Partha Mazumdar | January 2, 2003 1:50 PM
Posted on January 2, 2003 13:50
The answer is Leon Cooper, Sheldon Glashow, Melvin Schwartz, Russel Hulse, and Steven Weinberg. All of them got it in physics (no big surprise). Also, my alumni directory states that five Nobel laureates is more than any other secondary school.
Posted by Richard | January 2, 2003 6:06 PM
Posted on January 2, 2003 18:06