Lucky Creation.com Insight on Indian Youth

Ahimsa and Non-violence

2008-06-15T04:59:00.001-07:00

Literally speaking, ahimsa means non-violence. But to me it has much higher, infinitely higher meaning. It means that you may not offend anybody; you may not harbor uncharitable thought, even in connection with those who consider your enemies. To one who follows this doctrine, there are no enemies. A man who believes in the efficacy of this doctrine finds in the ultimate stage, when he is about to reach the goal, the whole world at his feet. If you express your love- Ahimsa-in such a manner that it impresses itself indelibly upon your so called enemy, he must return that love.
This doctrine tells us that we may guard the honor of those under our charge by delivering our own lives into the hands of the man who would commit the sacrilege. And that requires far greater courage than delivering of blows

Story of Satyagraha

2008-06-15T04:59:00.000-07:00

As is well known, Gandhi's political ideology evolved during his early years in South Africa. He was influenced by the writings of Thoreau, Tolstoy and Ruskin. The three writers had advocated Non-cooperation of civilians against the government if it proved suppressive or tyrannical. But their thoughts found only in writing, got a practical shape in Gandhi's approach, first against the highly unruly administration of colonial Governments in Africa and later in the struggle for Independence in India.
Gandhiji felt that laws which were totally against the welfare of the people, could be fought peacefully by organizing mass-protests in a civil way.
Pacifism, civil disobedience, rightful resistance against wrong policies, passive resistance, non cooperation are some of the forms of non violence Gandhiji brought into practice. All these terms come under the common term "Satyagraha".

Mahatma Gandhi

2008-06-15T04:46:00.000-07:00

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, more popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, is undoubtedly one of the most eminent freedom fighters any Indian will recognize with. From early days every child must have acquainted himself with this political figure through the curriculum history textbooks that has liberal footage of Gandhiji.
The father of the nation has also had a strong association with the movie world. From textual depiction in curriculum chapters to the live portrayal on the Bollywood big screen, Gandhiji has been a source of inspiration for many filmmakers not just in India but also across the globe.
It would be as good to say that any movie on the Indian independence theme or any biography on a real life historical character around the independence era is incomplete without the mention of Gandhiji. So integral was Mahatma Gandhi to Indian independence and thereby to the films on related themes!
Today on Gandhi Jayanti, we takes you to a trip articulating all those Bollywood actors who portrayed the character of Gandhiji on the silver screen over the years.

Information about Shahrukhkhan

2008-06-15T04:31:00.000-07:00

Shahrukh was born in New Delhi. He used to live in Rajinder Nagar, New Delhi. His father died in 81' and his Mother died in early 90's. She died while he went out to get her medicine. His mother was a social worker. She was a very big influence on him.Shahrukh also has an older sister Shehnaz. Shahrukh did his high school from St. Columbus High School in New Delhi, and later graduated from Hansraj College, Delhi Univ. He did his masters in Mass Communication from Jamiya Miliya Islamiya, New Delhi. Shahrukh also had a food restaurant called "KHATIR" in Safdar Jang, near lodi road in New Delhi. In 1989, he moved to Bombay, and that's when his acting career began. His first TV serial was Fauji ( Produced by Colonel Kapoor), followed by Circus (produced by Aziz Mirza) and he also did a serial where he acted as a Sardar with turban, and the serial was called Dusra Keval. He Likes to do his own stunts, his favorite portrayal was Kabhi Haan Kabhi Na for it's "Chaplinesque character". His Wife's name is Gauri Chibber, and she graduated from Modern School, Barakhamba Road, New Delhi. They are expecting a child in the first week of November, if boy he wants him to be badmash and wants to double date with him,and if girl she will be given loads of love!!!! Shah Rukh Khan is proud father of a son..named Aryan (born on Nov 13, 97)

Fiber Defined

2008-06-11T06:27:00.000-07:00

Fiber is a type of carbohydrate found in plant foods such as fruits, legumes, vegetables, and whole-grains, which cannot be fully digested. Commonly referred to as dietary fiber or roughage, fiber adds bulk to a diet, assisting digestion and bowel movement functions.
Eating foods that are high in fiber tend to make you feel full, which helps people who are dieting to lower their consumption of food; therefore, their calorie intake is reduced resulting in weight loss. Since fiber cannot be absorbed by the body, it contains no calories.
There are two types of fiber or roughage, as it is sometimes called: water soluble (i.e., gums, pectins, and mucilages) and water insoluble (i.e., cellulose, hemicelluloses, and lignins). Each plays a role in providing health benefits.

Education

2008-06-11T06:05:00.000-07:00

Education means good knowledge and education is the main part of life. Without education you cannot proceed further in your life. Due to Education you can make your life wonderful and mindblowing. You can become the biggest men in the world if you proceed to high education

Homework Tips on Reading: What Parents Can Do

2008-06-11T05:42:00.001-07:00

Have your child read aloud to you every night.
Choose a quiet place, free from distractions, for your child to do his nightly reading assignments.
As your child reads, point out spelling and sound patterns such as cat, pat, hat.
When your child reads aloud to you and makes a mistake, point out words she has missed and help her to read the word correctly.
After your child has stopped to correct a word he has read, have him go back and reread the entire sentence from the beginning to make sure he understands what the sentence is saying.

Summer Fun...and Summer School?

2008-06-11T05:42:00.000-07:00

As the school year winds to a close and kids face 2 ½ months of summer freedom ahead, many parents will be concerned about how the big summer break will affect their child's academic learning and, ultimately, test scores come September.
Experienced teachers complain that summer learning loss is a very real problem. Experts estimate that anywhere from one to 2 ½ months of the previous academic year's learning will be lost – and have to be regained – by the beginning of the next school year. Sally A., a Sylvan Learning Center representative who has also worked with children in the public school system, says, "It's like the whole month of September you're playing catch up, even into October. Some kids are fine, but then there's the other extreme."

Hamilton's home moved to new spot in Harlem

2008-06-11T05:04:00.001-07:00

Two hundred and eighty tons of American history were on the move Saturday in Harlem.
The home of Alexander Hamilton, who conceived the country's banking system and was killed in a duel with a political rival, rolled inch by inch down a Harlem hillside to its new location overlooking a park.
"This was the only home Hamilton ever owned," said Steve Laise, a National Park Service official dressed in a vest, tie and pants typical of the 1800's. "It represented the consummation of Hamilton's lifelong dream — a successful social position for a man who came to the American colonies as a penniless 17-year-old born out of wedlock in the West Indies."
But the brilliant, charismatic Hamilton, who became a lawyer, helped pen the Constitution and served as the country's first treasury secretary, structuring taxation and government bonds. He eventually moved to New York, where he founded the New York Post and the Bank of New York.
Earlier this month, Hamilton's house — squeezed between a church and an apartment building — was hoisted 40 feet into the air, with steel beams and cribbings helping it clear the portico of St. Luke's Episcopal Church. Starting at about 7 a.m. Saturday, it rolled slowly down West 141st Street, taking three hours to travel a block and a half to the northwest corner of St. Nicholas Park.
There, the 206-year-old structure will be secured into its third spot, overlooking the bucolic city-owned park.

Education Council: We won't recognize degrees awarded by college in West Bank settlement

2008-06-11T05:04:00.000-07:00

The Council of Higher Education has ruled that it will not recognize the degrees awarded by The Academic College of Judea and Samaria (ACJS), Army Radio reported Wednesday, after the college, located in the West Bank settlement of Ariel, unilaterally declared itself a "university center." The heads of the college said that the upgrade from "college" to "university center" represents an interim phase ahead of its evolution into a full-blown university.
However, the state has announced that in the next five years, no new universities will be established in Israel, and that is does not recognize the category "university center." Representatives from the Council of Higher Education emphasized that should the college rescind its unilateral decision, the degrees it issues will be recognized again, according the report. Nahum Finger, the council's deputy chairman, called on students to rethink their future plans should the college resist the council's orders. Army Radio also reported that Ariel students have threatened to strike, or to turn to the High Court of Justice, should the sides fail to reach a compromise. Boaz Toporovsky, the chairman of the National Student Union, promised that he and his colleagues "won't leave the Council of Higher Education alone in order to prevent the students from being harmed." "We're fed up that every conflict in the higher education system comes at our expense," Army Radio quoted Toporovsky as saying. "All that interests us is that the degree of a student who studied in Ariel be recognized by every institution in Israel." The Council of Higher Education has warned that additional, harsher sanctions will be placed on the college should it not obey the council's directive. Representatives from the Student Union and the Council of Higher Education will meet on July 1 in order to discuss the fate of students who will be affected by the decision.

Measure, Macbeth & Middleton

2008-05-30T05:49:00.000-07:00

Move over Christopher Marlowe; back up Edward de Vere, Earl of Oxford; step off Francis Bacon. There’s a new sheriff in town, and he’s laying his own claim to some of Shakespeare’s plays. It is none other than Shakespeare’s contemporary and fellow playwright, Thomas Middleton. Your reaction to this news might be a maelstrom of emotions, asking yourself, “What does this mean for Shakespeare’s reputation?”; “How are the Oxfordians going to rebut this?”; and, most importantly, “Who the hell is Thomas Middleton?”
If you’re an aficionado of Jacobean drama, his name will not be a complete mystery to you; still, even for the faithful, Middleton’s best-known plays—The Revenger’s Tragedy, Women Beware Women, and The Changeling—rarely show up in multi-period anthologies or production. Nevertheless, Middleton did make an important contribution to English drama and, if you believe the evidence, a significant part of that contribution was the refining of some of Shakespeare’s plays. A new two-book set of Middleton’s plays takes the theory a step further, including two of Shakespeare’s plays. Many have speculated that Measure for Measure and Macbeth were partially written by Middleton and new textual analysis asserts that as much as ten percent of the plays may be his work. The relatively early publication of Shakespeare’s collected works (which appeared just seven years after his death) has long eclipsed Middleton’s potential contribution. This new collection seeks to re-stake Middleton’s claim as part of the Shakespearean canon.

A Banner Year for Lear

2008-05-30T05:46:00.000-07:00

Ian McKellen must be seriously peeved. The British film and stage actor has been schlepping around the world with his widely touted production of Shakespeare’s King Lear for much of the 2007-2008 season. When word broke yesterday that a new film version of the venerable tragedy was to be mounted, the natural question was who would appear in it. Currently, two of the three daughters have already been cast. Gwyneth Paltrow, who has been a rather spare presence onscreen in the past five years since becoming a mom, will play Regan. Keira Knightley, who gained fame fighting undead pirates in a trio of overblown, thoroughly awful action comedies, will play Cordelia. No name actress is attached to the role of Goneril as of yet, possibly because the character’s name will produce too many snickers among adolescent audience members. The big news, of course, is the King himself, who will be played by none other than Anthony Hopkins.
Since Hopkins name is bigger in the film world than McKellen’s, the choice is not terribly surprising. In truth, it will be very surprising indeed if he is not extraordinarily good in the film. While passing over McKellen might be sad news for his fans, Hopkins is far from a flyweight. In many ways, the casting of the daughters is far iffier. Knightley has proven herself to be a lovely photographic object, but her acting consists of talking around her teeth and posing like she’s in a period-piece body wash commercial. Most importantly, she isn’t warm, and Cordelia is the heart of King Lear in many ways. Paltrow has a habit of being either really good or utterly wan. When she last played Hopkins’s daughter in Proof, I was expecting a lot due to the raves she had received for her stage performance in the same role. I was sadly disappointed. Maybe the casting of Goneril will seal the fate of the performances of the daughters’ roles – whipping the other two actresses into shape or sinking with them.

Re-Shakespeare-ing

2008-05-30T05:26:00.000-07:00

Des McAnuff is putting the Shakespeare back into his Shakespeare FestivalLiterally. As previously mentioned the Stratford Festival is renaming itself the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in an effort to nominally and artistically reconnect to its roots. As a result, the 2008 season leans more heavily on Shakespeare than it has in recent years. McAnuff recently became the sole artistic director of the Festival, following a tumultuous year in which his two co-artistic directors departed. To help cement this rebooting of the Festival, McAnuff himself is directing a production of Romeo and Juliet.
Artistically, the choice makes sense. After all, a play so focused on young love speaks to the Festival’s desire to recapture its own origins. This Shakespearean renaissance speaks to the struggles facing many Shakespeare Festivals: how to honor their fundamental love of Shakespeare while still providing their audience’s with a diverse array of plays. What role do the other plays serve in a Shakespeare Festival, particularly when many of them are incredibly different stylistically from The Bard’s approach to theatre?Perhaps the differences are part of the goal in selecting seasons. Rather than offer the audience the same thing, festivals can highlight the individuality of works by placing them in increasingly diverse company. A Shakespeare production followed by a Tony Kushner play might allow the audience to more fully appreciate each writer’s unique qualities. Furthermore, it might even highlight the fact that plays that might seem like polar opposites on the surface could have more in common upon closer comparison.

Chickenpox

2008-05-26T02:01:00.000-07:00

Chickenpox is a common illness among kids, particularly those under age 12. An itchy rash of spots that look like blisters can appear all over the body and may be accompanied by flu-like symptoms. Symptoms usually go away without treatment, but because the infection is very contagious, an infected child should stay home and rest until the symptoms are gone.
Chickenpox is caused by the varicella-zoster virus (VZV). Kids can be protected from VZV by getting the chickenpox vaccine, usually between the ages of 12 to 18 months, though sometimes the vaccine is given to older kids, teens, and adults.
A person usually has only one episode of chickenpox, but VZV can lie dormant within the body and cause a different type of skin eruption later in life called shingles (or herpes zoster). Getting the chickenpox vaccine significantly lowers your child's chances of getting chickenpox, but he or she may still develop shingles later.

More About Cooking Light

2008-05-26T01:14:00.000-07:00

Cooking Light was first published as a small column in Southern Living magazine, before publisher Southern Progress decided to launch the magazine in 1987. It has become one of the most popular cooking magazines in the market. The focus is on healthy eating and living. Cooking Light features approximately 100 recipes in each issue, making the magazine a standout in the cooking genre. Nutritional information is included with each recipe, so you know the amount of calories, fat, protein, fiber, carbohydrates, cholesterol, iron, sodium and calcium contained in a dish. Recipes typically have less than 30% of the recommended daily amount of fat and are also low in salt. The magazine also features a number of articles in each issue on exercise, as part of the healthy lifestyle promoted in Cooking Light. Other topics include travel, shopping and gift ideas. Articles also feature highly acclaimed chefs, expert insights and cooking techniques. Southern Progress Corporation also publishes Coastal Living, Health, Cottage Living and, as mentioned, Southern Living.

Video Spin: A Better Video Editor Than Windows Movie Maker

2008-05-22T05:53:00.000-07:00

Video Spin (based on Pinnacle Studio) is a free video editing software like Windows Movie that lets you make movies without any learning curve.

And once you are done editing the video, it can directly upload the clip to online video sharing sites like Yahoo! Videos or YouTube. Another surprise - Video Spin can even output movies directly in Flash Video (flv) format.

Obama criticizes McCain for 'naive' foreign policy

2008-05-20T06:07:00.000-07:00

Barack Obama laid into John McCain on Friday for advancing a tough-guy foreign policy that he called "naive and irresponsible," serving notice that he's ready to launch a full-throttle challenge to the Republican presidential contender on international relations in the general election campaign.

Lumping McCain together with President Bush, Obama declared: "If they want a debate about protecting the United States of America, that's a debate I'm ready to win because George Bush and John McCain have a lot to answer for." He blamed Bush for policies that enhance the strength of terrorist groups such as Hamas and "the fact that al-Qaida's leadership is stronger than ever because we took our eye off the ball in Afghanistan," among other failings.

McCain agreed, at least, that there were huge differences between himself and Obama on foreign policy, and said he'd be happy to let the American people decide who was right.

"It would be a wonderful thing if we lived in a world where we don't have enemies. But that's not the world we live in. And until Senator Obama understands that reality, the American people have every reason to doubt whether he has the strength, judgment and determination to keep us safe," McCain said in a speech to the National Rifle Association in Louisville, Ky.

McCain rejected the naive comment, saying Obama should have known better, and added: "Talking, not even with soaring rhetoric, in unconditional meetings with the man who calls Israel 'a stinking corpse,' and arms terrorists who kill Americans, will not convince Iran to give up its nuclear program. It is reckless. It is reckless to suggest that unconditional neetings will advance our interests."

His campaign issued a statement accusing Obama of making a "hysterical diatribe."

The three-way dustup over foreign policy — Bush vs. Obama vs. McCain — began a day earlier, when Bush gave a speech to the Israeli Knesset in which he criticized those who believe the United States should negotiate with terrorists and radicals. Obama said Bush's criticism was directed at him, and took umbrage; the White House denied the president had Obama in mind; McCain said Obama must explain why he wants to talk with rogue leaders.

10-year-old scholar takes Calif. college by storm

2008-05-20T05:25:00.000-07:00

With the end of another school year approaching, college sophomore Moshe Kai Cavalin is cramming for final exams in classes such as advanced mathematics, foreign languages and music. But Cavalin is only 10 years old. And at 4-foot-7, his shoes don't quite touch the floor as he puts down a schoolbook and swivels around in his chair to greet a visitor.
"I'm studying statistics," says the alternately precocious and shy Cavalin, his textbook lying open on the living room desk of his parents' apartment in this quiet suburb east of Los Angeles.
Within a year, if he keeps up his grades and completes the rest of his requirements, he hopes to transfer from his two-year program at East Los Angeles College to a prestigious four-year school and study astrophysics.
One of his primary interests is "wormholes," a hypothetical scientific phenomenon connected to Albert Einstein's theory of relativity. It has been theorized that if such holes do exist in space, they could — in tandem with black holes — allow for the kind of space-age time travel seen in science fiction.
"Just like black holes, they suck in particulate objects, and also like black holes, they also travel at escape velocity, which is, the speed to get out of there is faster than the speed of light," Cavalin says. "I'd like to prove that wormholes are really there and prove all the theories are correct."
First, he has statistics homework to finish. Later, he'll work with his mother, Shu Chen Chien, to brush up on his Mandarin for his Chinese class. Then it's over to the piano to prepare for his recital in music class.
His father, Yosef Cavalin, frets about the piano-playing, noting that his only child recently broke his arm pursuing another passion, martial arts. He has won several trophies for his age group.
"Finals are coming and everything and he cannot play with both hands. He'll just try to play with the right hand," he says. "I don't know how his grade's going to be in piano. It worries me a bit."
If past success is any indication, his son will find a way to compensate. Cavalin, who enrolled in college more than a year ago, has maintained an A-plus average in such subjects as algebra, history, astronomy and physical education.
College officials couldn't immediately say whether he is the youngest student in the school's 63-year history. Among child prodigies, Michael Kearney, now 24, is often cited as the world's youngest college graduate, having earned a bachelor's degree in anthropology from the University of South Alabama at age 10.

Alumni and their institutions

2008-05-14T02:42:00.000-07:00

It is hard not to be impressed by the philanthropic contributions of alumni to the universities they have attended, particularly in America. Most universities routinely raise millions of dollars from former students, who contribute towards setting up new ventures, establishing resource centers or labs, endowing professorships or scholarships and so on. In addition, the various alumni associations remain in close contact with the parent university, being involved in just about everything from football and basketball games to campaigns and expansion efforts. In contrast, the involvement or philanthropic contributions of alumni to academic institutions in India remain relatively miniscule. There certainly are a number of bureaucratic or legislative reasons for that, as is typical in India. But I think there might be something more (at least for me).I started thinking about it after I received an email recently from the center for alumni affairs from my old undergrad institution. It was a typical email written in the typical style of an Indian bureaucrat. It started by calling the present vice chancellor of the university a “great visionary”, and then claimed how wonderful an education and research institute the university was, and then pointing me towards an effort to get the alumni more involved with their contributions towards the university.There’s nothing wrong in that. Except that, upon a little reflection, I don’t think I would particularly want to do anything for my undergraduate college. In stark contrast, if I do reach a stage in my life when I can make a philanthropic contribution or contribute otherwise to my old high school, or to my graduate school or any other institution I’ve been associated with, I am very likely to do so. But why is that?I have fond memories of college. I didn’t love every moment of it, but it certainly was a fun time during some very important years in my life. While growing as a person, I made some good friends, found a few good faculty mentors, and managed to acquire some knowledge in the process. But, as I think about it now, those were things I would have had in any university. Those friends or the handful of faculty who influenced me remain important, but while I associate them with my time in the university, I don’t associate the university itself with them. Somehow, as I thought about this email I received, I started to realize why.Let me explain. Those college years are very important to most people. They are right in those formative years, where knowledge is acquired, horizons and perspectives broadened and important life and career choices are made. Students have just emerged from high school, and are now young adults with the government given right to drive, drink or vote in the next general election, using their own discretion. They are full of energy and purpose, looking for encouragement and direction. At least that was how I looked at it.But unfortunately, at least in my old institution (which was typical of most government/state institutes in India, which are the “top” universities in the country) provided everything but that. Instead of a world of knowledge and ideas, I went to a world of rules and bureaucracy, full of petty minds and narrow thoughts. The general attitude of a large section of the staff and faculty was largely unhelpful, and one of extreme hierarchy and authority. To get the smallest of jobs done, one would have to beg, flatter and plead repeatedly over weeks or months sometimes. Instead of giving the students the freedom to attend the classes they wanted to, there was a strict, mandatory attendance policy (of 90% of the classes each year). This was irrespective of whether the student learnt anything in class or not. Failure to attend class (even if you aced the tests) would mean having to repeat the course. That of course had nothing to do with class participation, since many faculty hated students who dared to question. Many courses were extremely uninteresting, and were taught by incompetent lecturers incapable of thinking beyond the textbook (or with lecture notes that hadn’t been updated for 20 years). What’s more, some faculty remained particularly narrow minded, and the rules would put some military schools to shame. These rules would range from attempted “dress codes” through faculty taking offense at students chatting outside their classes in the hallway, to “bans” on cell phones or rules discouraging people of opposite sex from any sort of interaction (yup, in college), or denying use of university computers or the internet. At the end of the college years, students would have to run from pillar to post to get their academic transcripts (sometimes pleading with the staff to issue them one), and would be required to get this ridiculous document called a “character certificate” (which is still required when applying for graduate school or government jobs in India. The purpose it serves remains a mystery). At the end of four years of college, the student receive everything but a broad, liberal education, in spite of being amongst the brightest and most self motivated students in the country. While most students would miss their college friends and life, I think only a few would actually miss their college itself. There may even be a slight feeling of bitterness against the college as they leave. Cut to ten or twenty years later. Many students who have passed out are now extremely successful. Some have managed to reach fairly enviable levels of affluence. At this stage they are quite ready to make some philanthropic contributions. But even if they do want to support students in their old institutions, they know that they will have to go through that wall of bureaucrats or faculty who will continue to treat students like little children, throwing about their rules and ideas. The very thought of interacting with those old staff or professors who made their lives miserable years ago is distasteful (at least for me). I wouldn’t want to, say, contribute to a research center knowing that it would be under the control of these people. So, while it may seem a little petty on my part, those are my thoughts. I just wouldn’t want to be associated with them in any way, and many of these reasons remain intangible.But perhaps I’m completely mistaken, and this reason, this subconscious holding-back, isn’t really a common factor at all. Any thoughts?

Fought bravely

2008-05-14T02:23:00.000-07:00

Sheonan, a para commando, wrote a blazing script of gallantry during the Indian Peace Keeping Force operations in Sri Lanka between 1987 and 1990. He led the first assault against the LTTE in Jaffna and was awarded a Vir Chakra. But his father Ranbir did not attend the award ceremony."My father lived by his own principles. The LTTE cadres fought and died bravely. My father was uncomfortable about me getting recognized for fidhting an enemy whose sacrifice went unnotices," said Sheonan.From a front page report in the Hindustan Times today April 27, about Major General Sheonan Singh of the Indian Army. His father Ranbir was Shaheed Bhagat Singh's younger brother. (The Major General was "named Sheonan after a Japanese kamikaze pilot who crashed into HMS Prince of Wales, which sank in 1941. 'It was a deadly blow to the British. My father paid tribute to the kamikaze spirit.'")

Con-Hair

2008-05-13T07:32:00.001-07:00

Apart from death by roasting, vasectomy, and a dinner date with Rakhi Sawant, I can think of very few experiences that scare me as much a visit to the barbershop. Since childhood, I have been terrified by barbers. They always seem to have some kind of wicked sneer on their faces when they go about my hair with their big, noisy garden shears. “You just wait, young man,” they'd seem to be saying, “by the time I'm done with you, people from the 60s will be laughing at you.”When I was a kid, my dad used to take me to this tiny neighbourhood barbershop called 'Malabar Hairdressers'. Speaking of which, have you ever wondered why these people call themselves 'hairDRESSERS'? I mean, they're not adding anything to the hair. They're just cutting off a bit and in fact, leaving less of it than there initially was. Doctors dealing with unfortunate patients who need to have a foot amputated don't go upto them and say, shaking their heads meaningfully, “Mr.Kumar, the infection is spreading fast, I'm afraid you’re going to need a little leg-dressing.”So anyway, as the name suggests, 'Malabar Hairdressers' was run by a mallu. And that was reason enough for my dad to take me there. He ached to talk to fellow mallus, discuss mallu movies, criticize mallu politicians and generally babble on and on and on in Malayalam, deriving some weird pleasure from it. Sometimes, he'd miss malluness so bad that I'd get a haircut just for the heck of it. “Geetha, I think Vinod needs a haircut. He’s looking like a little rowdy. I'm taking him to Malabar.”, “But Dad, I had one just last week!”, “Never mind, you bleddy punk! Come fast now I say, don't waste my time”, “Nooooooooooooooooooo, mommmmmm, HELPP…”And so, he'd drag me, kicking and screaming, to the shop, leave me with one of the evil barbers and go on to discuss Mohanlal's latest lungi pattern with the owner. Sometimes, we'd have to wait for my turn, and I'd sit in the waiting couch beside which there was a huge stack of ‘Filmfare’ magazines dating all the way back to the silent movie era. No ‘Outlook’ or ‘India Today’, which would have some pictures of politicians with bad hair. No sir, only ‘Filmfare’, with those handsome Bollywood superstars and their impeccable hair. I would flip through the issues in silent horror, only seeing the barber's subliminal message on every page, “Take a good long look, son. Your hair will NEVER look like theirs. I'll be taking care of that. Ha!”And then, my turn would finally come. The barber would take out that ominous white cloth and throw it all over me, and knot it tight at the neck, almost suffocating me. The radio would be tuned to that standard barbershop station that played only happy songs all the time. I’d watch the white cloth slowly get filled with my bits and pieces of my hair, tears welling up in my eyes and streaming down my face. I would hear my dad talking to the shop’s owner in the background, and catch a few stray words, probably 'Chaye', 'Mammooty' and 'Gelf' and I’d want to scream. I had a rough childhood.Today, as a mature adult, I’m pleased to announce that barbershops don't worry me anymore. Now that's not because I've overcome my fear. I'm still terrified of barbershops and I still wake up in a cold sweat when I have nightmares about Malabar. But I've just stopped caring. It doesn’t matter to me anymore when I walk around looking like an ex-con. No, seriously, I know my haircuts will continue to go badly. Every time I step into that saloon, I'm dead certain that I'll come out looking like I just lost a wrestling match with a lawnmower. But I don't give a damn, because if I've learnt anything in the last 23 years, it is that no matter how bad the haircut, I can always, following in the footsteps of the immortal Himesh Reshammiya, wear a

Phew!

2008-05-13T07:28:00.003-07:00

Nine years ago, on August 15th, I attended the Landmark Quiz ‘99 with two class mates Nandan and Abhishek. We had been winning almost all the school quizzes we went to that season and so we landed up at the Music Academy rather high on confidence. As there was a prize for the best team name, we had racked our brains and come up with the extremely creative ‘Qwizards’, little knowing that around 1/3rd of the 1000 odd teams that took part at the country’s biggest open quiz usually went by that name.The shock and awe we felt when we had our first glimpse of the 3000-strong crowd of quizzers milling outside the venue filled me with dread and inside the auditorium, the feeling of excitement tinged with anticipation gave me goosebumps. When the quizmaster Dr. Navin Jayakumar took the stage and introduced the quiz, we wondered who this guy was. The written prelims soon began and we gave it our best shot, managing to score only 12/40. Eight teams would make it on stage for the finals and we later learnt that the cut-off was somewhere close to 32!! Disappointed, we sat through the entire finals, watching with wonder as the finalists answered questions that went miles over our heads. The winner on that particular day was a team named ‘Parijatha’ comprising V.V.Ramanan, Bharat Epur and Yashwant Saran. Just five hours after seeing him for the first time, I left thinking Dr. Navin was the best quizmaster ever!We spent the next year trying to read and watch better stuff in the hope of equipping ourselves to do better at the next edition, but when it finally came, it brought with it a big disappointment. Dr. Navin was temporarily out of the country and his place was taken by Derek O’Brien, who turned the quiz into a show. As a school team, we scored 29/40, with the finals cut-off at 30. That would NEVER ever happen in a proper Landmark quiz. We were extremely disappointed at missing out on the finals, but also knew that we didn’t deserve to be on stage. Derek’s questions are usually gimmicky and childish and make his quizzes a bit of a lottery, with the best team on stage not necessarily winning each time. Dr. Navin, on the other hand, always has a good mix of questions and even his crowd-pleasing questions usually hold great value for serious quizzers as well.In the 10 Landmark quizzes that have been held after that, (7 in Chennai and 3 in Bangalore) my team ‘Intel Inside, Mental Outside’ has managed to make it to the finals on eight occasions but always, a great performance in the prelims would lead to a truly pathetic one in the finals. We did manage a 3rd place once in Bangalore but that was a Derek quiz and doesn’t count as a major quizzing achievement in my books at least. Whenever Dr. Navin did the quiz, we weren’t upto the mark. 5th, 8th, 4th, 7th - we managed to finish in almost every position except the top three and year after year, went home frustrated at another opportunity spurned.Yesterday marked the 15th edition of the Landmark Quiz and it was being conducted by Dr. Navin after a gap of two years. Over the years, my steady team mate has been Krishnamurti a.k.a Goach while the third team mate kept changing. Goach was missing in action this year, after deciding that his academics at IIM-A was more important than flying to Chennai and back for a quiz contest. Bleddy idiot! (Just kidding, Goach!) So, my team mates were quizzing buddies Vikram and DP. We did pretty well in the prelims and made it on stage quite comfortably.The finals went pretty well too and when the last question was asked, the team leading was on 94, we were on 85 and the team lying third was on 78. We had just started dreaming about us answering the last question and winning the quiz dramatically when the team lying third answered it, moved to 88 and pushed us to 3rd! It was shattering, but the joy at finally having placed in a proper Landmark Quiz was the more dominant emotion!! Also, the teams that beat us were made up of very good friends and far superior quizzers ‘QED’ (Samanth Subramanian, Swami and V.V.Ramanan) and ‘Know Brainers’ (Gopal Kidao, Sumo and Rajiv Rai). So, we didn’t feel too bad. Hopefully, things will get better from now on!

News.. Blah.. Blah..

2008-05-13T07:28:00.001-07:00

Season's Greetings, everybody!!
When I first found out I was coming to London, my mind was filled with grand ideas of watching every Arsenal match played during the period I spent here, travelling to the away games and perform acts of football hooliganism, and in whatever time I had left, follow the route Bill Bryson took around the United Kingdom and then wrote about in ‘Notes from a Small Island’. Now, after spending nearly four months here, I have been to exactly three Arsenal home games (Sevilla, Newcastle and Steaua Bucharest), no away ones, and I now realize that Bryson’s trip was possible only because his job did not require him to work on excel sheets throughout the week and so, end up feeling so liberated on Friday evenings that he would go out on a longish pub crawl, and thus end up spending the whole of Saturday morning passed out and feeling like crap for the rest of the weekend, scuppering all previously made travel plans.
I also know I’ve not been blogging very often, very kindly pointed out to me by a couple of friends, and that is only because most fun sites, including this one, are blocked at work and my only other way to access the internet is through a browsing centre near my apartment, which costs me £1 for half an hour. It doesn’t sound like much at all, until I step out of the place, do the inevitable mental math and realize I’ve just paid Rs.80 to hurriedly check my mail, pick my fantasy football teams, and scrap/wall/poke friends on Facebook and Orkut. It’s not a nice feeling.
But all that is going to change next week, when I finally get my hands on this. After that, I soon hope to be blogging regularly and maybe even move to my own domain.
Meanwhile, I wanted to really really go for an Arsenal v Tottenham game while I was still here (the club's equivalent of India v Pakistan, for the uninitiated) and both the premier league fixtures were sold out well in advance. And then, God intervened in the form of the Carling Cup. The draw for the semi-final took place a couple of weeks back and Arsenal face Tottenham in one of the semi-finals. So, come January 9th, I will be in my seat near the halfway line to watch the Arsenal kids knock the stuffing out of the spuds.
Hope to be back with a proper post soon. Till then, bubbye!!

The QFI Open Quiz 2008

2008-05-13T07:14:00.000-07:00

The Quiz Foundation of India (Chennai Chapter), in association with Indian Terrain is proud to announce 'The QFI Open Quiz 2008', the fourth edition of the annual open quiz, which has become a fixture on the Chennai quizzing calendar.
The QFI Opens of the last three years have been resounding successes, attracting more than 120 teams each time, including some from Hyderabad, Bangalore, and even Ahmedabad. This time, the quiz promises to be both bigger and better. You can read The Hindu's review of the QFI Open 2006 here, and the reviews of the 2007 edition here (The Hindu, focuses on the Indian Cinema Quiz) and here (The New Indian Express, focuses on the Open Quiz).
Apart from being original, well researched and immensely entertaining, the QFI Open also aims at making quizzing a fun experience for everyone involved. It will try and bring to a wider audience the same mix of light-hearted fun and serious high-standard quizzing that is seen at QFI's fortnightly meetings.
It is an open quiz with no conditions whatsoever for participation. All are welcome to participate. Prizes include cash and Landmark gift vouchers. I will be conducting the quiz helped with research from my team-mates Krishnamurti and Vikram. Please do come and have fun. There will a Books quiz in the morning at 10:00 a.m conducted by my good friend and superstar quizzer Samanth Subramanian at the same venue. Plenty of audience prizes from Landmark also on offer. The details are as follows:
Date: 3rd of May 2008 (Saturday)
Venue: "Sri Venkata Auditorium"
Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan
37/39, East Mada Street,
Mylapore, Chennai - 04

Make Google Better with Customize Google

2008-05-13T06:39:00.000-07:00

If you use Google inside Firefox, you definitely need an Customize Google.
It's a free add-on that makes your favorite Google web search engine even better and all the more useful.
A big time saver and you won’t realize how useful the extension is unless you start using it.