Crow and pebble !!

 

For sure have read this moral story of Crow using pebbles ! – if not,

In a spell of dry weather, when the Birds could find very little to drink, a thirsty Crow found a pitcher with a little water in it. But the pitcher was high and had a narrow neck, and no matter how he tried, the Crow could not reach the water. The poor thing felt as if he must die of thirst.

Then an idea came to him. Picking up some small pebbles, he dropped them into the pitcher one by one. With each pebble the water rose a little higher until at last it was near enough so he could drink.

-      at times life offers aplenty too !!

Yaks !! ..... ........... Yows ?? - avarice of mankind

Tucked away in the Himalayan mountains is a small and beautiful State called – Sikkim – a landlocked place.  The state borders Nepal; China's Tibet Autonomous Region; Bhutan and West Bengal. It has an area of 7,096 sq. km.  Its capital is Gangtok.  The principal languages are : Lepcha, Bhutia and Nepali. Sikkim's hot springs are renowned for their medicinal and therapeutic values.  It is such a neat and organic place that soothes one – and during our visit to Nathu La – we saw many of these Yaks nearer the lake and more !!

 

Used to go inside this pavilion in the Fair at Island Grounds every year - Animal husbandry is the branch of agriculture concerned with animals that are raised for meat, fibre, milk, or other products. It includes day-to-day care, selective breeding and the raising of livestock. Husbandry has a long history, starting with the Neolithic revolution when animals were first domesticated, antedating farming of the first crops.  Humans have raised farm animals and used them for long. Mankind has also tampered with animal genetics for its benefit though sometimes it meant harm to animals ! but who cares for those animals that are bred to be eaten !! - yield more meat, milk, and wool. A wide range of other species such as horse, water buffalo, llama, rabbit and guinea pig are used as livestock in some parts of the world. Fish, prawn culture also adds to this.  The cruelty of mankind (when were they kind !!) has killed billions of animals every year (that includes those living in sea too) but blames others for   climate change, ocean acidification, and biodiversity loss, ultimately leading to extinction of some species.

After the landmark dance of Prabhu Deva in ‘oorvasi, oorvasi – take it easy policy’ – Prabhu Deva became a hero too.  Kadhahan  released in 1994   directed by S. Shankar and produced by KT Kunjumon had Prabhu Deva and Nagma alongside  Raghuvaran, Girish Karnad and Vadivelu The song Mukkala Mukkabla from the movie, became a sensation, and owing to the rage that the song created, Kadhalan was dubbed in Hindi as Humse Hai Muqabala and in Telugu as Premikudu.  There was another nice song that won National award for the singer Unni Krishnan – ‘ennavale adi ennavale’ – in that song Prabhu Deva would dance in icy Himalayas with Yak !!  

The yak (Bos grunniens and Bos mutus) is a long-haired bovid found throughout the Himalayan region of south Central Asia, the Tibetan Plateau and as far north as Mongolia and Russia. Most yaks are domesticated, Bos grunniens. There is also a small, vulnerable population of wild yaks, Bos mutus.

Here is something from an old news article of Mar 2014 from Daily Mail on Himalayan YAK herd flourishing in  Cheshire farm after owners breed the imported beasts with Holstein cows to make hybrid YOWS – again nothing good for the animals but another human attempt to kill them for food !!

That year, Sandhole farm in Congleton, Cheshire  welcomed an unlikely guest, a long-haired creature from almost 5,000 miles away called the Himalayan yak. The mammoth-like beast, which is normally found in the chilly climates of Tibet, Russia and Mongolia, weighs half a tonne. The width between the tip of the left horn and the tip of the right horn is 4ft. Unlike traditional cows, the yak does not make a 'mooing' sound and instead makes a grunting noise similar to that of a pig. Around 2013, Helen and Matthew Worth became the first people to breed the yak in the UK.  They owned a 200 acre farm in Congleton, Cheshire. Vet Mrs Worth completed a diploma in Bovine reproduction at The University of Liverpool after her first veterinary degree. After researching yaks for 18 months, the couple imported the bull and three female yaks from Germany and Holland and produced two pure-bred calves, by impregnating traditional holstein cows and hope to produce another bull.

Their yaks are covered in a mass of thick, wiry hair to keep them warm in their native climates and have enormous horns to help shovel thick snow- and a yak could soon be coming to a village in England  because the couple has since sold the bull's semen to some six farmers.  They were also planning to visit  local gastropubs and farmers market to promote the meat- said to be incredibly lean and low in cholesterol and saturated fat !!

Yak has long been eaten by some people.  Yak milk and butter is also used as an alternative to traditional milk and butter. The hair is used to make blankets and clothes and is even used in the UK for wigs worn in theatrical performances. The meat is already popular in America, with yak burgers, yak stew and yak roast on restaurant menus. The yaks eat the same food as traditional cows and have similar temperaments. But their fur is much longer and they have horns measuring 4ft from the extremity of the left horn to the end of the right.

Further it is stated that a yak fetus develops at a quicker speed than a tradition cow, bringing the gestation period down from nine months to eight. This means the process of impregnating the cow again is greatly sped up, meaning they can produce more milk. The farm was practicing  block calving, where they get all their cows pregnant at the same time.  This is normally done in the spring time because there is a lot of green grass available for them to feed on, so it is economical for farmers and nutritional for the cows. Cows have a gestational period of nine months and it would be ideal for a cow to have a calf once a year but that gives them just three months to recover; Yaks  have a gestational period of just eight months. Pure-bred yaks only produce enough milk for their calves however, so they started crossing them with cows. This resulted in a hybrid that produced enough for the family.

Yows are not Cows but descriptive of mankind’s unfettered avarice for riches and cruelty to everything else in the World.

With regards – S. Sampathkumar
28^th Sept. 2021.

Kanchi Thalaivaas ! ~ history of Pallava Kingdom

உங்களுக்கு சரித்திரம் பிடிக்குமா !  - பள்ளி நாட்களில் மொகலாயர்கள் ஆண்டது !, கஜினி, கோரி முகம்மது படையெடுப்புகள் விவரமாக படித்தோம். பானிப்பட்டு யுத்த விவரங்களை மனப்பாடம் செய்தோம் ! - தென்னிந்தியாவை ஆண்ட மூவேந்தர்கள்  - சேர, சோழ, பாண்டிய மன்னர்களின் போர்களையும், அவர்கள் கலைகளை வளர்த்ததையும் படித்தோம். பல்லவ சாம்ராஜ்யம், மாமல்லபுரத்து சிற்பங்கள், சாளுக்கிய மன்னர்கள் - தமிழ் மன்னர்களின் கடாரம், இலங்கை படையெடுப்புகள் வியக்க வைத்தன. எனினும் நாம் அறிந்த விவரங்கள் மிக குறைவு .. ..  த்ரிலோசனை பல்லவர்  என்ற மன்னவரைப்  பற்றி  கேள்விப்பட்டு இருக்கிறீர்களா !!

The history that we studied in Schools was more of British, Mughals invasion and the like .. and in South Indian history, we read about Chera, Chozha, Pandya, Pallava, Chalukya kings too – ever heard of Trilochana Pallava ? – I have not !! 

Of the trinity (Moovendargal) – the Chera country was geographically well placed to profit from maritime trade via the extensive Indian Ocean networks. The Cheras of the early historical period   had their original centre at Karur and harbours at Musiri, Thondi as also governed the    Malabar Coast between Alappuzha in the south to Kasaragod in the north.   

The heartland of the Cholas was the fertile valley of the Cauvery River, but they ruled a significantly larger area at the height of their power from the later half of the 9th century till the beginning of the 13th century.  The most prominent kings were - Rajaraja Chola I and his successors Rajendra Chola I, Rajadhiraja Chola, Virarajendra Chola, and Kulothunga Chola.  

The Pandyas kingdom was ruled from  city of Madurai and the southern port of Korkai.  The Pandyas entered their "golden age" under Maravarman I and Jatavarman Sundara Pandya I. The Pallava dynasty   existed from 275 CE to 897 CE, ruling a portion of southern India. They gained prominence after the eclipse of the Satavahana dynasty, whom the Pallavas served as feudatories.  Prominent Pallava kings include:  Mahendravarman  and Narasimhavarman.  Throughout their reign,    they were in constant conflict with both Chalukyas of Badami in the north and the Tamil kingdoms of Chola and Pandyas in the south.   

Trilochana, Trinayana, Trinétra, or Mukkanti  ( all these are synonymous and are the names of a single individual) is a mysterious figure that stalks the stage of the South Indian History. He is purportedly a Pallava king (hence his name Kádnvetti) who played a conspicuous part in stemming the tide of the Chálukya invasion from the north.  

Pallava kingdom : https://www.mapsofindia.com/history/pallava-dynasty.html 

However, in the opinion of some scholars  ‘Trilochana Pallava was a mythical king'! , and has history ignored  Trilóchana altogether !! or is he seen only as a mythical king and not a real one who existed in Pallava lineage ?    Although several inscriptions refer to Trilôchana  Pallava, some  evidence are not regarded as trust-worthy; for they belong to a period considerably  posterior to the time at which he is supposed to have lived.   

So historians mostly refer to traditional references - tradition is a species of history that had grown up for centuries in our villages. All the important villages in South India used to keep an account of their origin and growth. These were known as dandakavilás or kaifiyats in the Telugu districts. The karnam or the Village accountant was its custodian. He would record all the important events concerning the village that happened in his time, and pass it on to his successor. It would, thus, grow in bulk from generation to generation, each generation making its own contribution to the history of the village. Thus flourished a species of recorded events. 

As the city of Dharanicóta was Trilóchana's capital of Trilochana Pallava, it is only natural that people in this region should remember him for a long time. According to legend, once  there flourished a king called Mukkanti or Triléchana  Pallava. He was the son of a Brahman virgin. He was the ruler of all the Telugu districts to the south of the rivers Krishna and Tungabhadra. His capital was  Dharanikota.   He was an enemy of the great Chola monarch Karikala  who vanquished him in battle, and wrested from him the country corresponding to the modern ceded Districts.   

It appears, therefore, that the tradition regarding the rivalry of Karikala and Mukari recorded in the Kalingattupparini and other Tamil books, should ultimately be traced to Telugu  sources.  Three Tamil works give us very brief accounts of the circumstances under which a king called Mukarii lost his third eye as a consequence of his  failure to obey the commands of Karikala, The earliest work which refers to the episode of Triléchana is the

Kalingattupparini of Jayamgondan a poet who lived and was at the  court of Kulóttunga I during the 12th century  A.D.  Ottaküttan who flourished at the court of Kulottunga II refers to the same incident in his Kulóttunga Sélan Ula. He speaks of Karikila as “the Senni (Chola)  who put out the eyes of him who did not come with earth carried on his head for building the banks of the Kávéri." 

The earliest Telugu work which mentions the story of Trilochana and Karikiila is Palkurki Soma’s Рапditarádhya Charita, a poem which is slightly later in date than Jayamgondan’ s Kalingattu-parini.  This work mentions - “There was once a king called Mukkanti KAduvetti who was born with a third eye, in virtue of his meritorious deeds in a former birth. His devotion to Siva was so great that he was regarded as an incarnation of  Lord Shiva himself. The Chóla king Karikàla whose devotion to Shiva  was even greater than that of Mukkanti was building the embankments of the Kávéri. Mukkanti who was commanded by Karikála to proceed to that river to help him personally in building the embankments, declined to obey the command saying, ‘Why should a person endowed with three eyes serve another who has only two eyes? This was reported to Karikala, and he was so enraged at his conduct that he  resolved to punish him severely.   

The same story is briefly alluded to by Tikkana who flourished at the court of Manumasiddha IT, the Telugu Chóla king of Nellore. Tikkana must have been a contemporary of Ottaküttan and  Kambar. In his  Nirvachana Uttara Rámáyana, he speaks of Karikála as the king who put out the ""forehead-eye" (falalóchana) of the Pallava king. Linga Kavi, a poet who lived probably in the 14th century A.D,, gives an elaborate  account of this story in his Nava Chóla Charitra. 

Inconclusive but very interesting history of Cholas and Pallavas .. excerpted from the book Trilochana Pallava and Karikala Chola by N Venkata Ramanayya, printed and published by V Ramaswamy Sastrulu & Sons, 292 Esplanade, Madras in the year 1929 !! 

The photo at the start is from the movie - Kaanchi Thalaivan (transl. Leader of Kaanchi)  directed by A. Kasilingam, starring MG Ramachandran,  Bhanumathi, C. R. Vijayakumari, with M. R. Radha and S. A. Ashokan as villains released in 1963. . The film, produced by M. Karunanidhi, A. Kasilingam and Murasoli Maran under Mekala Pictures, had musical score by K. V. Mahadevan.  The film was subject to numerous controversies, and became a financial failure.  The story reportedly was  about the rivalry between the Pallavas and the Chalukyas, MGR as the Narasimha Pallava King, also known as Mamallan, rules Kanchipuram with peace, Pulikesi (S. A. Ashokan) wants to capture Kanchipuram, .. .. .. was the plot !!

 
With regards – S. Sampathkumar
20^th Sept. 2021.
  

Rose - Cyclone, Wars and more !!

ரோஜா  கவிஞர்களின் பூ !  சந்திரனுக்கே சவால் விடும் அளவு காதலுடன் சம்பந்தம் உள்ளது.  பூ வாடிவிடும்  சந்திரன் பிறையாக தேயும் ஆனால் காதல் என்றும் பூத்து வளர் பிறையாகும் என ஒரு கவிஞன் (வேறு யார் ??) எழுதியுள்ளான்.

 

The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) on Saturday evening said that Cyclone Gulab has formed in the Bay of Bengal.  Its updated report of this morning reads : Cyclonic Storm ‘Gulab’ (pronounced as Gul-Aab) over northwest and adjoining westcentral Bay of Bengal moved nearly westwards with a speed of 07 kmph in last 6 hours, and lay centered at 2330 hrs IST of 25th September 2021, over northwest and adjoining westcentral Bay of Bengal near Lat. 18.3°N and Long. 87.9°E, about 330 km east-southeast of Gopalpur (Odisha) & 400 km east of Kalingapatnam (Andhra Pradesh). It is likely to move nearly westwards and cross north Andhra Pradesh - south Odisha coasts between Kalingapatnam & Gopalpur around evening of 26th September, 2021. Above is the  INSAT satellite image of IMD

As per the satellite observations at 5.30 pm yesterday, the cyclone was located over northwest Bay of Bengal and was 370 km east-southeast of Gopalpur, Odisha and 440 km east of Kalingapatnam, Andhra Pradesh.  This is the third cyclone of 2021 after Tauktae and Yaas that had formed in May this year. Like most recent storms that have crossed Indian coasts, this system, too, is rapidly intensifying.  In the wake of the approaching storm, the IMD has forecast light to moderate intensity (2.4mm to 644mm in 24-hours) over West Bengal, Odisha and coastal Andhra Pradesh – and will it rain in Chennai ??

வங்கக் கடலில் புதிதாக உருவாகியுள்ள குலாப் புயல் இன்று  (26.09.2021) மாலை கரையைக் கடக்க உள்ளதாக வானிலை ஆய்வு மையம் தெரிவித்துள்ளது. வங்கக் கடலில் சில தினங்களுக்கு முன்பு காற்றழுத்த தாழ்வு உருவான நிலையில், அது நேற்று காற்றழுத்த தாழ்வு மண்டலமாக மாறியது. இதற்கிடையே, நேற்று  காலை அது ஆழ்ந்த காற்றழுத்த தாழ்வு மண்டலமாக நிலைகொண்டுள்ளது. இதன்காரணமாக வங்கக் கடலின் வடகிழக்கு பகுதி மற்றும் அந்தமான் கடலையொட்டிய பகுதிகளில் காற்றின் வேகம் மணிக்கு 65 கிமீ வேகம் வரை வீசிவருகிறது.  இந்த காற்றழுத்த தாழ்வு பகுதி அடுத்த 12 மணி நேரத்தில் புயலாக மாறும் என்று அறிவிக்கப்பட்டுள்ளது. அவ்வாறு மாறும் புயல், அடுத்த 48 மணி நேரத்தில் ஒடிசா மற்றும் ஆந்திராவுக்கு இடையே கரையைக் கடக்கும் என்று எதிர்பார்க்கப்படுகிறது. குறிப்பாக கலிங்கப்பட்டினத்தைச் சுற்றியுள்ள பகுதிகளில் புயல் கரையைக் கடக்க அதிக வாய்ப்பிருப்பதாக கூறப்படுகிறது. அவ்வாறு புயல் கரையைக் கடக்கும்போது மணிக்கு 75 கிமீ வேகத்தில் காற்று வீசும் என எதிர்பார்க்கப்படுகிறது. இந்தப் புயலுக்கு குலாப் என்று பாகிஸ்தான் பெயரிட்டுள்ளது. குலாப் என்றால் இந்தியில் ரோஜா என்று பொருள்.

This beautiful flower by any other name would smell as sweet and fragrant ! A rose is a woody perennial flowering plant of the genus Rosa, in the family Rosaceae, or the flower it bears.  

Guns N' Roses is an American hard rock band from Los Angeles, California, formed in 1985. When they signed to Geffen Records in 1986, the band comprised vocalist Axl Rose, lead guitarist Slash, rhythm guitarist Izzy Stradlin, bassist Duff McKagan, and drummer Steven Adler.  Guns N' Roses' debut album, Appetite for Destruction (1987), reached number one on the Billboard 200 a year after its release, on the strength of the top 10 singles "Welcome to the Jungle", "Paradise City", and "Sweet Child o' Mine", the band's only single to reach number one on the Billboard Hot 100.  

Roses have thorns too !!  .. – Roses are associated with wars and killings !! in the peaceful land of UK.  The Wars of the Roses were a series of civil wars fought over control of the English throne in the mid-to-late fifteenth century, fought between supporters of two rival cadet branches of the royal House of Plantagenet: Lancaster and York. The wars extinguished the male lines of the two dynasties, leading to the Tudor family inheriting the Lancastrian claim. Following the war, the Houses of Tudor and York were united, creating a new royal dynasty, thereby resolving the rival claims. The conflict had its roots in the wake of the Hundred Years' War and its emergent socio-economic troubles, which weakened the prestige of the English monarchy, unfolding structural problems of feudalism and the powerful duchies created by Edward III,  and the mental infirmity and weak rule of Henry VI, which revived interest in the Yorkist claim to the throne by Richard of York.  

The wars began in 1455 when Richard of York captured King Henry VI in battle and was appointed Lord Protector by Parliament, leading to an uneasy peace.  Fighting resumed four years later. Yorkists, led by Warwick the Kingmaker, recaptured Henry, but Richard was killed in 1460, leading to the claim by his son, Edward. The Yorkists lost custody of Henry the following year but destroyed the Lancaster army, and Edward was crowned three months later in June 1461.  Edward ruled unopposed and England enjoyed a period of relative peace until his death twelve years later in 1483. Edward's twelve-year-old son reigned for 78 days as Edward V until he was deposed by his uncle, Richard III. Richard assumed the throne under a cloud of controversy, particularly the disappearance of Edward IV's two sons, sparking a short-lived but major revolt and triggering a wave of desertions of prominent Yorkists to the Lancastrian cause – so the beautiful rose killed, exterminated thousands  .. ..

Observed on September 22 every year, the World Rose Day is dedicated to cancer patients all across the globe.  The purpose of celebrating this day is to bring happiness and hope into the lives of such patients.  

Well, a single rose photographed on my terrace fuelled some lengthy thoughts !

 
With regards – S. Sampathkumar
26^th Sept. 2021.

  

Tail's up !!

 

Tell-tale story of a tail !! ~ this photo made me feel that this squirrel was very happy !  - mere perception ?

Tails are amazing. Do you wish you had one? If you love climbing trees, you could use a prehensile tail, such as opossums have.  Tails are part of the evolutionary package for many mammals.  Animal’s  back is made of a series of small bones stacked together called vertebra (plural is vertebrae). One way to tell the difference between monkeys and apes is that monkeys have tails and apes don't.

The phrase “have (one's) tail up” – would mean : To have an optimistic, confident, or happy outlook, mindset, or attitude.

with your tail up: If you do something with your tail up, you are happy and confident when you do it.   People sometimes vary this expression, for example by saying that someone has their tail up or that something puts their tail up.  

put a tail on (someone) is an idiom and would mean : to have someone follow (another person)

Tails assist animals in maintaining balance. The tail is used as an aid to help animals keep upright and balanced. The tail helps many mammals navigate tight spaces and small gaps, acting as a rudder to direct the animals through thick undergrowth. These bushy tails also  serve a very important function in preserving their body-heat during their nightly and their wintry sleep. In cold weather animals with bushy tails will be found lying curled up with their tails laid carefully over their feet like a rug, and with their noses buried in the fur of the tail, which is thus used exactly in the same way and for the same purpose as we use respirators.

Interesting !

With regards – S. Sampathkumar
25^th Sept. 2021.

CSK match at Sharjah - sandstorm, Tim David and more !!

The popularity of IPL and .. .. more that of CSK – about an hour or so ago, I was walking in a low income group area (shall not be called Slum as – TN Slum clearance board has become -   Tamil Nadu Urban Habitat Development Board recently.) – most of the houses had their TV sets on and it was IPL match of CSK which had been delayed due to sandstorm !  .. .. and as I stopped my two-wheeler in Gandhi statue signal on Beach road – the drivers of  autos on my left and right -  were looking at the scorecard in their mobile fixed for showing the route !!

In 1987, India reached the finals of Davis Cup but lost to a superior team at their home.  It was a time when Sweden was dominating with players like Stefan Edberg, Mat Wilander,  Joakim Nystrom, Andres Jarryd – alongside was a player by name Henrik  Sundström (I read him wrongly as Sand storm) nicknamed Henke, Sundström was at his best on clay and achieved his strongest results on this surface, with his solid and heavy topspin groundstrokes from the baseline.

Lahore Qalandars is a  franchise  in the Pakistan Super League. The home ground of the team is Gaddafi Stadium. It nominally represents the city of Lahore in the league. The team is owned by Qatar Lubricants Company Limited (QALCO). The team is currently captained by Sohail Akhtar, coached by Aaqib Javed, !   

In geology, saltation (from Latin saltus, "leap") is a specific type of particle transport by fluids such as wind or water. It occurs when loose materials are removed from a bed and carried by the fluid, before being transported back to the surface.  As the force of wind passing over loosely held particles increases, particles of sand first start to vibrate, then to move across the surface in a process called saltation.

Dubai sandstorm photo from twitter page of @glcarlstrom

Sandstorm also called a dust storm -   is a meteorological phenomenon common in arid and semi-arid regions. Dust storms arise when a gust front or other strong wind blows loose sand and dirt from a dry surface. Fine particles are transported by saltation and suspension.  Dust storms cause soil loss from the dry lands, and worse, they preferentially remove organic matter and the nutrient-rich lightest particles, thereby reducing agricultural productivity.  Dust storms are not limited to Earth and have been known to form on other planets such as Mars.  ..

We are reading about Sandstorm for it caused delay to the start of 35^th match at Sharjah now between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Chennai Super Kings.  CSK should be feeling quite happy for a strong team that was at 111/0 on 13.1 could be contained to 156/6 .. .. yes a batting line up of Virat Kohlil,  Devdutt Padikkal, AB de Villiers (failed again today !); Glenn Maxwell, Tim David (who ?) set a target of 157 at Sharjah.

He is quite big, at six-and-a-half feet, and  has a great reputation of whacking the leather over the ropes – he is Timothy Hays David from Singapore, yes not from Australia, NZ, SA, England or West Indies but has been playing almost every other league like Chris Gayle does !!    He has played for Singapore,  Australian Universities, Hobart Hurricanes.  Lahore Qalandars,  Perth Scorchers, Southern Brave (Men),  St Lucia Kings, Western Australia, Surrey and .. now RCB !!  

He was born in Singapore in 1996 - his family had been living there from the 1990s after Tim's father Rod David, an engineer by profession, moved to the country from Australia. Rod went on to play cricket for Singapore in 1997. Tim was two when his family moved back to Perth, and his childhood was spent mainly in Australia.  The 25-year-old has been in the limelight of late and also drew the attention of RCB's scouts. He has replaced New Zealand's Finn Allen, who was confirmed to miss the season after he was named in the national squad for Bangladesh and Pakistan series.  David recently drew the limelight during the recently-concluded Royal London One-Day Cup 2021. He shone for Surrey and scored 140*, 52* and 102 in back-to-back matches. His form in the List A tournament also saw him playing for Southern Brave in The Hundred

David has 558 runs in 14 T20Is at 46.50. He has struck at 158.52 and has scored 4 half-centuries. In 15 List A matches, David has 709 runs. His highest score of 140* came for Surrey against Warwickshire. .. .. and he debuted and failed today!

Earlier, Sri Lanka's star all-rounder Wanindu Hasaranga replaced Adam Zampa for the 2^nd phase. The 24-year-old was expected to bag an IPL deal after his recent performance against India, which included a four-for in the third T20I on his birthday. Hasaranga, who went unsold in IPL 2021 auction, has 192 runs and 33 wickets in 22 T20Is. He is also capped in the longest format. Zampa was one of the few players who had withdrawn from IPL 2021 before the season was suspended. He has been named in Australia's T20 World Cup squad.  Mike Hesson, who is RCB's director of cricket operations, will also serve as the head coach of the franchise. He has  replaced Simon Katich, who has stepped down due to personal reasons.

-      Will CSK win today ?  - it appears ‘YES’

With regards – S. Sampathkumar
24^th Sept. 2021  @  10 pm. 

the fastest bowler ! and 6 byes !!

Today at  Abu Dhabi, KKR won the toss, put MI in and opened the attack with Nitish Rana and VArun Chakravarthi, the 3rd over was bowled by Sunil Narine  .. .. and then came the quickie Lockie Ferguson – a  right-arm quick with a good bouncer, capable of hitting 150 kmph, he was fast and furious !  MI after a great start managed 155/6.

Who is the fastest bowler ever ?  that was R Balasundaram’s Q on FB today – it read : Arguably the fastest bowler ever to have played cricket, never played in Tests. This despite scoring over 4000 plus first class runs and taking over 450 wickets. He is supposed to be the only bowler to have conceded 6 byes albeit in club cricket... The ball after one bounce in front of the stumps took off straight and landed outside the boundary without a second bounce. Who was he?

The  fastest Indian  perhaps could be  – Kapil Dev, TA Sekhar, Yograj Singh, Varun Aaron, Javgal Srinath, Jasprit Bumrah,  Navdeep Saini, Ishant Sharma !!! ..

Internationally –  Jeff Thomson, Dennis Lillee,  Andy Roberts, Malcolm Marshall, Michael Holding, Fidel Edwards, Shane Bond, Shaun Tait, Shoaib Akhtar, Brett Lee, Allan Donald  or the likes of Harold Larwood, Frank Tyson

.. .. .. yet there is one name, which most of us may not know – Charles Kortright

Charles Jesse Kortright (1871 – 1952)   was an English cricketer, who played for Essex and Free Foresters. In his obituary in the 1953 edition of Wisden Cricketers' Almanack, he was described as "probably the fastest bowler in the history of the game", a testimony fervently supported by countless of those who saw and faced him.

He took 489 wickets in first-class matches at an average of 21.05, with best innings figures of 8/57. (Many of Essex's matches prior to 1895, when they were admitted to the County Championship, were not first-class.) He was also a useful, hard-hitting batsman, with two first-class hundreds to his credit and an average of 17.61. He played as an amateur, having a private income which meant he did not need to work for a living. Unlike most other gentleman amateurs, Kortright trained hard and bowled fast off a long run-up. Though he never played Test cricket, he appeared for the Gentlemen in the Gentlemen v Players match which, in years when no Test team was touring England, was the most prestigious fixture of the season. John Arlott included him in his best XI never to play Test cricket for England.

Before concluding .. perhaps there cannot be a ‘6 Bye’ now -  when the ball passes the batsman – it is collected by the wicket keeper.  If   the wicket-keeper fumbles or misses the ball, the batsmen may be able to score runs safely. These runs are scored as byes – byes are  added to the team's total, but not to the numbers of runs scored by either batsman.

If the wicket-keeper misses the ball and it travels all the way to the boundary, the batting team scores four byes, just as if the batsman had hit the ball to the boundary for four runs. In the virtually impossible case that a bouncer bounces so high that it flies directly over the boundary without touching the ground, only 4 byes are awarded. One cannot score a boundary six in byes – nor in leg byes, wides or no-balls; a boundary six can only be scored if the ball has made contact with the bat or the hands or gloves holding it.

Here is what MCC rules says :  23.1 Byes

If the ball, delivered by the bowler, not being a Wide, passes the striker without touching his/her bat or person, any runs completed by the batters from that delivery, or a boundary allowance, shall be credited as Byes to the batting side. Additionally, if the delivery is a No ball, the one run penalty for such a delivery shall be incurred.

Interesting !

With regards – S. Sampathkumar
23.9.2021. 

why a 60 year old playing football is viral news !!

60 year old Brunswijk played for 54 minutes in Inter Moengotapoe's 6-0 loss to CD Olimpia of Honduras in Paramaribo made big news, why ?

Seoul Olympics 1988 is fresh in memory.  The games were boycotted by North Korea and its ally, Cuba. Ethiopia, Albania and the Seychelles did not respond to the invitations sent by the IOC. Nicaragua &  Madagascar did not participate because  of financial reasons. In its final Olympics, the Soviet Union utterly dominated the medal table winning 55 gold and 132 total medals. No country came close to this result after 1988. Soviet Vladimir Artemov won four gold medals in gymnastics. Daniela Silivaş of Romania won three and equalled compatriot Nadia Comăneci's record of seven Perfect 10s in one Olympic Games. Tennis returned to the Olympics after a 64-year absence, and Steffi Graf added to her four Grand Slam victories in the year by also winning the Olympic title, beating Sabatini in the final.   U.S. sprinter Florence Griffith Joyner set an Olympic record (10.62) in the 100-metre dash and a still-standing world record (21.34) in the 200-metre dash to capture gold medals in both events. To these medals, she added a gold in the 4×100 relay and a silver in the 4×400. Canadian Ben Johnson won the 100 m final with a new world record, but was disqualified after he tested positive for stanozolol.  There is another name that was flashed in the media !!  - a post on that country, more specifically on the 60 year old mentioned at the start. 

Suriname is a country on the northeastern Atlantic coast of South America. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean, French Guiana, Guyana and Brazil.  At just under 165,000 square kilometers (64,000 square miles), it is the smallest sovereign state in South America.Suriname has a population of approximately 575,990, most of whom live on the country's north coast, in and around the capital and largest city, Paramaribo.  It is a tropical country dominated by rain forests and has abundant natural resources of bauxite, Gold, petroleum and agricultural products. 

Suriname was inhabited as early as the fourth millennium BC by various indigenous peoples, including the Arawaks, Caribs, and Wayana. Europeans arrived in the 16th century, with the Dutch establishing control over much of the country's current territory by the late 17th century. During the Dutch colonial period, Suriname was a lucrative source of sugar, its plantation economy driven by African slave labor and, after abolition of slavery in 1863, indentured servants from Asia. In 1954, Suriname became one of the constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. On 25 November 1975, Suriname left the Kingdom to become an independent state, but continues to maintain close economic, diplomatic, and cultural ties. The first President of the country was Johan Ferrier, the former governor, with Henck Arron (the then leader of the NPS) as Prime Minister.   Dutch is the native language of 60% of the Surinamese; while  Sranan Tongo, an English-based creole language, is a widely used lingua franca. 

The 60 year old mentioned at the start is - Suriname Vice President Ronnie Brunswijk  who took a break from his political duties Tuesday to play a football match -- a pro-team CONCACAF league match. At age 60, Brunswijk may be second in line to the presidency, but he's captain of the Inter Moengotapoe football team. He's also the team owner. Brunswijk played for 54 minutes in Inter Moengotapoe's 6-0 loss to CD Olimpia of Honduras in Suriname's capital Paramaribo. Wearing the number 61 -- symbolic of 1961, the year of his birth -- the vice president played in the forward position alongside Damian Brunswijk, who happens to be his son. 

"Ronnie Brunswijk (Vice-President of Suriname and President of Inter Moengotapoe) becomes the oldest player (60 years and 198 days) to play in an international club match," the sports commentator known as "MisterChip" tweeted.  A former army sergeant and ex-rebel leader, Brunswijk participated in Suriname's civil war in the 1980s against then-dictator Desi Bouterse. Today Brunswijk is a wealthy businessman as well as a politician, but in 1999 he was found guilty in absentia of drug trafficking and sentenced to eight years in prison by a court in the Netherlands, Suriname's former colonial power. A French court found him guilty for the same crime and in 2000 sentenced him to 10 years prison. Brunswijk however is safe at home, as Suriname does not extradite its citizens. 

First elected to parliament in 2005, Brunswijk formed an alliance with the head of the main political opposition, former justice minister Chandrikapersad Santokhi. In July 2020 Santokhi was elected president for a five year term, with Brunswijk as his vice-president.  Brunswijk will not join in his team's second leg tournament game in Honduras, since he cannot leave the country without risk of facing legal trouble. 

In Seoul Olympics - Anthony Conrad Nesty made the name of his country Surinam known to everyone.  He made a big upset defeating Matt Biondi in the    100-metre butterfly event in 1988, by one one-hundredth of a second.

 

With regards – S. Sampathkumar
23^rd Sept. 2021. 

capturing rain !

 

மழை மழை என் உலகத்தில் வருகின்ற முதல் மழை  

It rained this afternoon – for close to half an hour it was heavy downpour.  We are able to see it with eyes and take video too .. .. .. but, it was not easy capturing rain – ie., taking photo of rain ! 

Here is an attempt .. .. this was taken when the rain drops were big, heavy and making thudding sound !!  Exp 1/250; F 8; ISO 500

 

S Sampathkumar
On a rainy day  .. 21^st Sept. 2021

IPL success stories ! ... .. 3 debuts today - RCB bundled for 92 !!!

You may not recognize him to be a Cricketer – he  has now  opened the innings with Shubman Gill and fearless striking Mohammad Siraj & Kyle Jamieson !! – someone who gave up his plan to study CA and let go a job offer by Deloitte!!!

The best thing about IPL besides entertainment, is its providing opportunities to many a youngsters !  .. .. some names earlier unheard of, performed well and got into National team .. .. and today in the match between KKR & RCB – there are 3 debutants : Venkatesh Iyer for KKR, Hasaranga and KS Bharat for RCB

A top Cricketer heading the board is good for the players .. ..  Sourav Ganguly had announced that the financial health of domestic cricketers would be his "biggest priority" as BCCI president, the board has now  announced sizeable hikes in match fees for men and women at the end of its apex council meeting. The new pay slabs, which will be in place 2021-22 onwards, will have the senior men earning between INR 40,000 and 60,000 per day while senior women will earn up to INR 20,000 per day. In another major update, the BCCI has also decided to allot 50% match fees "as compensation" for the Covid-19-affected 2019-20 season where the board could organise just the Syed Mushtaq Ali (T20) Trophy and the 50-over Vijay Hazare Trophy for the senior men.

Pinnaduwage Wanindu Hasaranga de Silva was in action when Shikhar Dhawan’s team toured Lanka recently.  The leg spinner has already made a mark .. .. and if you know or remember that MSK Prasad hailed from Andhra, played Test and One dayers and became a Selector, you may also know that Kona Srikar Bharat (KS Bharat) too is a wicket-keeper batsman from Andhra and was a standby for Wriddhiman Saha for India's tour of England.  Bharat reached Mumbai and was with the Indian contingent when they were quarantined in hotel before boarding flight to London.   

Yesterday after in awful situation, CSK won – and the hero was Ruturaj Gaikwad – who only last year was facing all criticism and was not at all doing well.   Gaikwad himself came down with Covid-19, and when he came back, he got off to a poor start: scores of 0, 5 and 0 in his first three matches. Super Kings' faith in Gaikwad is paying off, but it is no miracle. They have made the changes required - mainly in taking their batting deeper - to allow them to play quicker during the middle overs especially, which in turn lets Gaikwad be the anchor for them. Yesterday he  was sweeping Trent Bolt and Bumrah with gay abandon  in his well made 88 off 58 with9 fours and 4 sixers.  

-        and what a debacle today – a batting line up of Virat Kohli, Devudtt Padikkal,  Glenn Maxwell, AB de Villiers,  muster 92 folding before 20 overs !! 

Something on the 3^rd debutant .. .. Venkatesh Rajasekaran Iyer  plays for Madhya Pradesh. He made his Twenty20 debut against Railways cricket team at Holkar Stadium in March, 2015.   He made his first-class debut for Madhya Pradesh in Ranji trophy in Dec 2018.  In Feb 2021, Iyer was bought by the Kolkata Knight Riders at the base price of Rs.20 lakhs and is playing today !

An interesting article in ESPN – he says - "I was a bright student, inclined towards academics. It's generally the other way round, especially in orthodox South Indian families, where parents push kids to focus on studies. In my case, my mother pushed me towards playing cricket."  Iyer enrolled for a B.Com degree, alongside a chartered accountancy degree. He even topped in the intermediate examinations in 2016, when he had a decision to make. Attempting the CA finals would mean giving up the game, or at least temporarily putting his cricket career on hold.

He had already made his T20 and 50-overs debuts for the Madhya Pradesh senior team and was captain of the state's Under-23 team. A first-class debut was imminent, and he let his instincts take over. "I decided to give up my CA and pursue an MBA in finance," Iyer says. "I gave a lot of entrance exams, had decent scores, and enrolled into a good college. I was fortunate the faculty liked cricket, and they saw I was doing well, and gave me the cushion by taking care of my attendance, preparing notes and rescheduling exams. Had there been no cricket, I would have landed in an IIT (Indian Institute of Technology) or IIM (Indian Institute of Management). Iyer landed a job with the "Big Four" accounting firm Deloitte, in their India headquarters in Bengaluru in 2018. It was decision time again, and Iyer let go the offer, which he eventually wouldn't regret, because he soon made his Ranji Trophy debut for Madhya Pradesh in December that year.

In the truncated 2020-21 season, he  topped the run-charts for his side in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, with 227 runs in five innings at an average of 75.66 and a strike rate of 149.34. Then in the one-day competition, the Vijay Hazare Trophy, he came into his own, hitting a blistering 146-ball 198 against Punjab that helped Madhya Pradesh amass 402 for 3… .. and he claims to be a huge Rajnikanth fan.   

Interesting !

With regards – S. Sampathkumar
20^th Sept. 2021. 

Jewels of Triplicane .. .. Sahitya Academy winner Thiru TES Raghavan

 

Thiruvallikkeni aka Triplicane is a famed land…   It is a place where religion, nationalistic fervour, patriotism, sports, education and the individual dignity have interspersed for the benefit of the State and the larger interests of the Nation.

The place acquired its name from the famed temple pond ‘Kairavini’ – the pond of lilies – thus becoming ‘Thiru Allik Keni’ – the pond consisting of lily flowers.  Our lives dwell around the Great Sri Parthasarathi Swami which has existed for thousands of years, sung by  Sri  PeyAzhwar, Thirumazhisai Azhwar and Tirumangai Azhwar ~ with inscriptions  of Pallava King - Danti Varman dating (779-830).  

Triplicane houses some best historic educational institutions driving home the point of scholastic excellence for decades.   Triplicane was the seat of freedom struggle  Mahakavi Subrahmanya Bharathi lived in Triplicane and from this place freedom struggle germinated. Another jewel in the crown from Triplicane was Freedom fighter -  Theerar Sathyamoorthi, who represented Chennai and also was a Mayor.  The greatest Mathematician – Srinivasa Ramanujam lived in this great place. The patriarch of Tamil language – Shri U Ve Swaminatha Iyer taught at Presidency college and lived in Triplicane  .. .. and there are so many jewels, some of which have not had their due fame .. 

Today is another proud moment for Triplicane and we at SYMA feel doubly happy at the honour for the son of  recipient of a great award – S Parthasarathi, is a well known face in Triplicane and is a Committee-member, donor of SYMA !!

 

There are awards and there are awards of honour .. .. then there is one category whereby awards gets honour because of the recipients !  The Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, is an organisation dedicated to the promotion of literature in the languages of India.  Founded on 12 March 1954, it is supported by, though independent of, the Indian government. Its office is located in Rabindra Bhavan near Mandi House in Delhi. The Sahitya Akademi organises national and regional workshops and seminars; provides research and travel grants to authors; publishes books and journals, including the Encyclopaedia of Indian Literature; and presents the annual Sahitya Akademi Award of INR. 100,000 in each of the 24 languages it supports, as well as the Sahitya Akademi Fellowship for lifetime achievement.

The Sahitya Akademi Award is a literary honour in India, which the Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, annually confers on writers of the most outstanding books of literary merit published in any of the 24 major Indian languages such as English, Bengali, Punjabi and the 22 listed languages in the Eighth Schedule of the Indian Constitution recognised by the Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi. Established in 1954, the award comprises a plaque and a cash prize of Rs.1,00,000/-  The award's purpose is to recognise and promote excellence in Indian writing and also acknowledge new trends. The annual process of selecting awardees runs for the preceding twelve months. The plaque awarded by the Sahitya Akademi was designed by the Indian film-maker Satyajit Ray.  Prior to this, the plaque occasionally was made of marble, but this practice was discontinued because of the excessive weight. During the Indo-Pakistan War of 1965, the plaque was substituted with national savings bonds.

Today’s news reads :  Politician-writer M Veerappa Moily and poet Arundhathi Subramaniam are among the 20 authors who received the Sahitya Akademi Award for 2020 at a ceremony here on Saturday. While Moily received the prestigious award for his epic poetry ''Sri Bahubali Ahimsadigvijayam'' in Kannada, Subramaniam won the award for her poetry collection, "When God is a Traveller", in English.

The other winners in poetry include Harish Meenakshi (Gujarati), Anamika (Hindi), RS Bhaskar (Konkani), Irungbam Deven (Manipuri), Rupchand Hansda (Santali), and Nikhileswar (Telugu). Nanda Khare (Marathi), Maheshchandra Sharma Gautam (Sanskrit), Imaiyam (Tamil) and Sri Hussain-ul-Haque bagged the award for their novels.

Apurba Kumar Saikia (Assamese), (late) Dharanidhar Owari (Bodo), (late) Hiday Koul Bharti (Kashmiri), Kamalkant Jha (Maithili) and Gurdev Singh Rupana (Punjabi) have received the award for short stories. The Akademi has named Gian Singh (Dogri) and Jetho Lalwani (Sindhi) the winners for their plays, while Mani Shankar Mukhopadhyay, popularly known as Shankar received the award for memoir (Bengali).

The award, which includes a casket containing an engraved copper plaque, a shawl and an amount of Rs 1,00,000, was presented at the award presentation function.

The executive board also announced the Sahitya Akademi Translation Prize 2020 in 24 Indian languages on Saturday. The English translation of Kannada novel ''Ghachar Ghochar'', written by Vivek Shanbhag and translated by Srinath Perur, and the Hindi translation of Thiruvalluvar''s ''Thirukkural'' by T E S Raghavan won the award among 22 others. "The books were selected on the basis of recommendations made by the Selection Committees of three members each in the concerned languages in accordance with the rules and procedure laid down for the purpose," the National Academy of Letters said in a statement. The translation prize carries an amount of Rs 50,000 and a copper plaque which will be presented to the translators of each of these books at a special function to be held sometime later this year, it said.  

Thiru TES Raghavan [Thirumalai Echampadi Srinivasa Raghavan] is a Hindi Pundit, worked in Hindu High School and has been residing in Thiruvallikkeni for long.  Respects to you Sir and happy to be friend of his son  S  Parthasarathi (popularly Fallam).

A couple of photos of the great person – taken from SYMA events .. .. .. (in fact I am holding the copy of Hindi translation of Thirukural made by Thiru TES)

With regards – S. Sampathkumar

18^th Sept. 2021.