News

The Hindu : Nine-year-old Shanker Sai, Std. IV , Kendriya Vidyalaya, M.E.G. Centre, bagged a prize for writing the best essay in a contest organised by the Office of the Joint Director of Tuberculosis, Government of Karnataka and Indian Development Foundation.Sai was honoured by Brigadier R. M. Mittal on May Day, which coincided with the Annual Day of Kendriya Vidyalaya. It was a happy coincidence that the day was also the birthday of young Sai. Receiving the honour Sai said that he would like to associate more and more with social causes, especially those related to public health. Brig. Mittal, the Chairman of the Vidyalya Management Committee, Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan, congratulated the teachers for kindling students’ interest in an important social cause. S. Franklin, Area Manager of the Indian Development Foundation, congratulated Sai and inducted him as the IDF Social Ambassador….More

The Hindu : Sudoku is a game that has captured the imagination of the young and old, students and teachers, home-makers and professionals. It is a game that tests one’s logical thinking. BrainSTARS (Brains for Science and Technology Aided Reforms in Society) is now trying to use the game to improve the quality of science education. It has come out with a book (“C-Sudoku”, where C stands for “concept”) on the “happening phenomenon” to get schoolchildren involved and learn different themes and topics from varied subjects.Apply itSrivatsa S.K. of BrainSTARS Services Pvt. Ltd. said that the concepts can be introduced to the students at various levels through these games. “This game provides an alternative approach to recall relevant concepts of a given topic. We have found that children learn concepts faster, remember them better and apply them quicker when taught through the play-way method. Since Sudoku is hugely popular, we thought of adopting it to other subjects to reach the same goal,” he said.Dr. Srivatsa said that the book has adopted Sudoku to various concepts of physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics and social sciences. “All educationists agree that the logical faculties of the mind – mathematical and rational reasoning can be developed by learning different topics. An unfailing, continuous, and regular practice is essential to strengthen these faculties,” he said.“Science and mathematics have been the two traditional subjects that have developed these skills. In the book that we have developed, we have looked at problems in each subject and provided them with a set of symbols drawn from the topic. Students use the symbols, make logical connections and learn the concepts easily,” he said.Dr. Srivatsa believes that teaching concepts and lessons through Sudoku will help all those involved in education – students and teachers, parents and educationists. This has the added advantage of teaching the subjects apart from strengthening the logical skills.“The impact of Sudoku is already known. We…More

The Hindu : Tim Arnold, International Operations Director of the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music, London (ABRSM) started first as a musician, became a teacher and an examiner and is now administrator, holding workshops and seminars for teachers across the globe.On an All-India tour with Sarah Berman, Arnold conducted a series of teachers’ meetings for all those currently taking part or interested in ABRSM exams and assessments.Trained in the piano and violin, Arnold worked as a soloist, accompanist, chamber musician and orchestral pianist, and has since ’89, been the director and examiner of a board, which has candidates from 93 countries worldwide taking vocal and instrumental music exams.An MBA graduate, Arnold finds himself in a “unique and exciting position”, helping both candidates and teachers with a quality examination system, syllabus, enabling ideas for teaching, modulation. He feels that he has an advantage both as a teacher and as an MBA holder.He says: “I can confidently say that the teachers will get results as these are the most reliable exams.” With the ABRSM being the ‘world’s leading provider of music exams and assessments’, Arnold feels that it is a truly global organisation.When it comes to the presence and practice of western music in India, Arnold is happy. “Even though India has a strong tradition of Indian music and there are not enough music schools and virtually no syllabus for music in schools, western music is still well appreciated and popular.”He also finds that there is not much of a difference between the situation of India and the U.K. in music and its practise.He was last in the city in 2001 and has noticed the IT revolution that has changed the face of Bangalore. “People are so caught up in work – music will help them find that balance between life and work.” He feels that western classical music is not static. “Western classical music, like any…More

The Hindu : Thank you… we use this phrase often to express gratitude. But some of us walk that extra mile to say it in a special, unusual and extravagant manner. On April 20, violinist Philippe Quint left his $ 4 million Stradivarius violin in the back seat of a cab that he took from the airport to Manhattan. Quint had just returned after giving a performance in Dallas. The cab driver, Mohammed Khalil, returned it to Quint, safe and sound. Quint gave him a $ 100 tip. The grammy-nominated artiste could have left it at giving the tip but he wanted to do more. Quint expressed gratitude towards the cabbie by holding a mini-concert at the taxi holding area in Newark International Airport.Sometimes words, gifts and thank-you cards are not enough to thank the person who helped you. Filmmaker Nagathihalli Chandrashekharonce got a chance to thank someone in a special manner. In 1994, Chandrashekhar with his production unit was en route to Mysore to shoot for his film, “Kotreshi Kanasu”.The unit stopped to have tea at a small kiosk. “We forgot Rs.1 lakh in a bag there. After reaching Mysore we realised that we had forgotten the bag. The next day we returned to the shop.The small boy who worked at the kiosk came running towards us and returned it. The boy had hidden the bag from the owner because had the owner seen it he would have taken the money,” recalls Chandrashekhar. The filmmaker gave him money and also a screen credit when the film released. “His name was Ramu. I wanted to give him a job so again I went to the same place looking for him but there was no Ramu and no tea shop,” adds Chandrashekhar.In times like these when human values like honesty, kindness and gratitude are eroding fast, psychologist Dr. Sulata Shenoy is happy to know that such incidents take place….More

The Hindu : Say “video games” in any group and be ready to invite violent reactions. Parents and spouses attack, gamers defend. Parents worry about gaming children’s schoolwork, lack of exercise and death of communication kills. They fear children will forget social skills, with their share of household chores. Psychologists say catch-and-kill video games foster aggressive behaviour — game environments hook children with weapons meant for killing, stabbing and shooting. A lot of games are gender-biased showing women as weak and helpless. An unsurprisingly popular game expects players to manage a drug cartel. The setting and characters look and feel so real it’s difficult to dismiss them as fantasy. It’s a lost battle for parents really.Give it a thoughtNow there’s a twist to this story. New research suggests the games may have hidden benefits. Games help develop children’s brains. Violent or soft, they make children smarter, help develop better hand-eye coordination.Give it a thought. Better still, take a shot at playing. Grab a joystick and check out “Halo 2”, designed for Xbox. In this game, you drive vehicles, battle enemies, fight a civil war, travel to space stations and activate rings. You multi-task, source help from several quarters and make multiple decisions, mostly split-second. Ergo: games train minds to analyse data and make strategic choices, quickly. In a world of high-speed e-trade, problem-solving skills win CEO salaries.Gamers can justify long hours spent “outsmarting enemy”, with one more argument. Games teach life skills. When Paxton Galvanek, who saved two car smash victims with medical expertise was asked where he learnt rescue procedures, he said, “Playing American Army”. Players of this game get medical training (virtually) that real soldiers receive. On two occasions, these “combat medics” put the training to good use. They knew how to evaluate injury, control bleeding, recognise and treat shock, and give timely aid.It’s possible future surgeons will enter op theatres with fine motor skills acquired…More

The Hindu : It is a long way from the deciduous forests of North America to the homes of India. Dark maple syrup, spreading into a glistening pool on a hot pancake, is the classic American breakfast, and now a novel Indian one.Maple sugar and syrup come from two species found only in America and Canada. In late winter, gallons of sap, collected from drill holes in the trunk, reduce to maple syrup when heated on a slow flame.This is an ancient art now adapted for the industrial age. The Iroquois Indians used the sap to cook venison and to cure game meats. During the 19th century, Northerners and abolitionists preferred maple sugar to the cane sugar produced with slave labour in the South. Maple sugar helped lessen the impact of cane sugar shortages during Word War II. The Canadians have a unique way of making maple taffy. Hot maple syrup, poured into a bucket of clean snow, yields a soft, dark toffee (“sugar on snow”) best eaten fresh. This local tradition celebrates the annual maple-tapping season.The sugar content of sap ranges from two to seven percent. With the exception of honey, no other natural sweetener exists in such abundance in nature. Apart from glazing pancakes, the syrup also sweetens waffles, breakfast cereal, biscuits, donuts, cakes and pies.A tablespoon of traditional maple syrup contains around 50 Calorie, with sucrose being the sugar. The “pancake syrup” with “two per cent maple syrup” sold in some Indian supermarkets is not pure maple syrup.It contains sweetening additives like high fructose corn syrup. Though their calorie count is the same, imitation syrups cannot match the delicate flavour and silken consistency of pure maple syrup.Natural maple syrup has more nutrients than honey. It is rich in minerals like potassium, magnesium, phosphorus, manganese, iron, zinc, copper and calcium. It is also much lower in sodium than honey.RAJIV M….More

The Hindu : It’s cheap, feels pleasant in the mouth and is ATC (across the counter). It’s cool. Crunch on a gum strip and flash a smile. Works for buffaloes! A class of +2 students vouched for it. The gum, not the cattle. “Chewing gum helps de-stress,” said Navin. “My daily 35 bucks on it is totally useful. I enjoy it and my mouth keeps fresh.” Is gum the next medical miracle?For the over-thirties, it’s unspeakable annoyance. Think teacher doomed to watch guys chewing cud during a discussion on Pythagoras. Think singer SPB taking a full five minutes off his ‘Ennodu Pattu Paadungal’ to chide those who talk with gum in mouth. Question is: why do we need ad spots for chewing gum? Is it really a strip of goodness that our teeth can’t shine without? Let’s sift through the claims.Claim 1: Chewing gum, tree-made or lab-cultured increases salivary flow. Salivary pH of course washes the teeth and neutralises some of the enamel-eroding, cavity-creating acid produced by bacteria. If you’re poor on saliva production, here’s the answer.Claim 2: Chewing increases concentration. Dental gum helps you do mental tasks 20 per cent more efficiently. Chew anything — food, gum or air, insulin is released, glucose and oxygen are rushed to the brain, triggering learning capacity and ability to retain it.Claim 3: Dental gum reduces accumulation of plaque. Long hours of chewing (yech!) will remove food debris, prevent rotting of food particles and keep the mouth clean and fresh.Claim 4: Some gum brands are nicotine substitutes. Pop them in to stop smoking!Claim 5: One artificial sweetener in gum is promoted as “beneficial”. It reduces tooth decay in children, reverses small lesions and inhibits bacterial growth. No one knows why.Claim 6: Amazingly, this bit of chewy sugar could get you to lose weight. Those who chewed gum snacked less and craved fewer sweets!“As long as there isn’t too much sugar in…More

The Hindu : Smooth gimmicksSOUND OFF! Anitha Krishnan confesses how she fell prey to discount tricksBusiness development is a euphemistic manner of referring to sales tricks and marketing gimmicks. Being a business development manager, I used to pride myself on being able to see through these chicaneries.Yet, I could not help but get carried away when a hypermarket announced a 50 per cent discount. Armed with a huge list in one hand and a credit card in the other, I made my way to the store. I peered at the nearest sign to check for any disclaimers that usually accompany such advertisements, like ‘Offer valid on limited stocks only’ or ‘Up to 50% off’. Finding none of these usual let downs, I headed for the nearest trolley. Everything seems affordable when it is priced at a massive 50 % discount. I picked up wheat flour, salt, spices, vegetables and fruits,crockery, kitchenware, and toilet products that I did not really need. Happy with my loot, I made my way to the busy billing counters after nearly two hours. Back home, I looked at the bill for the first time – 22 items, bill running up to Rs. 3956.50, discounts 0.00! That was a shocker! I called up customer care to immediately check if they had forgotten to give me a discount on my purchase, only to be told 22 times that there was no discount to be availed on each of the products I had bought.So much for the flat 50% off! I had a good mind to sue the hypermarket. But I think I was more pissed with myself for being the gullible, unsuspecting, compulsive shopper that these marketing professionals target while executing their smooth gimmicks.Do you have anything to say? About the state of the world, the city, your angst? Pen it stylishly and dash off your piece with your photograph. Email it to bangaloremetro@ thehindu.co.in or…More

The Hindu : ‘But I don’t want to’Gen-Next-ers are in no hurry to tie the knot. In fact, some of them do not mind giving marriage a passIllustration: Satheesh VellinezhiTo marry or not is not the big question. Not to marry is the answer for some Genext guys. Abhilash Pillai, 29, a software consultant, is a diehard bachelor for he feels he is just not tuned tonuptial settings. His parents are frantically trying to make him change his mind but he has pierced his ears and bares a tattooed body to be doubly sure that no girl would whisk him down the marital aisle! Flashing his multiple earrings, he brags, “No girl wants to be saddled with a freak, this look is an instant turn off.”Where are the racing hearts and blushing cheeks of yesteryear? Have marriages become taboo? Well… It seems so. Gen-Nexters are quite content, living single…blowing up their whopping salaries and generally having a blast.These young men believe that a jet set lifestyle combined with the work pressure (that inevitably accompanies the paycheques) would lead to a clash of egos in a marriage. Their uniform rant is, “We do not want to deal with cribbing or emotional blackmail when we return home from work. We have seen enough marriages breaking up and we do not want to take a risk.” Marital relationships today, follows the law of the jungle albeit with a difference. It is the survival of the emotionally fittest. The person with a higher emotional quotient overpowers the partner in all decisions. Ultimately compromise is the only way out. For these youngsters this is too much of a chance to take. The tirades against girls continue, tears are the most feared. And then there is talk of loss of freedom and scepticism about being able to retain their individuality after their marriage.Old age?Have they thought about a sick, lonely old age? “We may…More

The Hindu : At 42, his heroines are getting younger by the day; but Shah Rukh Khan is not complaining. First, it was Deepika Padukone in “Om Shanti Om”, and now we hear 19-year-old Bangalore girl Anushka Sharma has been signed up for “Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi.”“It is the script which decides the actress, not me. For ‘Om Shanti Om’, we needed a fresh face. For ‘Rab Ne…’ we need a young actress. And then, for Karan Johar’s ‘My Name is Khan’ the script demands a mature actress.” The buzz is that it’s Kajol, but Shah Rukh refuses to confirm it.How do his kids address his co-stars…they must have quite a range from Deepika didi to Juhi aunty? “No it’s not like that (laughs)…They call them by their first names!”From dominating the world of films, Shah Rukh has now moved on: to the world of sport. It’s as if no stage is too big for the quintessential Delhi boy. But he insists it’s the middle class values instilled in Delhi which keep him “rooted and focussed”.With hardly any competition in sight, is there any challenge left for the actor in him? “I feel the struggle will be to play myself one day. The most difficult thing for an actor is to play himself. People tell me that those expressions are mannered… Though there have been characters which had a part of me, like ‘Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa’, the closest perhaps was ‘Chak De India!’ When I play games with my kids they say: ‘You are very much like Kabir Khan’.”He pauses for a moment, and then says television shows allow him to be himself. Isn’t he acting as Shah Rukh? “No in ‘Panchvi Paas…’ there is no script… most of the things I say are impromptu.”Do the participants find it difficult to confess in front of the camera they are no wiser than a fifth grader? “Not…More