Saturday, October 18, 2008

Sergey Bubka on a High

Sporting legend Sergey Bubka, the greatest pole-vaulter of all time, today launched the Bubka Podium Sports Foundation Scholarship to promote the spirit of sport at Community Aid and Sponsorship Program (CASP), an organization that supports under-privileged families and children in India.

Bubka, a recepient of Laureus Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of his contribution to grassroots sport earlier this year, launched the new initiative with CASP Project Manager Mr Ramesh Gorwadkar.
The Sergey Bubka Podium Foundation Award, which will be implemented in 2009, will support young people who show outstanding sporting potential and best display the spirit of sport over the course of the year. The award funds will be used primarily to support nutrition with additional help with equipment, coaching fees and entry fees.

Addressing a press conference, Bubka said, “Creating this award for CASP means I can give children from this area a chance to really pursue their sporting dreams. These awards are not only about sporting prowess, but also seek to promote the values of sportsmanship and respect which I consider to be particularly important."

Bubka, who also attended the Commonwealth Youth Games in Pune during his visit to India, is chairman of the Coordination Commission for the inaugural Summer Youth Olympic Games in Singapore in 2010. He makes regular trips to charitable sports establishments around the world to encourage more young people to take up sport and to offer his support to sporting initiatives worldwide.

The Tsar
Having set world records 35 times, 18 times indoors and 17 times outdoors, Sergey Bubka is better known as the Tsar. Overall, Bubka is widely regarded as a living legend of sport.

Bursting on the international scene as a 19-year-old he scored an upset victory at the inaugural World Championships of Athletics in 1983 - A victory that built his career into one of the most remarkable domination sport has ever seen. A World Champion for 16 years (1983 to 1999), Bubka has won 6 consecutive gold medals. He is still the only athlete in any event to win at six world championships.

To top it all Bubka's transition in life reveals a great sport administrator, politician and businessman, a story not many have to boast about. This is his first foray in the social field and Pune has got the distinction of hosting the event.

Booked to Literature

"This is the third time that Culture House of Iran is participating in the Pune Book fair. There is huge community of Iranian students in Pune and I am one of them," said Ebrahim Aghajari.

"I always wanted to write whatever it may be. So I have become a writer. I am first time in Pune and I met three people here who spoke with me in French," said Frederic Mari. Frederic was sitting at the stall of Libre Edition publications from Pondicherry and was signing every book bought by the visitors.

Ebrahim and Frederic were among those who added international look to the seventh edition of Pune Book Fair which is currently on at Ganesh Kala Krida Mandir. Frederic is living in Pondicherry since 1990. He writes in French but Shine, his first translated novel in English is available at the fair. Told through the medium of an Eagle Owl, this novel speaks about the eternal quest of the humanity.

"This is mostly a fictional work but to certain extent, there is personal element in it," he said. About India, he said that he felt he was destined to live here. "I had visited Mumbai earlier but am in Pune first time. I have written plays, film scripts earlier and is currently writing a bulky novel," he said.

Ebrahim has completed his B. E. and is pursuing M. Sc. in Instrumentation in University of Pune. He was managing the stall of Culture House of Iran. "There are 100 to 200 visitors here daily. I think there should be more people. The city is considered as the culture capital of India. It is my opinion that the venue of the fair should be changed. If it was near University, then probably there could be larger crowd," he said.

Friday, October 10, 2008

CYG : The Games of Politics

(Pic: Yogesh Jadhav)
Two days from now, Pune is to hold the third edition of Commonwealth Youth Games. This is one of the pet projects of Suresh Kalmadi, an influential member of parliament and administrator of the games.

The games, even before they can commence, are being known for the hectic politics played between two parties in Maharshtra. One party is that of Kalmadi and other one is Nationalist Congress Party led by Sharad Pawar, who is a prominent minister in the union cabinet. Essentially though, this is a tussle between Kalmadi and Pawar. While Sharad Pawar is helped by his nephew Ajit Pawar, Kalmadi has to slug it out with the help of his supporters.

Kalmadi was a close associate and Man Friday of Pawar for a long period. Then he broke away owiong to the 'difference of opinion.' Now, after two stints as MP and president of Indian Olympic Association, Kalmadi managed to bring CYG to Pune. At that time, Congress was ruling Pune Municipal Corporation. Situation changed last year and NCP came to power in PMC. It is trying every trick to make the games a hurdles race for Kalmadi whose credentials as a good administrator are at stake.
First, the NCP did not waged a full fledged war and instead chose to go slow in the works related to CYG. Two weeks ago, it fired first salvo and refused to allot Rs 5 Crores asked by CYG organisers for the publicity. Kalmadi camp retalitated by keeping away Pune mayor Rajlaxmi Bhosale from attending a ceremony in CYG. She was not given an invitation for unveiling of Chhatrapati Shivaji's stature at Balewadi, as is required by protocol.
The war did not end here. PMC's subway at Baner Road, which allows entry to the Balewadi stadium, was inaugurated for public. Ajit Pawar inugurated the subway but Kalmadi was not invited for the party.
On Friday, that is today, a CNG filling station was inaugurated at the hands of Kalmadi. This station will cater to Pune Municipal Transport buses. Even though PMT has vowed to ply 30 buses on CNG, only 9 buses are actually available with PMT.
If you think the story ends here, it is not so. To counter Congress move, PMT has decided new buses on CNG to be dedicated to Puneites. The dedication is to be done at the hands of Ajit Pawar on Sunday itself. And guess what? Kalmadi is not invited.

First Graphic Novel of India

A youth from Pune has got the distinction of releasing the first graphic novel in India. ‘Private Eye The Anonymous’ was released in the city on Thursday. The book is written by Tejas Modak, a 25 year old graphic artist.
Though graphic novels have a cult of their own all over the world, there is none in India. Keeping this in mind, Tejas have written this graphic novel about a detective who likes humour. Accordingly, even though the novel is a thriller story, it is written in a humorous way.

"Basically graphic novels are a part of the comics but they are different in a way that in comics, same sets of characters appear again and again. But in novels, there is a different story each time. Also a graphic novel is balanced in terms of visuals and text also," Modak said about this art form.

The book is published by Westland Books and Tranquebar Press. Tejas was used to write articles in newspapers in the past and works in an animation company now. "I have managed to blend these two elements in the novel successfully," he says.

The Book
According to Tejas, he always liked the suspense stories and also humorous books. He used to imagine himself doing the stuff. He has portrayed the same fantasies with a different character.

The book has a advantage that the text and drawings are done by the same person. The visuals are done in new ways generally avoiding the standard styles.

Wednesday, October 08, 2008

Astrologers Fail the Test

Almost four months after issue was raised, results have come that astrology has failed to pass the first scientific test in India. In this first statistical test, just 45 percent of the predictions by astrologers proved right. The test has given credence to the theory that astrology can not termed as a science.

In what was touted as the first scientific test of astrology in India, Inter University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA), Statistics Department of University of Pune and Andhshraddha Nirmulan Samiti (ANS) joined hands to verify the veracity of astrology. Dr. Naralikar alongwith Dr. Narendra Dabholkar of ANS, Prof. Sudhakar Kunte from University of Pune declared the statistical data related to the test in a press conference yesterday.

The project involved collecting and verifying, analysing of a particular data. In May 08, an appeal was made to the astroloher communities to participate in this event. Dr. Naralikar had appealed to the astrologers to come forward for the experiment. The announcement was received with much debate and controversy. Many astrology organisations condemned the initiative under one or another pretext but astrologers in Marathwada and Vidharbha responded to the project.

Those astrologers who came forward, were provided a set of about 40 horoscopes of student. These students were mentally challenged as well as normal one, but their identity was not revealed to anybody. Astrologers were told to analyse the samples and tell exactly which students are mentally challenged and which are not. An important presumption of the test was that if astrologers manage to differentiate the horoscope with an accuracy of more than 90 percent, astrology was proved to be a science. If they could reach the accuracy of 70 percent, then further tests were to be carried out. About 50 percent accuracy was expected to be achieved on the basis of random sampling.

Prakash Ghatpande, convenor of the test said, "Major astrologers decided to boycott the test objecting to the stands of ANS. Majority of amateur astrologers decided to participate in the experiment and they have relied on the data provided by us. ANS activists collected the horoscopes from all over the state. We gave it to the participants. After their replies were received, the encryption was done and thereafter all the data rested with Prof. Kunte. Nobody else, not even Dr. Naralikar and Dr. Dabholkar were aware of it. We can't declare the exact statistics of the experiment right now."
According to the data provided by organisers, 51 astrologers asked for the set of horoscopes but only 27 of them responded. Those not responding did not furnish any reason either. Among those who participated, 15 were amateurs and 8 were professional ones.

Among the 27 participants, the right guesses range from 8 to 24. On an average, 17.25 out of 40 predictions were accurate. It means generally 45 percent predictions are right.

Meanwhile, astrologer community reacted sharply to the findings of the experiment. Siddheshwar Maratkar, director of Jyotish Vidya Prasaraka Mandal addressed a press conference challenging the results. He said that astrologers had boycotted the test citing the wrong method of conducting the tests. "We had demanded that ANS should not be a part of the experiment, there might be 60% or more accurate results but they will not have any bearing on the scientific basis of astrology and the horoscopes with wrong predictions should be given to us for the verification. Even after agreeing to conditions, the results were declared. This is an attempted attack on the foundation of astrology. So we will not take part in any future tests as well."

Meanwhile, Dr. Dabholkar put forward a proposal for one more test. The test will involve analysing the horoscopes of adults and accurately 'predict' the past incidents or trends of a human being.

Friday, October 03, 2008

Rains in the city

Due to a cyclonic circulation in Central Maharashtra, city alongwith many parts of the state witnessed rains on Friday. The situation is expected to continue meaning in effect that city is to witness more rains in coming days.


Usually, the monsoon starts withdrawing from 1 September. The month of October is known for summer like heat. The weather in the city looked going on the track till yesterday with maximum temperature touching 33 degree celsius. But on Friday, the weather took another form and there were rains in many parts of the state like Marathwada and Central Maharashtra.


Medha Khole, director, India Meterological Department, Pune said, "The cyclonic circulation over east central Arabian sea off south Gujarat-north Maharashtra lies over Madhya Maharashtra and neighbourhood. Which is the reason for this unseasonal rain." In the last 24 hours, the city witnesse 7.2 mm of rains upto 5:30 PM.


According to Khole, the southwest monsoon withdrawal this year started since 29 September which is almost a month late than normal. The met department expects the rain to continue for three days.


Even though heavy rains are not normal after the withdrawal of monsoon, there have been many instance of rainfall exceeding the normal. Nine years ago, on 14 October 1999, Pune witnessed 200.5 mm rainfall. Last year also the withdrawal of monsoon was started on 30 September and was complete on 15 October. At that time, 3.2 mm rainfall was recorded.
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