Category Archives: Records, All

Sania Mirza-Bethanie Mattek win Brisbane International title

Leaders, Records, All, Sports

Brisbane:

Sania Mirza began her 2013 campaign in style by winning the Brisbane International tennis tournament with American partner Bethanie Mattek-Sands here on Saturday.

Sania-Bethanie edged out Czech-German duo of Anna-Lena Groenefeld and Kveta Peschke 4-6, 6-4, 10-7 in a battle lasting little over one hour thirty minutes. There was very little to choose between the teams until the Indo-American pair clinched the issue in the super tie-break.

The win has come at the right time for Sania-Bethanie, who would like to maintain their impressive run in the Australian Open beginning January 14.

Sania-Bethanie edged out Czech-German duo of Anna-Lena Groenefeld and Kveta Peschke 4-6, 6-4, 10-7 in a battle lasting little over one hour thirty minutes.

source: http://www.ibnlive.in / Home> Tennis / by  IANS / January 05th, 2013

Pat for Adilabad dancers

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Records, All

VIP presence:Guinness Book of World Records representative Pranav Patil with dancers from Adilabad. —PHOTO: BY ARRANGEMENT

Bharatnatyam exponent Samudrala Madhavi Ramanujam has once again brought laurels to Adilabad as 23 of her students were among the 5,000 dancers who participated in the world record achieving dance performance for Guinness Book of World Records (GBWL) at Gachibowli stadium in Hyderabad on December 25 last.

The effort of the students from Adilabad came in for special appreciation from Pranav Patil, the GBWL representative from New York. “He exhibited great interest in learning more about the effort when I told him about my students originating from a remote corner of Andhra Pradesh. He was happy that the dance form has found a foothold in such places,” Ms. Madhavi, who runs the Vibhavari Natya Akademi in town, said of her interaction with Mr. Patil.

Among the 23 students was P. Mahita, the 10-year-old daughter of P. Satyanarayana and Shyamala, who will soon be arranging for her ‘Arangetram’ at Ravindra Bharati. She has already staged performances at Tyagaraya Gana Sabha in Hyderabad besides the Guinness record effort.

source: http://www.TheHindu.com / Home> In School / by Staff Reporter / Adilabad, January 08th, 2013

Howzzat! Hyderabad umpire in ICC panel

Records, All, Sports

Hyderabad:

Chettithody Shamshuddin, better known as Shamshu in Hyderabad cricket circles did the city proud when he was named the lone Indian among the five new third umpires appointed to the ICC’s international panel announced on Thursday.

The 42-year-old made his international debut in the India-England Twenty20 match in Pune last month.

After that he stood in the recent Twenty20 between India and Pakistan in Bengaluru and was the third umpire for the subsequent India-Pakistan Twenty20 at Ahmedabad.

“The International Panel of Umpires comprises match officials who are nominated by their home boards and accredited by the ICC. The umpires on this panel can be assigned all three formats of the game. The five new third umpires are Anisur Rahman (Bangladesh), Michael Gough and Tim Robinson (both England), C. Shamshuddin (India) and Derek Walker (New Zealand),” the ICC said in a statement.

Having played for Bharatiya Cricket Club, Adams XI and Finecab CC in the Hyderabad Cricket Association’s lower division league in the 1990s — he was a middle order batsman and a medium pacer who turned to leg-spin later — Shamshuddin took to umpiring part-time to earn some pocket money.

He gradually began to take interest in the role and started to sharpen his skills. He then put in the hard yards as he set higher standards for himself.

In 1997, the BCCI conducted umpires examination but Shamshu didn’t qualify. Back to the drawing board, he reorganised himself and endured a long wait. It wasn’t until 2006 when the BCCI held the umpires exam again. This time, Shamshu came out flying in all departments — match management, conflict resolution, code of conduct, calculation of overs in rain affected matches, team work, field craft, body language, positioning, etc.

Three years later, in the 2009-10 season, Shamshu got to stand in his first Ranji Trophy game.

Consistent performances then saw him comfortably climb to the top rung.

Umpiring no doubt is a high-pressure job, especially given the noise level at Indian venues where faint edges are very difficult to detect but Shamshu stays mentally focussed.

Listening to light music, reading interesting books and not thinking too much about pressure situations besides talking to himself are part of his mental preparation.

Regular walking, light jogging and a few stretching exercises keep him physically fit.

Besides watching videos, Shamshu practices by attending net sessions when the state and academy teams are training and is a regular at the Gymkhana grounds.

With a work ethic like that, it’s only a matter of time before the Hyderabadi is in the centre of action (on-field) at top level matches.

source: http://www.DeccanChronicle.com / Home> Sports> Cricket / by K. Moses , DC / January 04th, 2013

Pullela Gopi Chand, badminton coach

Leaders, Records, All, Sports
Pushing badminton onto the global stage.
Gopi Chand at the Pullela Gopi Chand Nimmagadda Foundation Badminton Academy, Gachibowli, Hyderabad. Photo: Harsha Vadlamani/Mint
At Pullela Gopi Chand’s   badminton academy in Hyderabad, there’s no justification for defeat. He keeps with himself a list of “excuses for losing”, which includes: “The linesman was cross-eyed”, “I wore new shoes”, “I have a sprain”, or “I didn’t sleep well last night”. The message for Gopi Chand’s 150 trainees is clear: Use excuses at your own peril.
“No one is spared,” Gopi Chand, 39, says, “not even myself. Everyone here knows what needs to be done, how much work has to be put in, and that it needs to be done no matter how hard it is.”
This single-minded focus has made the 2001 All England champion into the most formidable badminton coach in the country, impatiently hacking through the odds to script a shining story of success. He’s coach to  Saina Nehwal , who became the first badminton player from India to win a medal at the Olympics, in a year in which she also became the highest paid athlete in the country (excluding cricketers). He’s coach to P.V. Sindhu  , the lanky 17-year-old prodigy who’s already started making rapid inroads into world badminton. Of the 12 women’s and men’s singles players from India ranked in the world’s top 100, 11 come from his academy. At this year’s Senior National Badminton Championships, every category was won by a player from his academy. Three of the losing finalists were his students too. That this compact training school, easy to miss among the gigantic and swank IT complexes which surround it, has produced every single badminton champion in India this year is almost unbelievable.
“That makes me happy,” says Gopi Chand, “but not by much. For me, these are only signs that we have a lot of responsibilities for the future, lots of work to do.”
Even Nehwal’s victories are mere markers for what Gopi Chand and his team are doing right, and what they’re not. There’s just no time to gloat.
“If you want to be good, there is no place for complacency, or even democracy for that matter,” he says. “You need a strong mind to survive in sports, because there’s no normal life here. It’s just train, eat right, rest, recover, compete.”
What excites him most about this year is the rise of Sindhu, who is already ranked world No. 24 in women’s singles.
“We’ve got at least four fantastic 13-year-olds training right now as well,” says Gopi Chand. “That is the dream. Not one Saina Nehwal, but many. In the next four to five years, it is possible that we will be the second superpower in badminton after China.”
source: http://www.livemint.com / Live Mint & The Wall Street Journal / Home> Lounge / by Rudraneil Sengupta / Friday, December 28th, 2012

British ‘high’ for Bobjee

Amazing Feats, Records, All, Sports

First Indian cricketer to be conferred with the MBE medallion

Combining cricketing acumen with a human touch! Well, M.V. Narasimha Rao is the first Indian cricketer ever to be conferred with the prestigious Member of British Empire (MBE) medallion for his contribution to promoting the sport and also for community service through cricket during the testing times faced by the ethnic community in Northern Ireland.

SENSE OF PRIDE

And back home in the city for holidaying, the 58-year-old Bobjee — as he is popularly known in cricketing circles — who played for India in four Tests in 1979 under Sunil Gavaskar’s captaincy feels that he has every reason to look back at his stay in Ireland since 1989 with a sense of pride and immense satisfaction.

“MBE is like getting a Padma Award in India. There is so much aura associated with it.

TERMS IT A ‘HUGE HONOUR’

“It is a huge honour, and you are a special invitee to all the functions of the Royal Family back in England,” says a smiling Bobjee as he relaxes at his residence in Marredpally in the company of his wife Josephine and son Suresh (his two daughters stayed back in Ireland as they have to attend college).

“Well, these are the awards which give you a new direction and fresh hopes to do something more special for humanity,” he feels.

“In terms of getting recognised back in Ireland, it did a lot.

“But the fact that I continue to be the chairperson of the North Ireland Council for Ethnic Minorities (mostly featuring Polish, Indians and Chinese) is only like getting involved in community service to a great extent,” he points out.

On cricketing assignments, he said, “I take pride in reminding that nine of the boys whom I coached were members of the Ireland World Cup team in 2011, and they include the most famous of all, Kevin O Brien (the centurion against England in the World Cup),” says the beaming cricketer, who is also the Director of Cricket Development Programmes, NW Cricket Union.

TEST STATUS FOR IRELAND

“The target we set for ourselves is to see that Ireland gets Test status by 2020,” he insists.

Incidentally, this is the silver jubilee year since Hyderabad last won the Ranji Trophy in 1987 under Bobjee’s captaincy.

“Definitely, it pains when you see Hyderabad performing badly.

“I sincerely believe that V.V.S. Laxman should take up a big role in the HCA (Hyderabad Cricket Association) affairs to give a new direction to the young talent,” he signs off in exasperation.

source: http://www.TheHindu.com / Home> News> Cities> Hyderabad / by V. V. Subrahmanyam / December 28th, 2012

Hyderabad girl, Panipat guy win Internet-based talent hunt

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Records, All, Science & Technology

 

Hyderabad girl Pragya Patra and Rohit Sehgal from Panipat won MOBisur, a mobile and Internet-based singing talent hunt launched by composer-signer Shankar Mahadevan.

The winners received a cash prize of Rs5 lakh and will get an opportunity to record an album with Shankar, which will be released by T-Series and Hungama.

There were six finalists and final decision was taken by the jury members — Shankar and singers Soumini Paul and Tulsi Kumar.

“It has been an incredible and challenging experience to filter and select the best of what India’s rich talent pool has to offer. I am extremely happy that we have successfully selected the right winners,” Shankar said in a statement.

The motive behind launching MOBisur was to gather musical talent from every corner of India through the power of digital medium.

“We received an overwhelming response in the first edition, which has reaffirmed our faith in the digital talent hunt,” he added.

Launched in July, “MOBisur” gave participants the chance to engage in a unique audition format, which required them to either dial in and record a song or perform and upload a video online.

source: http://www.dnaindia.com / Daily News & Analysis / Home> Entertainment> Report / Place: New Delhi, Agency: DNA / December 24th, 2012

Sahitya Akademi Award for writer Subbaramaiah

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Records, All

Peddibhotla Subbaramaiah

He has lived here for five and half decades. For four decades he taught Special Telugu in the Andhra Loyola College (ALC). The talent of Peddibhotla Subbaramaiah as short-story writer was recognised only recently. The Central Sahitya Akademi conferred on him its prestigious ‘puraskar’ (award).

A few days earlier he was selected for the prestigious Appajosyula Vishnubhotla Kandalam Foundation Award. A rack full of plaques of different materials and types welcomes visitors to the veranda of his house in Hanumanpet. There were many more, but he lost them during the several times he changed his house. Somebody was kind enough to give the rack to put the different plaques and mementoes given to him, he told The Hindu.

It is very evident that Mr. Subbaramaiah is the sensitive and shy types. When the Rotary Club wanted to felicitate him he declined. He asked the club to organise a meeting of writers instead. When they tried to felicitate him at the meeting he refused and narrated a bizarre story.

Mr. Subbaramaiah told the audience that he did not want to be felicitated because of the red chair (red throne like chairs were used at that time for felicitation) because he saw a group of people trying to photograph a dead body after decorating it on such a chair. It is such sensitivity that made him a short-story writer.

The death of a migrant (from Tamil Nadu) factory worker was the inspiration for a story. One day he saw a woman weeping by the body of a man. “People are so indifferent to such scenes, but I stopped and enquired about the couple. I was told that they are from Tamil Nadu. They fell in love and eloped when their families did not agree to their marriage. Their search for a livelihood brought them to Vijayawada. The man became sick here and died leaving the woman behind,” Mr. Subbaramaiah said.

The story he wrote is about a tea shop owner helping the woman, who lost her husband, has no friends and does not even know Telugu. Others attribute motives to this act of kindness and even ostracise the tea shop owner, but the man continues to take care of the woman until people come for her.

The observations made by another migrant worker, this time from the water-parched Rayalaseema became the inspiration for his short-story “Neellu”. “This man was amazed by the high level of water in the wells here. One day we went to see the Krishna river which was in spate. The man said that he never saw so much water in his life. This became the inspiration for a story,” Mr. Subbaramaiah said.

“The plight, anguish, frustrations and the jealousies of middle class people were the raw material of my stories,” he added. He thanks his teachers for his achievements and awards.

Son of a Railway Station Master, Mr. Subbaramaiah did his schooling in Ongole. But for his college he came to Vijayawada and became a student of none other than Viswanatha Satyanaryana, the author of “Veyyi padagalu”, and a lecturer of SRR and CVR College.

source: http://www.TheHindu.com / Home> News> Cities / by G. Venkataramana Rao / Vijayawada, December 25th, 2012

Peddibhotla gets sahitya award for short story

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Records, All

Peddibhotla Subbaramaiah.

New Delhi/Vijayawada:

Peddibhotla Subbaramaiah’s short story collection Peddibhotia Subbaramaiah Kathalu (Vol. 1) has been selected for a Sahitya Akademi Award.

Expressing happiness about the award, the writer observed that the recognition would be good for other authors.

A recipient of many awards including the Ravi Sastry Smaraka Sahitya Nidhi, Gopichand Memorial, Appajyosyula Puraskar etc., Subbaramaiah’s two volumes have 80 stories that reflect the common man’s lives.

Subbaramaiah started writing in 1959

Peddibhotla Subbaramaiah, who has been selected for a Sahitya Akademi Award, started writing in 1959.

His first story Chakranemi was published in the weekly Andhra Patrika. He later wrote several stories and two novels for Bharati magazine.

Subbaramaiah served as a lecturer in Andhra Loyola College for 40 years and retired in December 1996.

The author, who has written more than 200 stories, believes that childhood education leaves an impact on the development of any person.

Sitting in the veranda of his house on Thursday, the writer expressed concern over the sprouting of concrete jungles in cities and lamented that people were missing an opportunity to enjoy nature and think freely in their busy lives.

Booker-nominated Jeet Thayil and Bengali novelist Subrata Mukhopadhyaya were among the 24 authors selected for this year’s Sahitya Akademi Awards, which was dominated by poets.
Twelve of the 24 awards went to works of poets, which included K. Sachitandandan (Malayalam — Marannu Vacha Vazhikal), late Bal Krishna “Bhaura” (Dogri — Tim-Tim Karde Tare) and Makhan Lal Kanwal (Kashmiri — Yath Aangnaz Manz).

Thayil, whose novel Narcopolis was shortlisted for a Booker, was selected for his poetry collection These Errors are Correct in the English category.

Twelve books of poetry, six short story collections, four novels and one each of autobiography and criticism were selected for the awards this year, two of them posthumously.

The awards were given to books first published between January 2008 and December 2010. It carries Rs 1 lakh cash, an engraved copper plaque and a shawl.

Among the poets, other winners are Guneswar Musahary (Bodo — Boro Khonthai), Chandrakant Devtale (Hindi — Pathar Fenk Raha Hoon), H.S. Shivaprakash (Kannada — Mabbina Haage Kabniveyassi), Kashinath Shamba Lolienkar (Konkani — Kavyasutra) and Darsan Buttar (Punjabi — Maha Kambani).

Aaidan Singh Bhatti (Rajasthani — Aankh Hinye Ra Hariyal Sapana), Ramji Thakkura (Sanskrit — Laghupadhyaprhbandhatrayi) and Krishna Kumar Toor (Urdu — Ghurfa-i-Ghalib) were the other poets who were selected for the award.

Assamese writer Chandana Goswami was selected for her novel Patkair Loare More Desh while Mukhopadhyaya was selected for his fiction Birasan. Other novelists were Jodha C. Sanasam (Manipuri — Mathou Kanba DNA) and D. Selvaraj (Tamil — Thol).

In Gujarati, Chandrakant Topiwala’s critical study, Gujarati Sakshibhasya, was selected for the award while in Maithili, Shefalika Verma’s autobiography Kist-Kist Jeewan won the award.

Apart from Subbaramaiah, works of five others won for short story collections. They were Jayant Pawar’s Marathi collection Phoenixchya Rakhetun Uthala Mor, Uday Thulung’s Ekantvas (Nepali), Gourahari Das’s Kanta O’ Anyanya Galpa (Odia), Gangadhar Hansda’s Banchaw Akan Goj Hor (Santali) and Late Indra Vaswani’s Miteea Khaan Miteea Taaeen (Sindi).

source: http://www.DeccanChronicle.com / Home> News> Current Affairs / DC,  December 21st, 2012

Hyderabad boy clinches Asian schools chess title

Records, All, Science & Technology

Raja Rithvik Playing in Asian Schools Chess Championship-2012 at New Delhi

A student of Class IV in the Orchids International School, Jubilee Hills, Hyderabad, Rithvik scored six points in six rounds in the championship organised by the Asian Chess Federation

R. Raja Rithvik, a Hyderabad boy, has clinched the gold medal in the under-9 Rapid event of the Asian Schools Chess Championship-2012 held at New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium on Saturday.

Rithvik, who has international rating of 1536, scored over A. Nodirbek of Uzbekistan, rated 1932, in the final round, a press release from the AP State Chess Association informed on Saturday.

A student of Class IV in the Orchids International School, Jubilee Hills, Hyderabad, Rithvik scored six points in six rounds in the championship organised by the Asian Chess Federation.

He competed with more than 50 players from 10 countries including India, China, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Uzbekistan, Bangladesh, Kazakhstan, UAE, Mongolia and Kyrgyzstan. He will also participate in the classical chess format of Asian Chess tournament to be held at New Delhi from December 13 to 20. Recently, Raja Rithvik also bagged the silver medal in the Commonwealth Chess Championship at Chennai.

source: http://www.TheHindu.com / Home> Sport / by Staff  Reporter / Hyderabad, December 16th, 2012

A scientist par excellence

Leaders, Records, All, Science & Technology

Prof. Tummala Ramamohana Rao.

Rao R. Tummala led a team that invented the first plasma display

He left his village nearly five decades ago to study and then work in the U.S. Today, Rammohana Rao Tummala is highly respected as a scientist and inventor. He holds 71 U.S. patents and credit for inventions. He has invented and manufactured the first ever plasma display for the IBM.

Six months in a year he travels extensively as adviser to several academic, research bodies and consultant to many Fortune 500 electronic companies in the U.S., Europe, and Asia. In spite of his hectic life, Prof. Rao R. Tummala always makes time to visit his native village, Nandamuru, on the Vijayawada-Gudivada Road.

He came to make a presentation at the Nano Conference at Bangalore and came to spend some time with his cousins in his village. Born in Nandamuru, he did his entire schooling in the village. He is the son of the soil in the true sense because his father was a farmer. Prof. Rao did his science degree in Andhra Loyola College in Vijayawada and his engineering degree in Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. In 1965, he left India to do his MS in Metallurgical Engineering in Canada. After that, there was no turning back for Prof. Rao. After working for several years with the IBM, he became an IBM Fellow in 1983 and held the honour till 1993.

Claim to fame

“My claim to fame is heading the team that invented the first plasma display and manufacturing it. It was small (he used his hands to indicate that it was about five inches long and wide), but IBM made 300 million dollars with it,” he said. After being the IBM fellow, Prof. Rao moved over to academics and is today a professor at the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology, more popularly known as Georgia Tech at Atlanta. Prof. Rao has published over 320 technical papers and has authored several books, including the first modern reference book for Microsystems.

source: http://www.TheHindu.com / Home> News> Cities> Vijayawada / by Special Correspondent / December 14th, 2012