Grunts

Using a digital sound level meter, The Telegraph recorded maximum decibels of 103.2, louder than a motorcycle or a lawnmower.

From whom..you might wonder??

Well it was from Maria Sharapova. She went on to lose the Wimbledon match to fellow Russian Alla Kudryatseva in the second round.

How to read Newspaper course - USD 15

Was definitely taken aback...

Vikas Kamat [of kamat.com] actually paid USD 15 to attend 'Smart Reader' - one hour program on how to read newspaper He has justification too..

Newspapers in America are the classic case of "information overload". They are so thick, with so many pages, and so many advertisements. It is so hard to find the information you need, and so hard to distinguish important stuff from trivial stuff. So, I had to do what I did -- pay someone to teach me how to survive the information overload

Ignorance is bliss

Am currently reading Katradhum Petradhum - a series of articles written by Sujatha in AnandhaVikatan. Somewhere along the book, Sujatha traces the quote 'Ignorance is Bliss'

The quote is attributed to English Poet - Thomas Gray

The quote is seen towards the end of the poem - "Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College"

To each his suff'rings: all are men,
Condemn'd alike to groan,
The tender for another's pain;
Th' unfeeling for his own.
Yet ah! why should they know their fate?
Since sorrow never comes too late,
And happiness too swiftly flies.
Thought would destroy their paradise.
No more; where ignorance is bliss,
'Tis folly to be wise.

This gloomy poem speaks abt a group of students who are playing in the college grounds..ignorant of the fact that sorrow is going to come soon & their happiness is going to pass away swiftly..till then they can be blissfully happy..

Another good thing abt Katradhum Petradhum is most of the articles are interesting & I'm playing 'book cricket' with it - savoring any article that comes along while randomly opening the book ;-))

FedEx or Ex-FedEx

This Wimbledon would be special for Roger Federer. He has to re-ascertain his supremacy especially after the French Open debacle. Nadal is in excellent form following his recent Grass court victory..

Interesting times ahead, I'm looking forward to yet another Federer Vs. Nadal clash..but Novak Djokovic could spoil the party......Wimbledon kicks open this Monday.

New Jain Sites, rock art - Gingee, Tamilnadu

Over the last three months, two rock art sites, two caverns with Jaina beds, and dolmens have been discovered within a radius of 25 km on the hillocks behind the Gingee fort in Tamil Nadu’s Villupuram district.

The rock art consists of a painting of a deer done in white kaolin with outlines in red ochre.

“This is really rare,” Mr. Gandhirajan, an explorer who specializes in art history said. While this figure of a deer is about 3 feet by 3 feet in size, there are tiny drawings of deer and lizard (udu mbu in Tamil) on the adjacent rock surface, as if to contra-distinguish their size. He estimated that the paintings might belong to circa 1000 B.C. “These paintings were done by pre-historic men — by hunter-gatherers who used to live in this cavern. Much later, the Jain monks occupied them

More in this Hindu report.

Endaro Mahanu Bhavulu

Endaro Mahanu Bhavulu [YouTube] rendered with gusto by the musical stalwart M.S. Subbulakshmi has almost become my staple morning dosage of energy booster. Even for a carnatic music novice, this Thyagaraja Pancharatna Kriti has a strong appeal. Pure Eternal Bliss!

Commendable Effort

For 120 days, they travelled through some of the more remote regions of Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand, carrying around 600 kg of equipment.

S. Krishnaswamy of Krishnaswamy Associates and his wife (and producer) Mohana Krishnaswamy have made‘Indian Imprints’, a nine-hour documentary that traces the impact of ancient Indian culture and civilisation on South East Asia, historically.

“We’re not talking about the Mariamman temples built 150 years ago by Chettiars who settled there,” says Krishnaswamy, who has won four National Awards for his short non-fiction films “The temples and monuments we’ve covered go back all the way to an unspecified pre-Christian era, with authentic documentation from the first century A.D. onwards. The monuments offer a fascinating study in cross-cultural pollination such as the Pandava Chandis, temples for the Pandavas and Draupadi dating back to the 8th century in Java, Angkor Wat, the massive 11th century Vishnu temple in Cambodia, or sculptures dedicated to Karaikal Ammaiyar, a 9th century saint from Tamil Nadu scattered all over the region.

More interesting info at The Hindu - Metro Plus