college coaches

There is often a tussle in colleges and universities between sports coaches and the teaching staff.
Students who play some sport/game for the college, try to miss lab sessions and lectures saying they have to practice their game. Which is fine within limits, but when they do not do even a quarter of the lab sessions, have 35% attendance in class and they still insist they must be allowed to write their practical exam, it gets to be too much. The coach adds his two bits worth saying they are his star goalkeeper or bowler or whatever. We get a lot of pressure from the coach about this.
Now I say, that I have this boy who is a chemistry wiz, aces his tests and does his lab sessions with thoroughness and exactitude. This boy likes football, would like to play for the college, but cannot kick the ball to save his life. So I say that  the coach must make him the quarterback in the college football team because he is good at Chemistry.....would the coach agree?
There was this udent in my class many years back who was a National level Kho-Kho player and a fencing champ, again at national level. She used to make it a point to attend all classes except when at training camps and would try and catch up with whatever she missed.....and she did this seemingly effortlessly.......now that is a person I really admired! 

Quiet time

Between the ages of 12-17, I lived in a quiet hill town. The school was on top of a huge hill maybe 1500 ft above the town and my house halfway up the opposite hill.  Every morning I would rush down one hill and up another... It would take me about 40 minutes of vigorous walking. I enjoyed my school life. Back home in the evening, I would stand in my garden watching the sun set and the twilight give way to the stars...just idling. I enjoyed the evenings even more...no friends, just me and the sky and the hills. I think that's when I grew up and became me. Nowadays, children don't get any time to find themselves. No time for themselves, no time to just go and play with friends, not time to just be. Someone else says it better.

Beautiful campus

I visited BITS Pilani - Hyd yesterday. They have a beautiful campus. The architect has made use of that beautiful feature of this region-- the rocks-- while landscaping. The rocks here are like works of art, sculpted and polished and some apparently teetering on their toes.

I dislike dirty jokes. There is a stage in most boys-- when they are 10 years or so, when jokes like Maruti with a leak being Maruti Soosooki are extremely funny...they roll with laughter. I find dirty jokes just like that- only the people are not 10 years old and hence I find them more obnoxious. The AIB knockout was obnoxious-- I found the jokes not funny at all, only cringe-worthy.
So I discovered this thing.... a cross on the top right corner-I clicked it and Lo! behold the video went off and I was no more subjected to the horrible jokes.
I would like to share this discovery with all those who want it banned...People, just click on the cross on the top right....you will be offended no more. 

Every year, around this time of the year, a sunbird (I think) tries to build its nest on my clothes line. I try to discourage it hoping it will find a more suitable place, but I am often unsuccessful. many times, it has built its nest hanging on one wire. The nest is a marvel with a basket woven from twigs and leaves hung from the wire with a strong anchor. However, since it is hung by one woven loop, it swings whenever the wire moves and usually the amplitude of the swing is large and the eggs fall out. It saddens me when that happens which is why I discourage it from building its nest.
This year,  the sunbird has shown amazing intelligence. It has realised the problem and found a solution!
This year it has built its nest with two anchors on two parallel clothes lines! The nest does not swing if I am careful and so far so good...there seems to be an egg or maybe a hatchling inside. I don't dare to look too close in case it abandons the nest.

Science fair

I am planning a science fair again this year at the village school I volunteer at. I was very happy with last year's effort. The Youtube and Arvind Gupta's toys from trash are a god send for me, and I am planning to make full use of it this year.
I am getting a little over ambitious perhaps, but I am hoping one of the boys will be able to make a tiny wind turbine.
Unfortunately, I do very little Chemistry since the logistics are more difficult for Chem experiments and they need to be done repeatedly for each of the many visitors.
Today I went to buy some LED lights for the projects. The shop owner asked what it was for, and when I explained, he gave the LEDs free. Nice to meet good people.

Tamilisai

My mother learnt Carnatic music for a very short period when she was a girl, and was very good. She could have been a musician of renown, but due to various reasons, had to give up learning and did not achieve what she could have. However, in the later part of her life, she did sing on AIR programs and a few concerts in Madras. She also learnt Devaram and Prabandham.
In the past few years, my phone conversations with my mother would sometimes turn to music and she would tell me about Tamil music and how she thinks it is a neglected genre. She was quite knowledgeable about Devaram and Divyaprabandham. So I had suggested she write a blog, and had started one for her. She writes regularly and it has grown quite a lot in the last two years. For those who are interested in music and read Tamil, it is
http://lv-tamilisai.blogspot.in/search?updated-min=2014-01-01T00:00:00-08:00&updated-max=2015-01-01T00:00:00-08:00&max-results=49