A BYTE OF LIFE Friday, August 29, 2008

12 05
NAMMA T-SHIRT Tishani Doshi
What do you want on Chennai’s Makes debut as novelist
t-shirt?

FREE CIRCULATION Vol. 2 No. 169

A LEGACY LIKE NO OTHER » PAGE 04

PHOTO: S.S. KUMAR

02 ERGO Friday, August 29, 2008

Once upon a time

Namma Chennai
The World Storytelling Institute is offering a one-day
workshop in ‘Introduction to Storytelling’. The session
will be held on August 31 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at
18, Radhakrishan Salai, 9th Street, Opp. Chennai City
Centre, Mylapore. For details, call 98403 94282.

Chennai’s
Captain Planet
Bunk up at
City girl selected to visit the Arctic
for campaign on global warming Dee Cee Manor
Bunker Bar is the latest club in town to watch out for
S
hruti K. Neelakantan, a Class
XII student of Sri Sankara Se-
nior Secondary School, is
thrilled to bits. While her class-
mates will be burning the midnight
oil to prepare for the Quarterly exam-
inations, she makes an escape to the
Earth’s coldest region. Tomorrow
she packs her bag to go on a voyage
to the Arctic. “My first overseas trip
which I have earned myself,” she ex-
claims with joy.
Shruti is amongst the 28 other students from
across the world, one of the two chosen from
India, to be selected for the Cape Farewell
Youth Expedition 2008. Selected by the British Bunker Bar
Council in collaboration with Cape Farewell in is an underground
Britain, she will be accompanied by student
representatives from Canada, Brazil, Ireland, watering hole for
Mexico and the UK. The 22-day trip (Septem- those who like
ber 1 to 22) will also require her to travel two theirspace, especially
weeks on a ship.
“I will get to see ice caps melting. The whole 1,700 sq ft of it
thought about the Arctic is so thrilling,” says
the chocoholic who loves music and cooking.
A nine-minute video on global warming,
where she could take help from four friends, Bunker Bar and its unique dancefloor. PHOTOS: R.RAVINDRAN
earned the winning points for Shruti. “We took
the idea from Captain Planet, with each of us cover alone can support 40 peo- even the recommended food on
talking on the five elements of the earth,” says ple at a time and it is quite safe.” the menu was piquant, starting
the Indian Climate Campaigner whose most And the second attraction – the with the Iyer podi garlic idly, and
recent campaign was for ‘8888’. alcoholic herbal drinks which the salsa sauce that was served
Though she will be bringing home lessons on Viswam claims will leave you with the vegetable bunker roll.
global warming, for now Shruti is looking for- with no hangover. I had an Arrow For most of it, I was drinking my
ward to an encounter with the polar bear. ■ Missile, a mojito which contained Arrow Missile the snuff the
Ergo Correspondent

T
hank goodness for more
clubs. Recently, at least in
the last three months, three
new clubs have mush-
roomed in the city – Vertigo (Dec-
can Plaza), OPM (Accord
Metropolitan) and the more re-
cent Bunker Bar at Dee Cee Ma-
nor located in G.N. Chetty Road,
T.Nagar.
Bunker Bar is an un-
derground watering
hole for those who
like their space,
especially 1,700
sq ft of it. There
are two attrac-
tions to this
place, one being
the dancefloor
which is merely a
four inch elevation from
the ground. However, it does
have a see-through glass under
which several alcohol bottles are
laid out on a satin red sheet. P.
Viswam, assistant food and bev-
erage manager is quite excited
about this and says, “This glass
white rum, 7up, sugar, cumin
seeds, mint, chilly powder and a
lime wedge. While the drink was
refreshing as promised, it was al-
so slightly spicy. And the Telugu
significance does not end there –
My drink, Arrow Missile. Look
closely and you will find
masala powder sprinkled
smoke.
The décor of Bunker Bar is tas-
tefully minimalist. Each drinking
booth has high-backed wall sofas
with hypnotic swirl designs on
cushions, cordoned off from oth-
er tables with similar designed
curtains which leave a neutral,
clean environment that anyone
will enjoy. Plus, the space is the
biggest advantage to Bunker Bar.
Even if there isn’t enough place
to sit, rest assured that this will be
a great place to bring a birthday
in.
A whisper to the women
In case you were unhappy
about the once-a-week sloshers’
fest at 10 Downing Street or at
OPM on Wednesday nights, La-
dies’ Nights opened this Thurs-
day to the public at Bunker Bar
where free drinks (Indian liqueur
only) are available between 8 and
10 pm. Stags will have to cough
up Rs. 750 as cover charge. For
more information, call 28158833/
28158899.

Chalk your weekend
A quick reminder of events and happenings
My favourite teacher
Teacher’s Day is round the corner and
The Accord Metropolitan has an essay
contest for students from Classes IX to
XII. Topic for the contest is: “The teach-
er you admire the most”, and should be
emailed to hotel@theaccordmetropoli-
tan.com with name, school, age, class
and mailing address of the participant.
Essays should not be exceed 250 words
and must reach by September 3. The
winning entry gets to stay one night at
The Accord Metropolitan with his/her
family of four and the teacher will be
awarded a gift coupon. For details, call
2816 1000.
Ode to the Bard
A reading from William Shakespeare’s
‘Othello’ will be conducted at Anoki,
Chamiers, Chamiers Road at 7 p.m.
Aradhana Natabyal, Malathi Muralik-
rishna, Vasudev Menon, Suresh Koul,
Arjun Vasudev and Ajit
Chitturi will be part of the readings.
For details, call 98401 27103/ 4285
8848
Run Chennai Run
Remember to put a reminded on your
alarm this Sunday. The Marg Chennai
Marathon starts from 6 a.m. at War Me-
morial near Island Grounds. The regis-
tration is still open, so log on to
www.givelife-chennaimarathon.com or
www.margchennaimarathon.com.
Chennai Marathon for Men and
Women
(18 years and above – 21.09 kms)
assembling time 6.00 a.m.
The City Run (7 kms) assembling time
Friday, August 29, 2008
03
AND LET THE GAMES BEGIN
T he ETA Star Corporate
Olympiad kicks off Satur-
day with the bowling cham-
pionship at Du Bowl,
Egmore. Ergo is the media
partner for the sports event
that has over 35 companies
pitting their skills in around
60 disciplines over the next
two months.
7.30 am If your company tops an
Junior Run (for school children – 7 event, be sure to contact us
kms) assembling 8.00 a.m. via feedback@goergo.in. We
Masters Run (3 kms) assembling time will proactively cover the
8.30 a.m. event over the next 60 days,
Wheel-chair Run (300 mts) assem highlighting the success sto-
bling time 7.00 a.m. ries. Do remember to send
us the photos as well.
Chinese films
The Embassy of the People’s Republic
of China, New Delhi and the Indo Cine
Appreciation Foundation are organising
a Chinese Film Festival. It will feature six
Chinese films at South Indian Film
Chamber Theatre, 606, Anna Salai. 2 Be-
come 1 is a 97-minute movie directed by
Tin Sun Yut Dui, which will be screened
on September 3.
Other films to be screened include:
The Birthday (Sep 3; 7.45 p.m.), Beauti-
ful Homeland (Sep 4; 6.15 p.m.),
Call for Love (Sep 4; 8 p.m.), Full Moon
Over LiangZhou (Sep 5; 6.15 p.m.) and
Turpans Love Songs (Sep 5; 8 p.m.). ■
 04
Big Story
PHOTO: S.S.KUMAR
A legacy like no other
T
ucked in a corner of Myla-
pore is a family like no oth-
er, who attend the Sunday
mass at a nearby church and
make a living out of mirudhan-
gams.
Surprised? The legacy started at
Tanjore in the early twentieth
century and has been carried
down the generations and found
its way into modern Chennai in
1990s. Walk into Apparsaamy
Koil Street (a lane adjacent to
Saptaswara Musicals) in Myla-
pore and ask for Johnson’s Mi-
rudhangam Kadai, and you are
sure to be directed to a small
space below one of the houses. A
cluster of carved wood can be
found lying around.
Johnson, youngest of four
brothers, was the third person in
the family to set shop in Chennai.
ERGO Friday, August 29, 2008
effects like adding the skins and
the black centre. When people
Anusha Parthasarathy and Nandhini Ramkumar profile the get used to the skins we provide,
they keep coming back to us.”
‘mirudhangam factory’ of Namma Chennai, in the process
Price list
tracing a legacy that began a century ago The price of the mirudhangams
varies with size and ranges be-
The family’s first shop was Rich legacy The materials for making the tween Rs.3,000 for kids to
opened by his brother Guna in instruments are bought from Rs.8,000 for professionals. There
1991. The legacy of Johnson and his Tanjore. There are three kinds of are three grades of wood quality
Right now, the extended fam- brothers date back to over a cen- animal skins used: cow, goat and and usually for bhajans and the
ily, including his brothers and in- tury ago to the shores of the River buffalo skins. Apart from these, like, third quality wood is used
laws, own six shops in the Myla- Cauvery in Tanjore, where the the other important material and for concerts first quality is
pore area. roots of Carnatic music lay. Tra- used is the kittangal – a rice mix- preferred. “Our labour charges
Johnson says: “We were all ditionally, the family has become ture. This makes the black in the range anywhere from Rs. 250 to
trained by my dad and his broth- synonymous with manufacturing centre of the mirudhangam. Rs.600 for repair work. For mak-
er. Before setting up the shops, and repairing mirudhangams for They accept custom orders and ing the entire instrument, the
we used to work from home.” an exalted list of musicians, in- design mirudhangams according charge is fixed at Rs.1800,” says
Johnson has 25 years of experi- cluding T.K. Murthy, Umayalpu- to the singer’s voice or their pref- Johnson.
ence in the field even though he ram Sivaraman, Thiruchur erence. “Some people buy the ba- Apart from Mirudhangam, they
set up his shop only a few years Narendran, Neyveli Narayanan sic carved wood from Panrutti also do repair work for dholak
ago. and Erode Nagaraj to name a few. and bring it to us for the other and tabla. ■
 Friday, August 29, 2008
The poet-journalist-dancer on
Muttiah Muralitharan, her first
novel and the late Chandralekha
Book Review
“Why am I being urged to
uncover the meaning of life?
Is it my plight? Or is it the
curse of being a writer?”
writes G.B. Prabhat in the
translation of his father G.S.
Balakrishnan’s Tamil short
story, ‘One Stone’s Throw,
One Thousand Droplets’.
The short story is one of the
27 short stories that have
been compiled and
translated into English by
Prabhat called Intimate Moments and Other
Stories. It is always special to read a book
authored by a Tamil writer as their writing style
stands out distinctly from others. Take for
example, R.K. Narayanan, whose style can be
distinguished by a fan even if he just hears a
single sentence from one of his books.
‘Intimate Moments’, which is the first story in
the book, takes the reader to a whole new
level with subtle hints of irony and its well-
written portrayal of divorce. The story revolves
around a sudden coincidental meeting of two
people, who were once husband and wife.
Tishani’s tryst
VIPASHA SINHA
Tishani Doshi doesn’t quite
match the general perception of
an author. You are most likely to
mistake this 31-year-old writer,
poet, journalist and dancer for
an actor or model at first sight.
Born in Chennai to a Welsh
mother and an Indian father, she
had her education from Queens
College and Johns Hopkins Uni-
versity in the US.
Tishani was conferred the
Eric Gregory Award in 2001,
which is awarded to poets, and
her first collection, Countries
of the Body, won the 2006 For-
ward Poetry Prize for best first
collection. The opening poem,
‘The Day We Went to the Sea’,
which is based on the 2004
tsunami, won the 2005 British
Council supported All India
Poetry Competition.
Her most talked-about
work, however, is her contri-
bution to Muttiah Muralith-
aran’s biography.
Besides, she has also
trained in contemporary
dance under the late
Chandralekha.
Tishani on her career,
experiences and future
plans:
Cricket connection
I had met Muralitharan in
Sri Lanka and his enthu-
siasm impressed me. I then
realised that he hasn’t been
given a fair share in the media.
I wanted to know about racism
in cricket and he is one of the
few candidates. But Muralitha-
ran proves to be a loveable crick-
eter and a link between Ceylon
and the Tamils.
In the biography I have cov-
ered his childhood days and to
do the same I travelled to Sri
Lanka. I met his parents and
Book: Intimate Moments and Other Stories
Translation by G.B. Prabhat
Price: Rs. 195
There are other light reads with hints of
humour that make the readers think, like
‘Hanuman the Fourth’ and ‘The Night of My
Desire’. Then there are those that talk about
life’s realities like ‘Feet of Clay’ and ‘Violet’.
There are also stories that talk about peculiar
characters in society, like ‘Doting Diktats’, which
is about a man who was extremely conservative
and always did the ‘right’ things.
Not only have the stories been well-translated,
but the writer’s flavour in each of the stories is
left intact. The writing flows smoothly, allowing
the reader to relate to each of the 27 stories.
Some of the stories G.S. Balakrishnan writes are
on himself and his family, which is new and
quite surprising to read.
“Having a father who is a literary genius is both
a gift and a problem,” he says in the forword.
Intimate Moments and Other Stories is a must-
read for any one who wants to explore Indian
writing. ■
Anusha Parthasarathy
friends and also visited his
school and learnt that he was the
naughtiest of all siblings.
He had spent his childhood in
a boarding school with a brother
and his other two brothers stud-
ied in day school. When I asked
his mother why she chose to
send Murali to boarding school,
she said he was the naughtiest.
The biography will take some
time to come out. Muralitharan
wants it to be released after he
retires and I don’t see that hap-
pening any time soon as his ca-
reer is on a high.
The Pleasure Seekers
My first novel, The Pleasure
Seekers, should release in 2009 if
things go well. It is a love story
that involves three generations.
It is a story about two children in
the ‘60s who are in love and how
one of them travels to another
country for it. The story is very
loosely based on the life of my
parents. But it is fiction.
Tishani, the dancer
The five years that I spent
dancing became the most im-
portant days of my life. After a
casual meeting with Chandra-
lekha, she asked me to join her
and I did so. I was not a dancer
but I surrendered myself to her
and working with her gave me
immense satisfaction. Chandra-
lekha has always been a source
of inspiration and I can say that
dancing has made me a better
writer.
Future plans
Right now I am working on the
final edit of the novel. Apart
from this, my second collection
of poems is in the pipeline. I
would still like to discover myself
further and would love to do so-
mething other than writing. ■
05
Best seller’s list
Top Ten Fiction
Brida – Paulo Coelho.
Price Rs. 295
Sea of Poppies – Amitav
Ghosh. Rs. 599
A Prisoner of Birth – Jef-
frey Archer. Rs. 270
The 3 Mistakes of My Life
– Chetan Bhagat. Rs. 95
The Kite Runner – Khaled
Hosseini. Rs. 315
Shantaram – Gregory Ro-
berts. Rs. 475
Six Suspects – Vikas Swa-
rup. Rs. 495
A Thousand Splendid
Suns – Khaled Hosseini. Rs.
395
The Alchemist – Paulo
Coelho. Rs. 195
Unaccustomed Earth –
Jhumpa Lahiri. Rs. 450
Top Ten Non-
Fiction
The Secret – Rhonda
Byrne. Rs. 550
The Last Lecture – Randy
Pausch. Rs. 295
Mario de Miranda – Rs.
2,700
Cold Steel: The Multi Bil-
lion Dollar Battle for a Glob-
al Industry – Tim Bouquet &
Bryon Ousey – Rs. 650
Greatness Guide 2 – Robin
Sharma. Rs. 195
Lonely Planet India - Rs.
1095
7 Habits of highly Effective
People – Stephen Covey. Rs.
395
We are Like That Only –
Rama Bijapurkar. Rs. 495
Aids Sutra – Rs. 395
Blue Ocean Strategy – W.
Chan Kim. Rs. 1355
Courtesy: Crossword
06
Village
World’s
thinnest LCD
S
ony Corp said on Thursday
it would launch the world’s
thinnest liquid crystal dis-
play (LCD) TVs this year,
broadening its product line-up
ahead of the critical year-end
shopping season.
The new 40-inch model, which
is 9.9 mm thick, is estimated to
sell for 490,000 yen ($4,478) in Ja-
pan, Sony said.
The Japanese electronics and
entertainment conglomerate will
also offer the world’s first LCD
TVs that display 240 frames per
second, compared with 120
frames for Sony’s existing mod-
els.
More frames in a given time
make fast-moving images in
sports programmes and action
movies look seamless.
New Bravia 40-inch LCD televison (ZX1 series) which is 9.9
millimeters thick. AFP PHOTO
ERGO Friday, August 29, 2008
Mahogany
The only wood used by famed London
cabinetmaker Thomas Chippendale was
mahogany.
World’s highest sightseeing spot
The world’s highest sightseeing spot on the 100th floor
of China’s tallest skyscraper will be opened to the
public on Saturday. The observation deck is 474m
above the ground in the Shanghai World Financial
Centre. Those wishing to experience a bird’s-eye view
Sony, the world’s second-lar- of the city will have to pay 25 dollars each, reports the
gest LCD TV maker behind Sam- Daily Telegraph. The construction of the building
sung Electronics Co Ltd expects a finished earlier this year, but has not been opened to
46-inch model with the 240 frame the public as yet. It is the tallest building in China, and
function to sell for around has 101 floors for a total height of 492m. Besides the
400,000 yen. observation deck, the building also boasts a luxury
Both models will go on sale in hotel, shops, and 70 floors of office space. Until now,
Japan on November 10, closely the highest similar venue has been the Sky Pod of the
followed by overseas launches. CN Tower in Toronto at 447m high.
Sony said a slowing economy ANI
has had little effect on its LCD TV
sales, and that the maker of Bra-
via brand flat TVs is on track to
hit its target to sell 17 million LCD Flying is a headache, literally, for
TVs in the year to March 2009.
Sony shares were down 0.7 per- many travellers
cent at 4,140 yen, outperforming Headaches associated with air travel appear to be a
the Tokyo stock market’s electri- ‘huge and painful problem,’ Israeli researchers report.
cal machinery index IELEC. In a study of 906 men and women who had travelled
which fell 1.1 percent. ■ more than once by plane, nearly 6 percent reported
that they experienced headaches associated with
Reuters flying. Based on 3.3 billion seats available each year on
commercial flights, with 70 percent occupancy, Dr.
Israel Potasman and colleagues from Bnai Zion Medical
Center in Haifa estimate that more than 100 million
people suffer from flight-associated headaches
annually. “This finding has enormous impact both in
terms of suffering and economics,” they write in the
medical journal Cephalalgia.
Reuters
BBC forced to make musicians
keep volume down
The BBC has been forced to make musicians keep the
volume down to comply with an EU safety directive to
ensure performers are not exposed to excessive levels of
noise. EU noise control officers have been monitoring
rehearsals to ensure orchestras keep below 140
decibels. They are demanding that performers ease off
on extra-loud crescendos during the Proms concerts
series to protect their hearing. Proms is short for
promenade concerts, a term which arose from the
original practice of audience members promenading, or
strolling, in some areas of the concert hall during the
recital.
PTI
1,000 pounds for Charles
and Diana wedding cake
A 27-year-old piece of wedding cake from the
marriage of the Prince of Wales Charles and
Diana, Princess of Wales has fetched 1,000
pounds at an auction. The cake piece was
originally given to Moyra Smith, a member of
the late Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother’s
household at Clarence House, who preserved
the topping in cling film and kept it in a
metal tin. The nine-inch square piece of icing
and marzipan, bought by an anonymous
buyer, has the royal coat-of-arms and is
coloured in gold, silver, red and blue.
ANI
 Friday, August 29, 2008

Websites of the day

07
Hyperactive child rocks out singing school
This day, that year
nursery rhyme http://www.i-am-bored.com/ It was in August 29, 1966 that The
bored_link.cfm?link_id=23636 Beatles, one of the most popular Rock
Want to spruce up your garden gnomes with and Roll bands of all time, made their
a morbid twist then this is the site for you last scheduled public performance
http://www.bifrost.com.au/hosting/gnomes/ before the group disbanded in 1970.

Tango in red
Recycle and reuse
are the keywords
The latest ads from many outdoor wear companies boast
that products such as garments, shoes and accessories are
made exclusively or partly from reusable materials

쒀 The Brazilian couple of Nilza and Pablito dances

during the first day of the qualifying round of the
Stage Tango competition at the 6th edition of the
Tango World Championship in Buenos Aires on
Wednesday. AFP PHOTO

Learn thru radio

T
S
housands of primary schools Government schoolteachers hoe soles made of old outdoor equipment and is at- switching to recyclable prod-
are being provided educa- today impart lessons to the pri- tyres, breathable jackets tuned to the latest trends. ucts.
tion through radio in Punjab, mary schoolchildren through which used to be plastic Among those at the forefront
as part of the Sarva Sikhsa Ab- All India Radio as an attempt to bottles and T-shirts de- Breathable jackets is the Patagonia company in the
hiyan (education for all) by the improve the quality of educa- rived from old rags. The first tests with recycled United States.
Punjab government. tion provided at the State-run The world of outdoor and fleece occurred in the 1990s, “In their jackets they are us-
To make the initiative suc- schools. sporting fashion has discovered “but the material turned out to ing a recycled polyester mem-
cessful, radio sets have been At 12-noon everyday, stu- that recycled products are not be too hard and customers brane which can itself be
provided to 13,000 primary dents at primary schools in only kinder to the planet - they didn’t accept it. Things have got recycled,” said the expert.
schools in the State. Punjab have a guest-a Radio set sell well too. moving again because the tech- Other familiar names are key-
The objective is to make edu- Students tune in to the half-an- The latest advertising blurbs nology is there and modern ing into the trend as well. Shoe
cation accessible to those chil- hour programme relayed from from many outdoor wear com- consumers are more aware of company Timberland has a
dren who cannot the Jalandhar station of panies boast that products such environmental issues. It was product line with soles made
attend a regular the All India Radio. as garments, shoes and acces- about time that the producers partly from recycled rubber.
school.
As part of Schoolteachers from sories are made exclusively or of man-made fibres and their The uppers, cushions and
Launched on Au- Sarvs Siksha different districts are se- partly from reusable materials. customers woke up to what is soles of a new range of inline
gust 7, “Learning Abhiyan, lected to undergo a happening,” said Kristin skates for 2009 from K2 are set
Through Radio” pro- primary training programme Recycling and sustainability Grosse-Boelting who heads a to be made from fully-recycla-
gramme of the Sarva under the Sarva Shiksha Recycling and sustainability research centre on garment ble material and T- shirt-maker
Shiksha Abhiyan is school Abhiyan. were also among the key technology and economics at Anvil in the US has a model
meant for students of children in “Learning through themes at a recent outdoor the University of Muenster. which utilises scrap materials.
the government pri- Punjab are Radio,” will add another clothing trade show in the The recycled material ends Shoe firm Keen makes bags
mary school. It in- positive dimension to southern German town of Frie- up as fabric or as the mem- and rucksacks with inner lin-
cludes general given improve the standard of drichshafen. branes used in waterproof or ings made from recycled poly-
knowledge, languag- education primary education in “Nowadays there is hardly breathable jackets. ester using reinforcement
es, and regular curri- through radio Punjab. ■ anything that hasn’t been recy- According to Beppler, it is material recovered from scrap
culum. ANI cled,” said Ralf-Stefan Beppler, mainly the smaller firms who shoe rubber. ■
a journalist who writes about are taking the initiative and DPA
08 ERGO Friday, August 29, 2008

Virus at ISS

Technorama
NASA confirmed on Wednesday that a
’worm type’ computer virus sneaked aboard
the International Space Station only to be
tossed into quarantine on July 25 by security
software.

T3 Select: the Ai-eee!

juiciest Acer slays the EEE PC with its own mini-laptop
Standing next to the Eee in the UMPC toilet and giving it stage fright is
technology Acer’s Aspire One. It’s available with a whopping 80GB hard drive, yet has a
case barely bigger than its 8.9inch screen - that’s like cramming a piano in
snippets from to a sock. An 8GB solid state drive version is also available should you want
to keep the cost, and risk of it breaking when dropped, down. It can run
T3 Magazine Linux or Windows XP, weighs less than a kilo and has a pretty decent
battery life of 6-hour. It’s out now in blue and white, and will soon be
of Infomedia available in, ahem, pink or brown. Nice.
Rs 17,000*, www.acer.com

iPhone 3gesus!
Apple’s phone is cheaper, faster, finer
This is what you’ve been waiting for. The iPhone’ price has
been slashed, it’s 3G-equipped for faster downloads and,
most crucially, a bit thinner around the bezel. The iPhone 3G
- or 3Gesus Phone, as we’ve been calling it - switches be-
tween EDGE and 3G to get the swiftest connection, with
speeds of about 1.8Mbps possible over the network of Ap-
ple’s chosen phone chum, O2. It also has built-in GPS, for
potential satnav-type japes and, courtesy of Loopt, the stalk-
er-friendly ability to detect if any of your contacts are nearby.
Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync handles push email, so you
need never again miss the chance to enlarge your “man-
hood”. Oh, and the back is now made of plastic and comes in
a choice of black or white. How retro.
Pricing varies, www.apple.com

Moving on
Sing along while you are at it
Creative is trying to woo the masses with its
MP3 player MuVo T200. Embedded with a
new ready thumb drive technology to down-
load the files easily and wirelessly, the por-
table player has high file storage capacity
with loud music that can be heard without
earphones. Say what?
Rs 3,399, 2GB; Rs 4,999, 4GB, in.creative.com

IE 8.0 unveiled, to web pages significantly faster

than its predecessor, IE7, and
that it matched Firefox for

contest FF 3.0 speed.

Microsoft is anxious to boost
use of its browsers, which have

M
icrosoft has unveiled a
trial version of a new In-
ternet Explorer de-
signed to fight the
growing challenge from Firefox.
But the new browser from the
giant software company won’t
have it easy.
Developers for the open-
sourced Firefox released a trial
version of a new application for
the Internet, Ubiquity, which
makes it easier to access and
share information that com-
bines intuitive commands with
browser functionality. Micro-
soft’s new Internet Explorer
showed off improved privacy
and security features that give
users greater control over their
browsing history, “cookies” and
other data. The browser boasts
“InPrivateBrowsing,” which al-
lows users to surf the visit being
logged in the browser history,
and “InPrivateBlocking” that
prevents sites gathering infor-
mation about their visit.
It also includes a browsing
tool called an “accelerator,”
which allows users to highlight
text on a Web site and access a
variety of functions, including
different search engines, lan-
guage translation or map
displays.
Ubiquity offers a similar ser-
vice but with a much wider
range of commands. Initial re-
views found that IE8 also loaded
73 per cent of the browser mar-
ket compared to Firefox’s 19 per
cent share.
Prior to the launch of Firefox
four years ago, Internet Explorer
had over 90 per cent of the mar-
ket, and Microsoft’s fading pow-
er on the Internet is a chief
strategic concern.
Firefox made its biggest gain
in June when more than 8 mil-
lion people downloaded a new
version in the first 24 hours of
release. ■
DPA
 Friday, August 29, 2008

Porn mode
09
The latest version of Microsoft’s Internet browser
includes a piece of software that lets you surf the
Web without a trace of what you checked out.
The InPrivate feature on Internet Explorer 8,
dubbed "porn mode", allows users to conceal the
sites they have viewed at the click of a button.

Light up your drive

A watch loaded
with gadgetry
W hile the chunky Suunto X10
might not go well with a tux-
edo, James Bond would still love
it. The watch hides a Global Po-
sitioning System unit, stop-
watch, compass, barometer and
altimeter into a package not
much bigger than 007’s favou-
rite Omega.
Because the X10 can track
tween the tungsten electrodes GPS satellites, you can record
housed within the bulb. Gulp! and download your last run or
Let us not get geeky here. The hike to Google Earth or other
interesting part of the HID is, it digital mapping programs. You
does not heat up as quickly as can also plan routes and set
the halogen bulb and it’s a lot waypoints for future trips on a
brighter than the halogen bulb PC using the included Track Ex-
and most importantly con- porter software.The X10 offers
than its predecessor, the X9i,
and charges via an included
USB cable. It also uses a newer
GPS chip that finds and locks
onto satellites faster than the
X9i.
If you become lost, a press of
the "Find Home" button will di-
rect you back along the same
route you came or even offer a
more direct route. The watch al-
so displays current speed and
distance travelled.
It should be available in Sep-
tember, sadly without the gar-
rotte or sleeping gas
attachments available from Q
branch.

N
oticed that bright white/
bluish headlight emitted
by some high end luxury
cars like the Skoda,
Porsche, Audi?
The headlights on these cars
are not the ordinary regular
type. These are lights emitted
by the High Intensity Discharge
bulbs also known as HID in
short and some of us might
know them as Xenons. Most our
cars have the Halogen bulbs in
the headlight assembly, which
are usually 55–65 watts, good
enough to give us a clear vision
of the road while driving in the
dark. But HID kits have revolu-
tionized the lighting technology
for cars and bikes, giving a
whole new experience and di-
mension of driving in the dark.
HID kits are very similar to
mercury vapour lamps used on
street lights. The bulb is filled
with gas and metal salts that
react with an electric charge be-
sumes less power.
The good old mercury vapour
lamps as most of us remember
takes a long time to light up to
its full potential, but the HID
have stood up to this problem
with the support of the ballast
box. This box is an electronic
device that has a group of high
current capacitors that help
jumpstart the HID instantly.
Some of my friends have in-
stalled HIDs on their SWIFT,
Lancer, Civic and Accord and
man! Does it look cool or what?
Some of my friends
have installed HIDs
on their SWIFT,
Lancer, Civic and
Accord and man!
Does it look cool or
what?
33 percent longer battery life NYT News Service
There is one important part
that we need to buy before run-
ning to your nearest car acces-
sory store to get the HID. The Recording a smile
HID kits are best if you replace
your headlight assembly with 쑸
the projector headlight kit as A model displays
shown in the picture. HID are Japanese camera
very bright and disperses light giant Nikon’s new
all over the place literally blind- digital single lens
ing oncoming traffic, hence it reflex (SLR)
needs to be focused using a camera "D90",
projector kit. You can still in- equipped with a
stall the HID on your regular 12.3 mega-pixel
headlight assembly as well but CMOS sensor,
you will find it difficult to focus enabling to shoot
the lights and also end up being video recording,
mobbed by other drivers for the world’s first
blinding them. So please get the function for
projectors before you install the digital SLR camera
HID and enjoy High Definition at a Tokyo hotel.
night driving. ■ Nikon will put it
on the market on
Ping your feedback to Vikram September 19. AFP
at roadster@goergo.in
10
BackPackers
Helping hand
T
ibetan antelope popularly
known as Chiru, blue sheep,
wild Yak and many other rare
and threatened species in the
high-altitude Himalayan region
have greater hope of survival with
wildlife experts and armed forces
joining hands for their conserva-
tion. A research project has been
initiated by Wildlife Institute of In-
dia (WII) in collaboration with for-
est department of Jammu and
Kashmir, ITBP and Army in Chang-
thang Wildlife Sanctuary’s Chang-
chenmo valley in Ladakh to identify
threats and management issues for
the survival of these animals.
The idea is also to study the hab-
itat characteristics and seasonal
movement patterns of these ungu-
lates which are on the verge of ex-
tinction due to massive destruction
of their habitat and hunting by
poachers. For instance, wild Yak
presently exists only in the Chang-
chenmo valley in Ladakh in the en-
tire Himalayas and are rarely
sighted says K Sankar, senior scien-
tist at the Dehradun-based WII who
along with his colleague GS Rawat
has undertaken the four-year-study.
In other areas in Himalayas, the
bulky animals that weigh about
1,000 kg and have long black hair
with curved horns on their head are
domesticated and their breed is not
pure. “The wild gene of yak is thus
very important for future genetic
studies for diseases resistance etc.
The study aims to evolve a long-
term population and habitat mon-
itoring protocol for Yak as other fau-
na in the region,” says Sankar. Since
army and paramilitary forces per-
ERGO Friday, August 29, 2008
Hello Backpackers,
Send us pictures of your team or family
outing with a small write-up on the
place, mentioning why the trip was
special, how you got there or any
travel experience for that matter.
Email: snapshot@goergo.in
On a nature trail
MURUGAKUMAR
O n a recent visit to Ernakulam, I
was lucky enough to spend
some time at Ezhattumugham
started to gain in popularity
amongst the locals and the civic
body has built a small park with
(35 km form Cochin) one of the rest rooms and charge you a
few places in Kerala which is still nominal sum for all the facilities.
tucked away from the eyes of the Unlike other tourist spots, Ez-
marauding tourists. We took a car hattumugham is still free from
from Cochin and drove along ugly constructions and shops and
NH47 before taking one of the hotels are yet to spring up at ev-
many side roads at Karayam Pa- ery corner, giving the place a rare
rambu near Angamaly before re- sense of calm. But one wonder
aching our destination after how long it will stay like that.
several detours. Road signs are a The Chalakudy River flows lazi-
scarcity and very few know about ly through the area before form-
the place and we would have ing a waterfall at Athirampalli,
been lost if not for a few helpful eight km from Ezhattumugham.
local residents. It can be a perfect place for a fam-
Ezhattumugham is located in ily outing, where you can simply
the mouth of seven streams and pass a day playing or just relaxing
the place provides you with a in Chalakudy’s cool pristine wa-
sense of privacy and abundant ters. ■
natural beauty. It has slowly (The writer works as a Manager
with Financial Software & Systems)
Where is it?
Ezhattumugham is 35 km away from Cochin and is a part of the
Vettilapparai Estate owned by the Kerala Government.
How to go?
The best way to reach the place is to take a car from Cochin. There
are bus services available from Angamaly and Chalakudy via Mook-
kannur, but they are infrequent.
Places to see?
Athriapalli Falls and Vazhachal Falls
Online booking:
http://www.naturenest.com/naturePackage_4.htm
sonnel are always on patrol in in-
accessible mountain terrain where
temperature plummets to as low as Army comes in to conserve rare
minus 40C during winter, they can
do the job better then any wildlife wild animals
expert, explains Sankar. ■
PTI
Tibetan antelope (Endangered
species)
Scientific name: Pantholops
hodgsonii
Height: 1.2 metres (4 feet)
The coat is grey to reddish-
brown, with a white underside.
The males have long, curved-
back horns which measure
about 50 cm (20 inches) in
length. There are less than
75000 individuals left in wild,
down from a million 50 years
ago. PHOTO: AFP
 Friday, August 29, 2008
Longest journey
The Himsagar Express, between Kanyakumari and Jammu
Tawai, has the longest run in terms of distance and time
on Indian Railways network. It covers 3,745 km (2,327
miles) in about 74 hours and 55 minutes.
Chugging
ALONG
ERGO CORRESPONDENT
S
ince its introduction in 1853 Indian
Railways has become the easiest
and the most widely used travel
medium in the country. Covering
the length and breadth of the country;
Indian Railways covers a total length of
more than 63,327km making it one of
the most extensive railway networks in
the world. Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh
and Meghalaya are the only states in
the country apart from the two islands
of Andaman & Nicobar and Lakshad-
weep that are not connected by the
Railways.
India altogether has 6,853 Railway
stations and Ib station in Orissa has the
shortest name while Sri Venkatanara-
simharajuvaripeta in Tamil Nadu has
the longest name. Apart from the nor-
mal freight, passenger and suburban
trains, Indian Railways also has a few
modern day luxury trains like the Pal-
ace on Wheels and Golden Chariot. But
a host of toy trains specially built for
mountainous terrains give Indian Rail-
ways its most unique feature. We take
a look into the various toy trains that
run in the country. ■
The Kangra
Valley Railway
The Kangra valley railway is one of the
most fascinating railway networks in India.
A train that travels through the breathtaking
valleys of the Himalayan region, the Kangra
Valley railway is truly unmatchable. The
unique line of Kangra Valley Railway has
just two tunnels, one of which is only 250
feet and the other 1,000 feet in length.
11
Kalka-Shimla
Railway
Kalka-Shimla runs on one of the most
fascinating landscapes and runs on a nar-
row gauge only 0.762 m wide. It covers a
96 km stretch between Kalka and Shimla
and passes through breathtaking land-
scapes of the majestic Himalayas, tun-
nels, bridges and lush green valleys
embroidered with pine and oak trees.
The Darjeeling
Railway
The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway is
one of the most fascinating and superb
engineering feats of the world. The Dar-
jeeling toy train runs 83 km between Sili-
guri and Darjeeling and takes about eight
hours to complete the journey. It runs on
a narrow gauge, only 0.6096 m wide but
the journey offers an exhilarating experi-
ence, travelling through innumerable
loops and tunnels. It’s a UNESCO World
Heritage Site.
Nilgiri Mountain
Railway
Running since 1899 Nilgiri Mountain
Railway’s has one of the steepest railway
tracks in Asia. The main feature of the
Nilgiri mountain railway is its unique rack
system and the equally unique and com-
plicated locomotives. It covers a total dis-
tance of 46 km between Mettupalayam
and Ooty and is also a World Heritage
Site.
Matheran Light
Railway
The Matheran light railway has an in-
teresting history. Abdul Hussain, son of
business tycoon, Sir Adamjee Peerbhoy,
started the construction of Matheran rail-
way. The construction of Matheran light
railway started in 1904 and the two feet
gauge line finally opened to traffic in 1907.
The “One Kiss Tunnel” is the most notable
point in its journey when the train passes
through a tunnel which gives couples only
enough time to steal “one single” kiss.
12
Portfolio
Kapaleeswarar Temple, Filter Coffee, C
W
hen it comes to flaunt-
ing one’s love for one’s
What should namma Chennai’s city on a t-shirt, ‘I Love
New York’ is probably
t-shirt flaunt? the most successful logo around
the world, spawning copycats
like ‘I Love London’ and more.
The ‘I Love New York’ t-shirts
(with a capital ‘I’ followed by a
red heart and ‘NY’ in American
Typewriter font) are souvenirs
any tourist to the Big Apple
wouldn’t come back without.
Milton Glaser was the man who
designed the logo for an adver-
tisement campaign.
In India ‘I am a Mumbaikar’ is
high on recall value when it
comes to Mumbai’s t-shirt. Simi-
larly, ‘Bangalore My World’
(with a majestic Vidhan Soudha’s
picture on it) and ‘I’d Rather Be
In Bangalore’ are quite popular.
Kapi and kolam
What should namma Chen-
nai’s t-shirt capture – the bustle
of Chennai Central, the colour of
Mylapore’s Kapaleeswarar tem-
ple, the legendary filter coffee
or Chennai’s music scene where
both Rock and Margazhi find pa-
tronage?
ERGO Friday, August 29, 2008
Recently, Chennai celebrated
Madras Week with a host of
events and contests. Among the
latter is a t-shirt design contest
that is held every year. Accord-
ing to organiser Vincent D’Sou-
za, “We invite the winner to
better the design that he/she has
entered for the contest or even
come up with a totally new de-
sign for next year. We are not
professional designers but we do
give in our inputs to the design-
er. At the end of it, about 100-
200 t-shirts are printed for next
year’s Madras Week and circulat-
ed.” Architecture student Apar-
na won the contest this year.
Previous designs include the ko-
lam and kapi t-shirts with ‘Nam-
ma Chennai’ inscribed on them.
Says designer Sidney Sladen:
“The trick is to get something
that one can easily remember. I
guess that’s why ‘I love New
York’ is so popular. ‘Chennai
Rocks’ is one t-shirt slogan I can
recollect and that would be my
pick for a Chennai t-shirt.”
Make your own
Getting your own customised
Chennai t-shirt is easy as all you
need is a soft copy of what you
want printed on it. There are
stores that cater to both bulk
and individual orders. Imran
Khan of Cuir Galerie and Falcon
in Spencer Plaza says, “A five-
star hotel recently placed an or-
der for 200 Chennai t-shirts to
gift to visiting dignitaries.
We’ve been asked to do a col-
lage of prominent Chennai land-
marks, like Central Station, the
Kapaleeswarar temple and St.
Thomas Mount.” On whether
there have been many individual
orders for Chennai-themed t-
shirts so far, “No” comes the re-
ply. Chennai-based DilSeBol.com
is a site where you can get your
t-shirt customised.
T-shirt makers Myntra Designs
sent us their instant designs for
Chennai t-shirts. One design
goes ‘Film City Namma Chennai’.
Ode to Rajini and Kamal Land. ■
If you have an idea for Chennai’s
own t-shirt, just send it to us at
feedback@goergo.in.
You can either send us a JPEG
version of your own logo or design
or just a description. The best ones
shall be published in these columns
next week.
 Friday, August 29, 2008
13

Central Station or Kolam PRICETAG

쒀 (From left) The

famous ’I Love
New York’ t-shirt,
a Bangalore t-
shirt and a jiffy
design sent by
Myntra

Nike brings to you the Sport Exotic Premium

Tote.
Styled in synthetic leather or faux suede, the
tote comes with a zippered main
compartment with easy access to contents.
Along with an exterior front zip pocket
there’s also an interior pocket for personal
items.
Price: Rs. 2,700
ColorPlus Woman presents the ‘La Dolce Vita’
collection, inspired by the works of Vincent
Van Gogh.
Elegant and low-key, the clothes combine the
modern with an old world charm. Jewel
tones and subtle embellishments characterise
the line, along with delicate tie-ups, pin-tuck
detailing and contrast trimming. The range
includes ultra-feminine skirts, dresses and
tops in shades like burnt oranges, wine
tones, royal purples, emerald greens and
blacks. For more information visit:
www.cpwoman.com.
Price: Rs. 2,000 onwards
14 ERGO Friday, August 29, 2008

Cucumber

Wellness
Anyone allergic to pollen or
aspirin should avoid eating
cucumbers. They can cause an
upleasant mouth itch.

Time to play
“God has done everything he can do for you. He created a fantastic world for you that you would never
imagine. He has put his own being into you in so many ways. And now, it is your time to play the game.”

SADHGURU JAGGI VASUDEV ‘O god! – Give me money, give me do for you. He created a fantastic business, why do you start the
that.’ God will not do anything world for you that you would nev- business? If you are such a fool,

G
od will not lift a little finger
for you, please know, be-
cause whatever he has to
do, he has done it. His work
is not pending. He has done a
fantastic job over the creation,
isn’t it? He has done a fantastic
job. There is nothing to com-
plain. He has put himself into
you; beyond that he cannot do
anything. Now you go on asking,
because his job is finished now it
is your job.
Let us say, you are in the foot-
ball team for India for the next
world cup and you are with the
coach. He puts everything into
you; everything he knows about
football, he puts them into you.
So many years of intense training
happens and everything that you
need to know about football you
came to know. Now the time to
play the match has come and you
are in the football field. When the
ball comes to you, if you look at
the coach, what to do!
That’s what you are doing now.
God has done everything he can
er imagine. He has put his own
being into you in so many ways.
And now, it is your time to play
the game. But you look at God
and ask, ‘take care of my chil-
dren, take care of my business,
property, make me pass my ex-
amination.’ If you are such who
cannot pass an examination, why
join college or school. If you are
such an idiot, you cannot run a
you cannot bear your children,
why did you bear them? He has
given you the intelligence; he has
given you the body; he has given
you everything to run the stupid
things in life, isn’t it?
Everything that you need now
has been given. So, it is your turn
to play the game now. Match has
started, coach cannot interfere
now. ■

Agarbathis and
cancer risk
B urning incense sticks or agar-
bathis may create a sweet
scent, but regularly inhaling the
smoke could put people at risk of
cancers of the respiratory tract,
researchers have found out.
In a study of more than 61,000
ethnic Chinese living in Singa-
pore who were followed for up to
12 years, the investigators found
a link between heavy incense use
and various respiratory cancers.
A common practice
Incense has been used for mil-
lennia in many cultures’ religious
and spiritual ceremonies. In Asia,
people commonly burn incense
in their homes – a practice that is
becoming more popular in West-
ern countries as well. Incense is
usually derived from fragrant
plant materials, like tree bark,
resins, roots, flowers and essen-
tial oils. Past research has found
that burning these materials can
produce potentially cancer-caus-
ing substances, including ben-
zene and polyaromatic
hydrocarbons.
For their study, the researchers
followed 61,320 Singapore Chi-
Burning agarbathis can
produce carcinogens
like benzene and
polyaromatic
hydrocarbons, says a
new study
nese men and women between
the ages of 45 and 74 from the
Hokkien or Cantonese dialect
group. All of the subjects were
cancer-free at the outset.
Those who used incense heavi-
ly had higher rates of a type of
cancer called squamous cell car-
cinoma, which refers to tumors
that arise in the cells lining the
internal and external surfaces of
the body.
The risk was seen in smokers
and nonsmokers. Study partici-
pants who used incense in their
homes all day or throughout the
day and night were 80 percent
more likely than non-users to de-
velop squamous cell carcinoma
of the entire respiratory tract. ■
Reuters
 Friday, August 29, 2008
Boiling point
Vegetables that are boiled actually lose some of
their water content. They will weighless after boiling
in water than they did before. This is caused by the
heat, which breaks down the cell walls and allows
some of the water to leak from the plants cells.
I want my gift
MITHRA SURESH
mithra@goergo.in
I
live with a group of women,
some working and some stu-
dents, who are unanimously
adamant on receiving gifts from
their boyfriends. What classifies as a
gift varies of course.
What we want
One of them, let’s call her Sakina,
was visibly annoyed and in tears
when she complained that despite
completing almost a year with her
boyfriend, he had not gifted her any-
thing expensive.
“It’s not about how costly the pre-
sent is. It’s about saving up enough
money to buy me something that I
really like,” she sniffed. And then
there is Ramya who will bring back a
souvenir from each of her vacations
abroad to gift her out-of-station boy-
friend and all she wants in return is a
phone call or a visit from him.
“I know he is working and a stu-
dent’s life is easier, but I don’t think
it takes much time to SMS.”Also
there is Nalini who just wants to be
left alone. “I come home extremely
stressed, more from the office gossip
than the workload itself. The last
thing I need is my boyfriend calling
up to whine about his work or his
family.”
Out of shape wives
beware!
Married men are going for younger look
O ut of shape wives beware! Married men are
now spending more on their looks to be-
come trimmer, fitter and sexier and in the
meantime are also attracted to women with
similar characteristics.
Health experts in the capital city are of the
opinion that there is an increasing concern
among married men to look slimmer and
smarter, an obsession they attribute to the
evolution of MNCs and increasing westernisa-
tion of the Indian culture.
On the flip side, there has been ironically a
downward shift in the ever so looks conscious
Indian women as they generally get busy with
their household affairs ignoring their looks,
resulting in being out of shape.
“Today, the prosperity among Indian men
begins at an early age, where they are slightly
balding, confident, mature and wealthy. At
this prime of their career, they are going for
15
Eggs
Eggs will age more in one day at room
temperature than in one week in the
refrigerator.
What they say
Why is it that women are forever
dissatisfied with the gifts they get?
The men have all the answers. One
Where gifting is concerned, of them said, “Whatever I get, it’s
never enough because a woman re-
it’s never quid pro quo
acts optimistically to a gift accord-
ing to her mood.”
And to the fact that they never call
when they are supposed to, another
said, “I completely agree with the
fact that SMSs should be replied to,
phone calls should be returned and
all that. But if I do not, then I am just
tired! There is nothing more to it.”
And Nalini’s boyfriend responded
to her statement with, “Women
want everything. If I was the sort to
ignore her and give her all the
‘space’ she needed, I am an incon-
siderate workaholic. If I ask how her
day was and tell her how mine is, I
am a weepy romantic. Either way I
lose.”
Mediator musings
Ramya Jayachandran, a well-spo-
ken critic on the milestone act of
gifting says, “Gifts are a symbol.
Both entities in a relationship need
to understand that it is important to
give the other person what they val-
ue the most. It may be knee-pads for
the soccer player or a birthstone
ring for the girlfriend’s birthday. Or
it may be something as simple as
making a card. It’s really about the
time and the effort put in to make
that gift special.” ■
Men nowadays are
cosmetic surgeries, skin toning, facials and
massage, which we have never heard from
them (men) earlier,” says eminent Plastic
going for cosmetic
and Cosmetic Surgeon, Dr Devansh, Max
surgeries, skin toning,
Healthcare hospital. facials and massage,
“It’s natural to be attracted by a young which we have never
secretary or a female employee in your
office who works closely with you taking heard from them
care of your business and projects,” earlier
adds another plastic surgeon Dr R
Khajanchi, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital.
However, experts say there are
many cosmetic therapies and
procedures available through
which a woman can regain
her looks and shape, which
includes botox, fillers,
tummy tucks and lipo-
suction. ■
PTI
16
Sport
Aussies wary of Bangladesh
Australia appear to hold all the aces, but they
won’t be underestimating Bangladesh in their
three-match one-day series starting on Saturday. All
three games are being played in Darwin, the series
originally scheduled as a
Champions Trophy warm-up
before that tournament was
postponed due to security
concerns over the host country
Pakistan. Despite being without
captain Ricky Ponting, opener
Matthew Hayden and leading
paceman Brett Lee, the
defending World Cup champions are expected to
be far too strong for Bangladesh. However,
Australian seamer Nathan Bracken said they
wouldn’t underestimate their opponents, having
been beaten by them in Cardiff in 2005. “They’ve
done it before so, yeah, we’ve got to go out and
play well,” he said on Wednesday. “We’re off a
break, we’re I guess under a bit of pressure and it’s
up to these guys now. It’s up to us to put our
hands up and perform well and basically if they
play good cricket we have to match it.” Only two
of the Australians who played in the Cardiff match,
Australia’s only defeat in 13 one-day matches
against Bangladesh, are in their 13-man squad for
this series – interim captain Michael Clarke and his
deputy, Mike Hussey. Bracken said he expected the
conditions in Darwin to suit his swing bowling.
AFP
Cyprus hails landmark win
Football-mad Cyprus celebrated on Thursday after
Anorthosis Famagusta made sporting history by
becoming the first Cypriot side to reach the
Champions League group stages. Around 4,000 fans
gathered outside Larnaca airport early Thursday
morning to welcome their heroes after Anorthosis
qualified 3-1 on aggregate following a 1-0 reverse
against Olympiakos in Athens.
AFP
Acid test for Scholari
Chelsea manager Luiz Felipe Scolari should enjoy
his first taste of a London derby on Sunday, with
the Premier League leaders hosting unsettled
Tottenham Hotspur at Stamford Bridge. The
Brazilian’s side have yet to concede a goal in two
league games while Spurs, undermined by
Bulgarian striker Dimitar Berbatov’s determination
to leave, have suffered two stinging defeats. With
champions Manchester United playing the UEFA
Super Cup with Zenit St Petersburg in Monaco on
Friday and absent from the weekend’s domestic
programme, the spotlight falls on early pacesetters
Chelsea and Liverpool. “I am happy
because we have played two games and
won two games, but it is difficult,”
Scolari said on Wednesday. “We now
have a big derby on Sunday and all the
teams are very good.” Chelsea thrashed
Portsmouth 4-0 in their opening match of
the season but were more restrained in
winning 1-0 at Wigan last weekend.
Pending the signing of Brazilian forward Robinho
from Real Madrid, and following the departure of
Andriy Shevchenko to AC Milan, the West
Londoners remain short on strikers although Didier
Drogba could be back from injury to play at least a
part in Sunday’s game.
AFP
Kaneria yearns for Test action
Pakistani leg spinner Danish Kaneria on Thursday expressed frustration at not playing
Test cricket for more than eight months since he toured India in last December and
urged his board to increase the Test schedule. “Just imagine my last Test appearance
was in India in December. Sometimes it is frustrating. How can a country go without
a Test match for eight months?” he asked.
BATTLE FOR
EUROPE
Ferguson plans to field strong
team in Super Cup
A
lex Ferguson is likely to use
Friday’s European Super
Cup match against Zenit St
Petersburg as the perfect
opportunity to revitalise his Man-
chester United team after a tricky
start to the season. Zenit will be
looking for another British scalp
in the traditional match between
the winners of the previous sea-
son’s Champions League and
UEFA Cup, which the Russian
side clinched with victory in the
May final against Scotland’s Ran-
gers. United have been hit by in-
juries, suspensions and Olympic
call-ups this month but Ferguson
is hoping club skipper Gary Ne-
ville, fit after a series of career-
threatening injuries, Nani, who
has had a league suspension, and
Brazil’s Anderson, just back from
the Beijing Games, will play a part
on Friday.
Going for a win
“I think we’ll view the Super
Cup as a one-off and we want to
win it obviously,” Ferguson said
at a press briefing at United’s
Carrington training ground be-
fore leaving for Monaco. “But it is
also an opportunity to play An-
derson, back from the Olympic
Games, Nani who’s available
from suspension, and if possible
Gary Neville. I think those three
will all figure in Friday’s game.
Patrice Evra and Wayne Rooney
will also be involved. After that it
depend whose back from injury –
if Owen Hargreaves has main-
tained his training performances
he will play. I think we’ll play a
strong team but there’ll certainly
be some changes.”
United will, be without the in-
jured Michael Carrick, Cristiano
Ronaldo and Ryan Giggs who has
a hamstring problem. Anderson
and Carlos Tevez, who missed
United’s disappointing 1-1 draw
against Newcastle United in the
opening league game of the sea-
son because of a family bereave-
ERGO Friday, August 29, 2008
ment, returned to the side for
Monday’s 1-0 win at Portsmouth.
Ferguson will be hoping they also
feature against the Russian
champions at the Stade Louis II.
Impressive Zenith
Zenit, who scored some im-
pressive victories on Andrei
their way to lifting the Arshavin
UEFA Cup, should PHOTO: AFP
have their latest ac-
quisition, Portugal
midfielder Danni,
available. He joined
Zenit for a Russian
league record 30 million
euros ($44.12 million) from
Dynamo Moscow this
week and is expected to
play against United.
“Danni looked good in
training and he’ll get a
chance against Man-
chester United provid-
ed that all the paper
work is done on time,”
Zenit coach Dick Advocaat
told reporters. Unsettled
playmaker Andrei Arsha-
vin, who could still move
abroad following his fine
showing at Euro 2008, is
also included in the
squad. “Arshavin is fly-
ing with us to Monaco
but I haven’t decided
yet if he would play
or not,” said Advo-
caat, mindful of the
fact that the sum- mer
transfer window is closing
shortly.
Arshavin, who has been strong-
ly linked with a move to Totten-
ham Hotspur in England for the
last two months, missed Zenit’s
last league match on Sunday.
Zenit won 3-0 at Krylya Soviet-
ov Samara to move back into
title contention.
They trail league leaders Ru-
bin Kazan by 11 points with 11
matches left. ■
Reuters
 Friday, August 29, 2008
Matter
of
Honour
ERGO CORRESPONDENT
feedback@goergo.in
Liuzzi comes eighth fastest in training session
A
fter a series of debacles, Force
India is slowly creeping back to
win some respectability in the
F1 circuit. The elder statesman
of the team, Giancarlo Fisichella, fin-
ished a strong 14th at the recently-
concluded European Championships
in Hungary and on Thursday test
driver Vitantonio Liuzzi surprised
everyone, driving a hiccup-free 99
laps on his way to post the eight-fas-
test time at a free practice session at
Autodromo Nazionale di Monza in
Italy.
Happy with his effort, Liuzzi said:
“We tried to get a good set-up for the
rest of the test and the race in just a
couple of weeks’ time, and I think we
can be happy with how it went.” Race
drivers Adrian Suti and Fisichella are
expected to take over for the rest of
the test sessions scheduled for the
next two days.
“We had a difficult race in Hungary,
Winning bonanza
Olympic bronze medallist Vijender boxed his way to his first endorsement
deal with Bajaj Allianz on Thursday. Meanwhile low-cost carrier SpiceJet
Friday announced life-time free travel for Indian boxer.
where the conditions were very hot.
We had some problems with the gear
box and our strategies didn’t work so-
metimes, but we have to keep focus
and keep moving forward,” Italian
Fisichella said about his home Grand
Prix. Scheduled for September 14, the
Italian Grand Prix, where Michael
Schumacher had set a track record of
1:21.832m in 2003, is one of the fastest
circuits in the F1 calendar with very
few hairpin turns, making it a driver’s
delight.
The Vijay Mallya-owned team are
expected to continue with their pro-
gress and the chief technical officer of
the team, Mike Gascoyne, also
echoed Fisichella’s view and egged
his team to look forward. “Adrain was
honest enough to admit that he made
a mistake at Hungary. Giancarlo did
well and it’s a big bonus for us and I
am confident of a better showing at
Monza,” he said.
Chief race and test engineer Do-
17
minic Harlow,
too, was pleased
with the output.
“With the aero configuration
for Monza being dramat-
ically different to any other
track we visit on the calen-
dar, Thursday’s pro-
gramme focussed on
evaluating different set-ups
and wing levels specifically
for the Italian Grand Prix. Giancarlo
Grip levels are low at the Fisichella
moment, and the tyres we are
using are very hard for the con-
ditions, but everyone has the
same issue so we will work over
the next days to optimise per-
formance,” he added. ■
18 ERGO Friday, August 29, 2008

Flick Britney look-alike, a male

Pop princess Britney Spears’ impersonator is not an ordinary look-alike, for it
happens to be a male by the name of Derrick Barry.

Kate Moss’ The 50 kg solid gold

sculpture worth 1.5 million
pounds is being counted as
the largest gold statue to

golden glory be made in the world since

the time of ancient Egypt

S
upermodel Kate Moss’ 1.5 million pounds
worth solid gold sculpture is to be un-
veiled at the Nereid Gallery of the British
Museum.
The 50-kg magnificent statue has been cre-
ated by the famous sculptor Marc Quinn. Marc
has earlier also made a white painted bronze
statue of the star. The artist said that Moss’
iconic beauty was the inspiration behind the
creation.
“I thought the next thing to do would be to
make a sculpture of the person who’s the ideal
beauty of the moment, but even Kate Moss
doesn’t live up to the image,” The Daily Express
quoted Quinn, as saying.
The London born artist’s creation is being
counted as the largest gold statue to be made in
the world since the time of ancient Egypt.
Quinn’s latest work, which is thought to also
show Moss in a yoga pose, is part of a collection,
entitled Statuephilia, by contemporary artists
going on display at the British Museum.
The exhibition is the subject of a Channel 4
documentary The Sculpture Diaries to be
broadcast in the autumn.
ANI

The statue would be unveiled at

the Nereid Gallery of the British
Museum on October 4

US blogger arrested for leaking

Guns N’ Roses’ new songs online
i f e r H u dson
US federal police on Wednesday arrested a blogger for Jenn n t h em on
posting songs from a yet-to-be released Guns N’ Roses album
n g a
titled ‘Chinese Democracy’ online without the rock band’s to si b i g n ignhd t
permission. Kevin Cogill, who uses ‘Skwerl’ as an Internet
name, is charged with violating copyright laws by putting nine
s
ObOsacamr-wain’ ningHaucdtsroesns wa ill
of the band’s unreleased songs on his ww.antiquiet.com website r t
Jennife them a
for visitors to hear. Skwerl wrote the following message on his singer national an nal
e
website in June when he invited visitors to listen sing th ocratic Natio on
m er
to the unreleased Guns N’ Roses songs: “I the De ion in Denv arack
t
always said that the more that Axl and Co n v e n nig B ty’s
h t
ay, the ar
Geffen jerked around trying to figure out Thursd accepts his p ent.
how to release this finally finished album a m a p r e s id
Ob or
ation f of
that we’ve all been waiting over 13 years for, nomin 26, a native of
the greater the chances would be that it u d s o n , t o w n
H e
’s hom to sing
would slip out of a pressing plant or office Obama , was asked anner” at
o B
somewhere and wind up in the hands of Chicag r Spangled est
e S t a t t h e requ
some asshole with a blog." Cogill could “Th io n a e o la
nvent r, Th
be sentenced up to five years in prison the co linois senato at RCA
Il t
if he is convicted as charged and the of the her publicis Tuesday.
, n
motive is determined to be financial Borden roup, said o Reuter
s
s ic G
profit. Mu
AFP
 Friday, August 29, 2008

Chocolate blood RGV’s claims

19
Chocolate syrup was used for the An Indian filmgoer reportedly rented out an
blood in the famous shower scene in entire cinema to disprove director’s Ram Gopal
the Alfred Hitchcock movie Psycho. Varma’s claim that his latest horror movie is so
The scene lasts for about 45 seconds scary no one can watch it alone. Pavin Ponanna
in the movie, but took 7 days to film. booked all 227 seats at a Bangalore multiplex for
an evening screening of Phoonk.

McCartney Cine City

Happy B’day, Prasanna
to perform in Israel Actor Prasanna celebrated his
birthday in advance on Monday,
though it actually falls on August 28.
The actor who made his debut in Susi
This is his first ever concert in Israel, four decades Ganesan’s 5 Stars shot to fame with
his performance in Azhagiya Theeyae.
after The Beatles were barred from playing there His anti-hero role in Anjathey was
also well-received. At present, the
actor is doing Achchamundu
Achchamundu with Sneha.

Selviaruna Radha (iNau-

Congrats! WallE
winners
The following are the
winners of the WallE con-
test run by Ergo.
August 22: Sirisha (TCS),
M.Loganathan (Infosys), S.
Sathish Kumar (Change-
pond Technology), Sujoy
Roy (Wipro) and Sarantel
(Wipro).
August 25: E.Srinivas
(TCS), Binu (TCS), Indira
Boorla (Wipro), R.Satish
(Changepond Technolo-
gy) and Thirumurugavelan
(Birlasoft).
August 26: K.S.Karthi-
keyan (Satyam Comput-
ers), Vaibhav Singhal
(Hexaware Technology),
Vijay (TCS), Vimal Vargh-
ese (TCS) and Raja Mana-
valan (Birlasoft).
August 27: Maran (Wi-
pro), Indhumathi (TCS),
AFP PHOTO
tix), Vijayshree (Birlasoft)
and Subhalakshmi Ram-
kumar (Wipro)
August 28: Arivukkarasu
(Wipro), Gobiganesh (Ve-
rizon), Rajsekhar (Sa-
tyam), Ankit
(CTS-Siruseri) and Kalpa-
na (TCS).
The winners will get two
tickets each to the WallE
screening at the Inox mul-
tiplex in Citi Centre this
Sunday. Winners can col-
lect the tickets at Ergo of-
fice situated with The
Hindu Newspaper com-
plex on Anna Salai (next to
P.Orr and Sons) on Satur-
day or Sunday between 11
a.m. and 6 p.m. The tickets
are available in limited
numbers for the 4 p.m.
and 7 p.m. shows and will
be handed out on a first-
come-first-served basis. ■

M
usic legend Paul McCartney is to stage his first ever concert in Israel next month,
four decades after the Beatles were barred from playing there, he said on his
website Thursday.
The former Beatles star will play a ‘Friendship First’ concert in Tel Aviv on
September 25, as part of a series of one-off gigs in places he has never visited before.
“I’ve heard so many great things about Tel Aviv and Israel, but hearing is one thing and
experiencing it for yourself is another. We are planning to have a great time and a great
evening,” he said.
“We can’t wait to get out there and rock.”
The Beatles drew up plans to play in Israel at the height of Beatlemania in 1965, but
they were cancelled after sponsors failed to raise enough money, and lawmakers voiced
concern that they might corrupt young Israeli minds.
McCartney also nearly performed in Israel in the late 1970s, when concerts with his
post-Beatles band Wings were cancelled due to problems with the venues, he said.
In January Israel apologized in letters to the two surviving members of the Beatles –
McCartney and drummer Ringo Starr – and asked them to play at the nation’s 60th
birthday bash in May.
. The Tel Aviv concert will be staged in the city’s Hayarkon Park.
AFP

THE FORMER BEATLES STAR WILL PLAY

A ‘FRIENDSHIP FIRST’ CONCERT IN
TEL AVIV ON SEPTEMBER 25
20 ERGO Friday, August 29, 2008

Scan
Obsessed?
According to TV.com, Jake Gyllenhaal’s
fans refer to themselves as
"Gyllenhaalics."

PICK OF THE DAY - Friday

Zee Studio Zee Cafe Star World Zoom

Troy – 10-30 pm
A modern epic with legendary
warrior Achilles reluctantly leading
the armies of ancient Greece into
battle against the proud city of
Troy.
Sex and the City – 9 pm
Four beautiful, successful female
New Yorkers gossip about their
sex-lives (or lack thereof) and find
new ways to deal with being a
woman in the 90’s.
How I Met Your Mother –8
pm
Marshall tries to get used to being
single in a world that is very
coupled-oriented. Barney intended
one-night-stand won’t go away.
Kaun – 9-30 pm
Urmilla is alone at home on a
stormy night, scared and nervous
she hears on TV about a killer (who
kills women) roaming around.And
then, there is a knock on the front
door. Who could it be?

PICK OF THE DAY - Saturday

Star Plus Zee Café Discovery Travel and Living Sony

Star Voice of India – 10 pm
The show is hosted by Shaan, who
with his charming smile and
endearing style instantly wins the
hearts of all and takes us through
weeks and months of tension and
joy in the lives of the participants
each one striving to achieve the
epitome of musical success.
Criss Angel Mindfreak
– 10-30 pm
Christopher Nicholas Sarantakos
,better known by his stage name
Criss Angel is a magician, musician,
escapologist, stunt performer, and
actor. The show centres on Criss
Angel performing unusual stunts
and street magic acts.
Europe’s Richest People
– 11 pm
Europe is a playground for the rich
and famous. The show reveal how
the better half lives, as Europe’s
super rich open their doors to give
us an exclusive glimpse into their
extraordinary lives
10 Ka Dum – 9 pm
Salman Khan plays a game of Rs 10
crore with participants who have to
think like India. In answer to his
question the participant needs to
guess as close to India’s collective
opinion as possible.

PICK OF THE DAY - Sunday

Sony Pix CNN IBN NDTV Good Times SS Music

The Queen – 8 pm
In the wake of a national tragedy,
the prime minister and royal family
find themselves quietly at odds. The
initial reluctance of Buckingham
Palace to mourn Diana is seen by
the public as a sign of cool
emotional distance.
The Devil’s Advocate
– 8 -30 pm
On Devil’s Advocate Karan Thapar
studies and probes the week’s
biggest developments. This is a
razor sharp analysis of the week’s
most important happening, a
happening that will shape India.
Lounge – 11 pm
Relationships, living in, living alone,
breaking up and bouncing back,
second chances, single parenting.
No topic is taboo in the Lounge
with Rajat Kapoor.
Room With the View
– 8-30 pm
Room With the View takes you into
the glitzy world of movies, from a
small budget film to a blockbuster.
From opiniated and punchy reviews,
a tête-à-tête with the stars to the
making of a movie, the show has it
all.
 Friday, August 29, 2008
Greetings
Anbulla Arnold,
Neenga rasikira Ilayarajavin isai pola
innalum inivarum ovoru nalum
inimayaga amaya manamarndha
vazhthukal. Happy Bday...
Inganam, Nanbarkal pattalam,
Wipro Technologies
Dear Muthu Anna,
Some things are left undone, some
words are left unsaid, some feelings
are left unexpressed, though we are
depart,d ue some reasons, i never left
u unwished `Happy birthday dear
Anna’.
Your lovable Sister, V.Radha,
IBM DAKSH
Dear Chandrika Parimala,
Happy Birthday!!!! From Today New
life should start for your best!!!
By ever loving Arunkumar.C,
Dear Anu,
Steria India Ltd
May this day be the beginning of
another special year. Let this birthday
bring you lot of joy and happiness in
your life! A Warm Birthday Wishes
from All of us!
Warm Regards,
FastService ASG Team(HCL)
Dear Bala,
Friends are like Rainbows... They
brighten your life after you’ve gone
through a storm. You ve always been
the best friend to us. Wishing you a
very happy, colourful and joyful
Birthday and a successful year ahead!
Ur ever loving friend Saumya, Wipro
Technologies
Dear Ganesan,
We wish you a wonderful birthday
and colours of joy and fun fill the
entire life. May all your dreams come
true.
Cheers, CAT Mfgpro Team Satyam Computer
Services Ltd.
Dear VJ,
Advance Happy Birthday To You.. Have
a Great Year Ahead..
Love ICPRP Team,
Hexaware Technologies
Hi Regi,
It is a lovely and special day today just
because it is your birthday. May every
dream of yours come true. Many more
happy returns of the day dear....!
With Love, Vidhya & Uma,
Hi Brinda,
Wipro Technologies
Wish u many more happy returns of
the day. May all ur dreamz come true.
Luv, Ajay, Kalpana, Zubin & Mahesh,
Steria & Satyam
Dear Shirish,
On your birthday I wish you much
pleasure and joy, I hope all of your
wishes come true. May each hour and
minute be filled with delight, wishing
you a Birthday that’s sweet and
beautiful…Just like you! Many More
Happy Returns of the day!
Best Wishes from CFB TEAM & TCS
21
Aerobics of delivery person
A United Parcel Service delivery person typically
makes up to 300 pickups or deliveries a day.
That compares to someone doing 600 sets of
step aerobics a day.
.
sticky@goergo.in
‘Dance Like A Man’
Dear Kavitha,
May your special day be filled with Lillete Dubey directed play
memories and flowers, friendship and ‘Dance Like A Man’, is a play is
happy hours. Wishing you all the fun about a dancer couple and their
and excitement that only birthdays can family with the recent and an-
bring. You’re Older today than cient, history of India in personal
yesterday but Younger than tomorrow, terms, probing three generations
Happy Bday! Wishing all the best for of conflict.
your birthday. You were born to Party! Where:
Cheers, Lady Andal School,
Your Lovable Nokia AS Team , TCS 7 Harrington Road
Dear Baskar, When:
You Turn Not Older With Years, But August 29, 7 pm
Newer Every Day. Wishing you a Contact:
Sparkling and Scintillating Birthday.. 28363403
Vadapalani Room Guys,
Vinod(Wipro), Anbu , Arun , Basha
Hi Vidhiya,
Friends will come and friends will go,
The seasons change and it will show,, I
will age and so will you,, But our
friendship stays, strong and true.
Advance Birthday wishes my friend
The Desi night
Dear Suji,
From PasserBy
Acacia @OPM
Today’s the day we get to say we are
happy You were born. Let all your
dreams come true this year. Many more
Touch
happy returns of the day.
Wipro friends
Hi Ganesan,
May Gods Choicest Blessings shower on
your Family! Happy Wedding
Anniversary
With Love,
Pratheesh H, Ganesh S, John, Ganesh C,
Thilip, Technosoft Global Services Pvt., Ltd
Hey Raghu,
Wish you a plenty wishes from Pradeep,
Gani and Arya on your B’day. We all
wish you lots of joy follow you and a
bright future. We will missssssss you.
Cheers, Pradeep(Satyam), Gani and Arya Pamper yourself with Acacia Shake your legs on some
Dear Wills, Touch package, a Hawaiian mas- groovy desi numbers at the
God has decorated a life of prosperity sage Acacia Touch is a package Desi Night at OPM.
for you. May the Sep 1st 2008, be the designed specially using Decleor Where:
beginning of it for the couple. All the products to provide radiance and OPM, The Accord
best dear. boost to your complexion. Metropolitan,
By yours, Lloyds-Telephony Team - TCS Where: 35 GN Chetty Road,
Dear Deepan, Aura, The Park T Nagar
A birthday is just the first day of 601 Anna Salai When: August 29
another 365-day journey around the
sun. Enjoy the trip friend! Your
birthday makes this day special...Just
like you. (Advance) Happy birthday.
Have fun filled years ahead!
Warm Regards, Vaidhegi, Govind(TCS),
Sangeetha,Ashok, Sreevidhya, Lavanya, TOP 5 ONE LINERS
Rajkumar, Manoj, Jayachitra, Nagappan,
Suguna, Parameswari, Priyanka, Gopi,
Shenbaga, Karthik, Baby, Shrin, Sridevi and 1. An expert is someone who takes a subject you
Ashok Moorthy understand and makes it sound confusing.
Hello Gang,
Send your greetings to
sticky@goergo.in, with the word
2. Where there’s a will, there are five hundred
relatives.
‘greeting’ and the preferred date of
publication in the subject line. Example:
“Greeting: September 1”. This will help
3. When everything’s coming your way, you’re in
the wrong lane.
us organise the column. Also, those
who want to dedicate greetings, please
send your full name, company name
4. Join the Army, meet interesting people, kill
them.
and contact number for verification.
Cheers, Team Ergo
5. Death is hereditary.
22 ERGO Friday, August 29, 2008

Credit crunch eases traffic

Traffic Jam
Congestion on Britain’s motorways has eased
following fears the country is about to enter a
recession. A new survey suggests that more people
than ever in the U.K. are worried about the credit
crunch and many have stopped using their cars
because of the soaring petrol prices.

sudoku

Abdul Muthalif of
Cognizant
Technology
Solutions clicked
this picture while
travelling from
Chennai to
Kanyakumari –
between Thenkasi
and Tiruneveli
station. He titles it
as global warming.
Agree? Email
him at
AbdulMuthalif.Syed
@cognizant.com
Hobby: Gardening

Over the next two

weeks, the photos
featured in this column
will win special
discount vouchers from
travel portal KAKURO
www.yatra.com. So do
send your address.
So you think you would make a terrific photographer but never really had
the platform? Mail us your best work and we’ll publish it in this space,
with credit. E-mail: clickpick@goergo.in

TEAM
Editor: Karthik Subramanian
karthik@goergo.in

Sr Dy Chief Designer: J.A. Prem Kumar

Dy Chief Designer: R. Ravi Kannan
Illustrator: R. Venugopal

Technical Support:
V.R. Vasudevan, K.G. Gurumurthy
N. Ravichandran, E. Baskar

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ads@goergo.in

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RA. Babu Vijay
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KASTURI & SONS LTD., at Plot B-6 & B-7,
CMDA Industrial Complex, Maraimalai Nagar,
Chengleput Taluk, Kancheepuram Dist., Pin:
603209 & at Kasturi Buildings, 859 & 860,
Anna Salai, Chennai-600002. Editor: S. Karthik
(Editor responsible for selection of news under
the PRB Act). RNI No. TNENG/2007/24553
 Friday, August 29, 2008

Word’s worth
"Dactylonomy" (dack-tuh-lah-nuh-mee) the science of
counting on your fingers. A nice saving term for people
who are bad at math. "I’m a dactylonomist, actually. It’s
very difficult to be a good one." Chisanbop is a Korean
method of using the fingers as an abacus; on the left
hand each finger is counted as ten and the thumb as
fifty and on the right hand the thumb is five and the
23
fingers each one. So counting 22 would involve pressing
down the fist two fingers on the left hand and the first
two of the right; adding the thumb of the left and the
remaining two fingers of the right add 52; then you can
read the total, 74, from your pressed-down fingers.
Chisanbop comes from Korean words meaning ’finger
counting method.’

B.C

ARIES MARCH 21 - APRIL 20

You may remain highly creative today. Pace of work
may slow down as you may be in a mood to take
things very easy. You must avoid ego conflicts with
superiors. You will be able to express your love
dramatically in front of your beloved, says Ganesha.

TAURUS APRIL 21 - MAY 20

Although it is a favourable day for you, you may
not be in a mood to do hard work. Probably you
are not in a mood to put in any extra effort to do
something different. Your relations with beloved
may get strained if you display inflexibility.

GEMINI MAY 21 - JUNE 20

Ganesha finds you communicating with higher
BORN LOSER authorities. You may need to be careful about
language when you draft email. You need to be
careful of misgivings on professional and personal
fronts. You will be able to please your partner.
CANCER JUNE 21 - JULY 20
Others may find you acting bit more authoritative
today. Ensure that your relations do not get spoilt
because of the same. Besides this, it is a smooth
day at work. You may wish to enjoy nice but spicy
dinner with your life partnerone, feels Ganesha.
LEO JULY 21 - AUG 20
You may be very assertive, creative and over-
enthusiastic today. Others may count on you for
important decisions. In personal life, your partner
may find you very charming. You may remain in a
very romantic mood today, says Ganesha.
VIRGO AUG 21 - SEPT 20
Ganesha finds you running after a mirage today.
FREE RANGE WORKING IT OUT You may fail to judge whether you are working in
right direction. Technical difficulties may pull your
nerves. Lovers may spend money but ensure that
you don’t burn a hole in your pocket.
LIBRA SEPT 21 - OCT 20
Important meetings will go well today. You are in a
mood to showcase your talents and you will be
rewarded well for the hard work. You may need to
control your ego while you are talking to spouse or
beloved one as only this can spoil your mood.
SCORPIO OCT 21 - NOV 20
Ganesha finds you taking your day to day work very
easy. You will be focussed while you’re at desk so
there are least probabilities of goof ups. If you are
at a higher position, you may not allow indiscipline.
Love life may take back-seat for a while.
SAGITTARIUS NOV 21 - DEC 20
You will be full of energy today. Because of this,
you will be able to finish off your work in time.
Your relations with superiors may improve. Personal
life may remain cool and hassle free. Ganesha finds
you in a mood to treat your life partner very nicely.
CAPRICORN DEC 21 - JAN 20
Ganesha finds you getting frustrated over petty
matters at office. Ensure that your outbursts do not
create problems at office. Control anger. You may
remain very romantic hence may wish to spend
more time in quite environment with beloved one.
AQUARIUS JAN 21 - FEB 20
PREVIOUS Ganesha suggests you not to waste time behind
false arguments at office. You may feel that others
ISSUE’S are trying to tarnish your image. But you will win
the heart of others by your friendly nature. You
SOLUTIONS must avoid conflicts with beloved today.
PISCES FEB 21 - MARCH 20
It is day to put in more efforts to prove your
abilities. While you are in process to finish off your
work, ensure that your health doesn’t suffer. Your
love life may require nurturing, for Ganesha feels
that you may hardly have time for your lover.
Predictions by Bhavesh N. Pattni
24 ERGO Friday, August 29, 2008

!
Naked art banned
A council in Australia is running an art
competition but has banned all entries
featuring nudes.

EMU
compartment
becomes
delivery room
Baby girl born in train that
reached Chennai Central

ERGO CORRESPONDENT
The EMU train journey from Thiruninravur to
Chennai Central on August 28, 2008, is someth-
ing this 28-year-old mother is unlikely to forget.
Her daughter was born in the train compart-
ment during the journey.
According to Railway Police, Chitra of Rajan
Kuppam near Thiruninravur was nine months
pregnant. Following discomfort and pain, Chi-
tra, along with her father, had boarded an EMU
train at 5.30 a.m. on Thursday to reach a hospi-
tal in Chennai. During the course of the journey,
she developed severe labour pain. A few female
co-passengers in the compartment came to her
aid but before the train could reach the destina-
tion she gave birth to a baby girl in the train
compartment itself.
The Railway Police were informed and when
the train reached platform no. 13 at Central Rail-
way Station, a Railway Police team consisting of
sub-inspector Gnanaraj and RPF constables
Nirmala, Sridharan and Mani helped Chitra and
her newborn into a waiting ambulance. The
mother and daughter were taken to Egmore
Children’s Hospital and they are known to be in
good health.■

Anything for
Tintin
A diehard Tintin fan in
Bristol is all set to drive
5,000 miles to recreate
the character’s journey
in Herge’s 1939 comic
‘The Land of Black
Gold’.
Businessman Barrimore England-Davis, 33, is
doing all he can to make his expedition
look exactly like that of Tintin. He has spent
6,500 pounds on a classic red Willey’s jeep,
which resembles the one Tintin drove.
Dog Snowy will accompany Barrimore
during the latter’s six-week tour of Europe
and Morocco. “It’s something I always
wanted to do,” British tabloid The Sun
quoted Barrimore as saying.
ANI