Math and music in record mix
Math and music might be poles apart for many, but for Thomas Vijayan they make a perfect mix.
The 45-year-old, who hails from Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu, has made a mark in both without formal training in either.
Vijayan has found a place in the Guinness World Records for singing non-stop while the Limca Book of Records included him for memorising square roots.
Vijayan, who has a bachelor’s degree in theology from an institute in Bhopal, had sung for 72 hours in six languages in Bangalore last February.
A few months later, he “reproduced from memory all perfect squares of numbers between one and 10 lakh” in the presence of IIT Chennai professors.
“It was my inner inspiration to do something great and I’ve worked hard for it,” Vijayan said.
Vijayan, who has no special training in music, practised for two years. During this time, he also learnt the squares of numbers by heart.
“I enjoy hymns and Christmas carols and sang over 1,000 of them to achieve the record,” he said.
“I also do not use any trick to calculate squares of numbers, it’s pure memorising,” said Vijayan.
Little master of piano
Abhay Goyel might be just a touch above 12, but his tiny fingers can make magic.
And the piano prodigy is not just pursuing a hobby, he’s also using his talent for a cause. The boy has performed for cancer patients, defence officers and even for victims of the 2004 tsunami.
On Saturday, Abhay played for visually challenged children his own age, leaving them mesmerised by his music. The show was held at the Delhi Blind Relief Association.
A student of Class VII at Delhi’s Modern School, Abhay started playing the piano at the age of six. He is also a long-distance student of western classical piano at Theme School, which is affiliated to Trinity College, Cambridge.
And not only does he play like a veteran, Abhay speaks like one, too. “It was my great pleasure to perform in front of these students who can’t see me, but can feel my music from the core of their hearts,” he said after the concert.
Test bar on TB students
If you are a TB patient or have conjunctivitis, you have no right to write an exam. So says Osmania University in Andhra Pradesh.
The institution has brought back a long-forgotten rule barring students who suffer from contagious diseases from entering examination halls. And it is written in clear and bold letters on the hall tickets issued for the university’s ongoing first semester tests.
As expected, the tickets have stirred a hornet’s nest, with students and legal experts demanding a stop to the practice, or at least alternate arrangements for those disallowed from entering the halls.
University authorities, however, feigned ignorance when asked about the rule. “I do not know about this rule,” said registrar M. Mutha Reddy.
The controller of examinations, Nageswara Rao, dismissed the directive on the hall tickets as “just a routine thing”.
Metro magnet
Delhi is hooked to the Metro, and how. The underground train service, which was started six years ago, saw a 25 per cent rise in users during 2007 over the previous year.
From Rs 189 crore, the total earnings shot up to Rs 236 crore in the period.
The number of commuters in 2007 totalled 20 crore, as opposed to 16 crore in 2006, Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) officials said.
'It’s a great achievement for us. We have consistently shown that, given a choice, people would prefer to use the Metro over private transport,” said Anuj Dayal, the chief public relations officer of the DMRC.
Bangalore: Feast your eyes on the best from Indian and world cinema at the Bengalooru International Film Festival. The festival boasts of movies from France, Italy, Poland and Hungary. The films are playing at Vision Cinemas and the auditorium of the state cooperative urban bank federation on KH Road.
