Mohammed Kursheed Hussain nose-typing in Hyderabad on Monday.- Photo: By Arrangement
How fast do you think you can type?’ Before most would have gone half-way with the sentence, 24-year-old Mohammed Kursheed Hussain of Hyderabad would have finished typing, with his nose.
Mr. Hussain attempted to break a Guinness world record for fastest nose-typing here on Monday. In 43.85 seconds, he typed the 103-character long ‘Guinness world records have challenged me to type this sentence using my nose in the fastest time’. He had to best 46.30 seconds, the standing record that was set in December 2014. An official word from Guinness is awaited to confirm his Monday’s feat.
Incidentally, Mr. Hussain had set a nose-typing Guinness record in February last year when he typed the challenge sentence in 47.44 seconds.
“I was told by Guinness in January this year that the record I had set was broken. Since then I trained to break the record,” said Mr. Hussain, who is a masters student at a university in Indiana, US.
Hussain’s tryst with typing began when he turned seven. It was however not until he turned 18, did he realise the uniqueness of his skill.
“I thought nothing of my typing ability until I had gone to college. That is when my friends made me realise that I had skill that others did not have. But I never thought that I would be a Guinness record holder,” he said. In 2012, Hussain hand typed the English alphabet with spaces in record 3.43 seconds, debuting in the annals of the Guinness World Records.
“I had to beat 3.52 seconds. It seemed impossible then,” he said. That record stands unbroken for three years now. Ask how he types with his nose when keys are blurred at nose’s width away from the keyboard,
Mr. Hussain offers a plausible explanation. “I think I just have a big nose,” he chuckles.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Hyderabad / by Rohit P.S./ Hyderabad – August 18th, 2015
Ace tennis player Sania Mirza scripted history on Sunday by clinching the second Grand Slam of the year after she won the women’s doubles US Open title with Swiss partner Martina Hingis at Flushing Meadows in New York.
Here are the ten things to know about Sania’s illustrious career:
# Sania Mirza has title at all Grand Slams – Wimbledon (2015 – Doubles), US Open (2014 – Mixed doubles), US Open (2015 – doubles), French Open (2012 – Mixed doubles) and Australian Open (2009 – Mixed doubles).
# Sania Mirza was conferred with the prestigious Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award last month. Sania became the second tennis player to receive the country’s highest sporting honour after Leander Paes.
# The pair of Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis is ranked Numero Uno in the world and they were the top seeds at the 2015 US Open. This is their second Grand Slam of the year after Wimbledon Championship.
# Sania Mirza had become India’s first woman player to win a Grand Slam when she won the Australian Open with compatriot Mahesh Bhupathi in 2009.
# The 28-year-old Sania Mirza won her first women’s doubles Major title 12 years after turning professional.
# It was 12 years ago, in 2003, when as a 16-year-old Sania became the first Indian girl to win a Grand Slam when she triumphed in the doubles’ event at Wimbledon, partnering Alisa Kleybanova of Russia.
# Sania Mirza has also won a total of 14 medals, including 6 golds, at three major multi-sport events, namely the Asian Games, the Commonwealth Games and the Afro-Asian Games.
# Sania Mirza is the highest ranked female player ever from India, reaching World No. 27 in singles in 2007 but a major wrist injury forced her to give up her singles career and focus on the doubles circuit.
# Sania Mirza was awarded the Arjuna award in 2004 while in 2006 she was awarded a Padma Shri, India’s fourth highest honour for her achievements as a tennis player.
# Sania Mirza is the first South Asian Woman to be appointed as a Goodwill Ambassador of UN Women, in the organization’s history, for South Asia.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> Sports> Tennis> US Open 2015 / TNN / September 13th, 2015
India’s tennis star Sania Mirza bagged her second consecutive Grand Slam title of the season, and fifth overall, as she won the US Open women’s doubles with Swiss partner Martina Hingis on Sunday.
The top-seeded Indo-Swiss team outplayed the fourth seed team of Casey Dellacqua and Yaroslava Shvedova 6-3, 6-3 in the final, which never rose to great heights.
Sania’s win capped off a memorable US Open for Indians as Leander Paes had won the mixed doubles trophy with Hingis on Friday, in a repeat show of the Wimbledon.
Kazakshtan’s Shvedova and Australia’s Dellacqua struggled to hold serve, making it too easy for Sania and Hingis. The contest was over in just 70 minutes as the top seeds asserted themselves.
Sania’s ground-strokes from the back of the court and Hingis’ agility at the net was too good for their rivals.
It was Sania and Hingis’ second major title in a row, having won the Wimbledon championships earlier this season.
Sania now has five Grand Slam titles in her collection. She won three Mixed Doubles trophies, the last one coming at this very venue with Bruno Soares in 2014.
In an extraordinary season, Hingis has won five Grand Slam titles this season, taking her overall number to 20. She won three titles with Paes and two with Sania.
“It’s a great year for us. Already been a great year, became world number one. We were a solid team and were in with a chance in all Slams. We are happy to come through. I won mixed doubles here last year, great to come back and win this,” Sania said after her win.
An elated Hingis said, “from the start we hit it off. Our games complement each other. Sania won her first Wimbledon, for me it is bonus. I volley better than what I used to. (in her singles days)”
Shvedova committed a double fault in the second game at 30-all to give top seeds a break point and then a superb return from Sania brought another opportunity but the fourth seeds saved both chances.
The top seeds did not have to wait much for next chance as they broke Dellacqua at love to take a 3-1 lead. But the advantage slipped soon as Sania was broken in the fifth.
Shvedova, who is getting married on Tuesday, surrendered her serve one more time, letting Sania and Hingis just walk away with the set.
Shvedova was far from the player she is as she was down by three break points in the very first game of the second set. Top seeds grabbed the opportunity and consolidated lead with a solid hold.
Sania fired two stunning service winners on Dellacqua’s serve as the Australian was broken at love in the seventh game. Hingis hit an overhead volley winner on the first match point after Shvedova’s double fault at 40-all.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> Sports> Tennis > US Open 2015 / PTI / September 13th, 2015
Team India has had 32 captains till date: from C.K. Nayudu (1932) to Virat Kohli. Let us have a look at the Test captains and their record. The most successful Test captain was Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who has record wins in both Tests and ODIs.
Chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Saturday congratulated Hyderabad- based Indian lawn tennis player Sania Mirza for receiving Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award.
The Chief Minister wished her all the best, expressed the hope that in future she would get many more such awards nationally and internationally, an official release from the CMO said.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Telangana / by Express News Service / August 30th, 2015
Indians continued their strong show in the 5th Commonwealth Youth Games by bagging five medals, including two gold, on the second day of competitions here on Tuesday.
Weightlifter Deepak Lather (boys 62kg category) and javelin thrower Mohd Hadish bagged a gold each in their respective events while Jisna Mathew won a silver in girls 400m race. Chandan Bauri (boys 400m) and Velavan Senthilkumar (boys squash singles) won a bronze each to continue India’s medal haul on the second day.
With five medals on Tuesday, India’s count swelled to four gold, two silver and two bronze and occupied the fifth spot in the tally after Australia, South Africa, England and New Zealand at the end of the second day. Indians had won two gold and one silver on the opening day of competitions on Monday.
15-year-old weightlifter Lather gave the gold to India in boys 62kg category as he lifted a total of 258kg with 120kg in snatch and 138kg in clean and jerk. His effort in snatch was a new CYG record.
Indian track and field athletes took part in three finals on the second day of competitions and all of them delivered personal best performances while winning a medal each in their respective events.
Javelin thrower Mohd Hadish, a silver medallist in the inaugural Asian Youth Championships at Doha earlier this year, proved to be a cut above the rest in the field as he set out the spear to a whooping distance of 79.29m in securing the gold.
Although he marginally missed the Games Record of 81.53m set by South African Morne Moolman in the last edition held at Isle of Man in 2011, the Indian thrower dominated the field as the second placed George Davies from England stood a distant 68.23m for the silver medal.
Quarter-milers Jisna Mathew and Chandan Bauri also gave their best efforts in winning a bronze each.
Jisna, an upcoming athlete from the stables of legendary P T Usha and another Doha silver medallist, clocked an impressive 53.14 secs to settle for silver in the girls’ 400m final. She missed the gold in just 5/100th of a second to Jamaican Junelle Bromfield.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Sport> Other Sports / PTI / APIA – September 08th, 2015
Not only was Najam Hussain a saviour for the teams he represented on the field with his all-round skills, he proved a good Samaritan off it as well.
Even as he was scoring tons of runs and taking wickets on the field, the devout man wouldn’t shy away from lending a helping hand to the needy or distributing alms at a nearby dargah during lunch on match days.
“The holy Quran teaches you to help the needy and that’s what I tried to do. It gave me great joy to go to a nearby dargah and do whatever I could to poor people,” says the 74-year-old with 1,375 runs and 80 wickets from 41 first-class (Ranji Trophy) outings. His former state mates believe Hussain was someone who maximized his talent. “He was no novice with the bat, would chip in with the ball and was an astute fielder as well,” says K R Rajagopal.
Former Hyderabad offie V Ramnarayan vividly recalls Hussain’s match-winning nine-wicket haul for Jolly Rovers in a Buchi Babu game back in the 1960s. “It was a game against Hyderabad and they were cruising. Suddenly, it rained. I left for home and the next day I came to know from the newspapers that Hussain had bowled Jolly Rovers to an emphatic win with his offspin,” recalls Ramnarayan.
Interestingly , Ramnarayan, in his book, describes Hussain’s bowling as `poi’ (false or non-existent in Tamil), but he takes it in his stride. “It’s all in good humour. Having said that, if I wasn’t good enough I wouldn’t have taken a single wicket at the first-class level,” says Hussain.
Belliappa feels Hussain fit the term `team man’ to the T. “He would always put the team above everything else. He would be ready to bat anywhere in the batting order and give his best whenever given the ball. As a captain, I couldn’t have asked for more,” notes P K Belliappa, before adding, “Hussain may have been a great player, but he was a dogooder and that’s what made him such an enduring hu man being.”
Hussain says the strong bonding in the state side is something he will always cherish.”I represented Jolly Rov ers and the state side at a time when they were the strongest. To have been part of a side that had stalwarts such as Rajagopal, Kalyanasundaram, Belliappa was sheer joy ,” notes Hussain, who is currently based in Bengaluru.
(A weekly column on famous sports personalities whose first playing filed was Chennai and its neighbourhood)
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Chennai / by Prasad R S, TNN / August 29th, 2015
Mysore’s V. Ambika heaved the iron ball to a distance of 11.98 metres to win the gold medal in the under-16 girls’ shot put event in the three-day Shriram Properties National inter-district junior athletics meet (NIDJAM), at the Port Diamond Jubilee Stadium, here on Saturday.
Mumbai’s Poorna Rao Rane (11.94) and Chennai girl S.V. Visruti (11.08) settled for silver and bronze respectively.
In the four other finals held on the inaugural day, Tripura’s Afsana Aktar threw the javelin to a distance of 33.37m to take the top honours in the under-16 girls’ event.
Varanasi’s Versha Verma (32.18) and Cuttack’s Priyanka Toppa (30.95) took the silver and bronze medals respectively.
Mohit of Rewari (16.64m) was away ahead of his rivals in under-14 shot put. Thane’s Abhijit Nair (15.93m) and Panipat’s Sourabh (15.76m) were the other podium finishers.
Ranga Reddy’s Manan Venkatesh, with his impressive second leap (6.11m), bagged the coveted yellow metal. Delhi’s Sumit Rohila and Ernakulam’s Aadhinath took home silver and bronze respectively.
AP Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu gave away the medals to the winners.
In the morning the event was inaugurated by a host of ministers and Athletic Federation of India officials including president Adille Sumariwala and Olympian Anju Bobby George.
Maksud Alam Mollah outside his home in Dhulagarh, Howrah. Picture by Anup Bhattacharya
Maksud Alam Mollah won three medals in cycling at the Special Olympics in Los Angeles last month but came back with only two. The 22-year-old can’t recall where and how he misplaced the bronze that he had won in the 5km time trial event.
The only cyclist from Bengal in the Indian contingent has a condition called intellectual disability, characterised by a particularly weak memory. “He must have kept the bronze medal somewhere in the hotel or with a friend and forgotten about it,” said mother Kamruneesa.
Maksud has been taught to write down everything so that he doesn’t forget. But if there’s one thing that this young man from Dhulagarh, in Howrah, doesn’t need to be reminded of, it is how to cycle like a champion.
Maksud is convinced he would have won a fourth medal in Los Angeles with the cycle of his choice. “I had difficulty with the cycle that I was first given. It had a flat handlebar. My personal cycle has a curved handlebar. I couldn’t perform well in the first event because of this,” he recalled.
Athletes don’t take their own equipment to the Special Olympics. The Bharat chapter of the Games arranges everything.
“We changed Maksud’s cycle after we learnt that he was having difficulty riding the first one,” said Ashim Pal, the coach who had accompanied the Bengal contingent.
After that first hiccup and a new cycle, Maksud won a medal each in the three other events he competed in, including gold in the 5km road race and silver in the 10km road race.
To his parents, Maksud misplacing his third Special Olympics medal is just another footnote in his journey from Howrah to Los Angeles.
His elder brother Manzoor has the same condition and almost every day brings a new challenge for Kamruneesa and her husband Abu Sattar Mollah. “We had a zari business but couldn’t sustain it after I fell ill. My wife bought a sewing machine and started taking bulk orders for readymade pyjamas. I now run a small shop for candy and chocolates,” said Abu.
Although life is a struggle, the Mollahs are glad that Maksud has found his mission. “I feel proud of my son,” smiled Kamruneesa.
Only three years ago, the prospects weren’t so bright. Maksud had joined the National Institute for the Mentally Handicapped (NIMH) in Bonhooghly in 2012 with diminished cognitive abilities.
“He was studying in a madarsa but had fallen behind in studies. He couldn’t follow his lessons properly. We had to support and encourage him so that his performance improved. His cognition has since improved, which is why he is being able to perform better in sports as well,” said one of Maksud’s teachers at NIMH.
Help has come in other ways too. “The institute would often waive the fees for Maksud’s education. His coach hasn’t taken his fees for several months,” Kamruneesa said.
At NIMH, Maksud has trained under Tamal Chatterjee, the games teacher who also runs a sports centre called KC Memorial at Kamarhati. “I introduced Maksud to various sports. Through trial and error, I realised that cycling was his strongpoint. He went to the National Games organised by Special Olympics Bharat in Bhopal last year, where he was selected for the Special Olympics in Los Angeles,” Chatterjee said.
The selected athletes were required to attend four camps, where they were tested and trained in behaviour and independence, among other things. Maksud needed time to adjust to the fact that he would have to stay without his mother by his side for some time, Chatterjee recalled.
At KC Memorial, Maksud would practise using Chatterjee’s cycle. He got his own cycle after being selected for the Los Angeles trip.
Some residents of the neighbourhood and the panchayat pradhan of Dhulagarh, Rampada Dhonk, pooled in money for Maksud to buy his first cycle. The West Bengal chapter of Special Olympics Bharat sponsored his gear.
“The central government has announced cash awards for the winners. Gold medallists will be given Rs 5 lakh, silver medallists will receive Rs 3 lakh and bronze medal winners will get Rs 1 lakh each,” said Ashoke Chaki, the treasurer of Special Olympics Bharat, West Bengal.
For Maksud, the wheels of success and recognition have just been set in motion.
source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph, Calcutta,India / Front Page> Calcutta> Story / by Dalia Mukherjee / Tuesday – September 01st, 2015
The holy month of Shrawan brings along several traditions unique to a particular area. Sangam City too has a unique tradition of organizing age-old ‘Ghehre Baazi’ (‘Ghehre’ means steps and ‘Baazi’ means bet) or Ikka Daud (horse cart race) on Yamuna Bank Road on every Monday of the holy month.
The race has a 200-year-old history. The tradition was started by pandas of the city and they have continued to patronize it. Around 1940s, zamindars of Allahabad and neighbouring areas started participating in this unique race.
Winner gets accolades and appreciation of the cheering crowd as a reward for winning the strenuous race. No money is given out. “This public appreciation provides an unexplainable satisfaction for the ‘saais’ (horse keeper),” says Badre Alam, who has participated in at least 30 races and won 10 of them.
Alam’s forefathers were zamindars of Katra. He has continued his family tradition of participating in the race, which he feels “is an example of the Ganga-Jamuni tehzeeb of the region. It is held on Monday of Shrawan. Both Hindus and Muslims participate enthusiastically in this race.” Continuing in the same vein he says, “Shiva signifies ‘shakti’ (power). Horse too symbolizes power. Hence, the race is held in Shrawan.”
“The race is unique in many ways. As per the rule, horses used in commercial activities are banned. Only racing horses can canter (movement of horse wherein it moves in fast steps) and not gallop,” says Badre and adds this race helps horse cart owners prepare for the 14-km-long competitive race held in October-November held on the route between Hanumanganj and Shashtri bridge or Sahson and Phaphamau. “This race too is quite prestigious and witnesses participants from Lucknow, Kanpur, Mirzapur, Pratapgarh etc,” he said.
Badre Alam relies on Sindhi horses for Ikka Daud. “Sindhi horses brought from the Sindh province of Pakistan are the best for the purpose. They have inborn talent for moving fast on sand and not gallop. We bring these horses from the famous animal fair of Barmer,” said Alam.
Even the cart of this unique race is equally special and manufactured in Delhi. The huge wooden wheel and the riding platform are made of Shisham wood and best ball bearings are used to give it required speed.
“Two persons sit on a cart. One handles the horse through leash and another, sitting in the rear, navigates the cart by informing the location of other competitors,” he said Alam.
Another regular participant Lalji Yadav, who has named his horse ‘Bhaiya’, said, “It is a pity that no one cares about offering prize money for the horse. Even pigeons are more fortunate as they at least get a prize after winning tournaments held for them.” He also wants proper security during race. “The district administration should see to it that people don’t jump on the road and no vehicles should be allowed on the track,” he demanded.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Allahabad / by Rajeev Mani, TNN / August 18th, 2015
