The QFI Open Quiz 2007 (Chennai)

Vinod Ganesh of 'Mostly Thoughtless' has announced the The QFI Open Quiz 2007 which is conducted in Chennai.

Apart from being original, well researched and immensely entertaining, the QFI Open also aims at making quizzing a fun experience for everyone involved. It will try and bring to a wider audience the same mix of light-hearted fun and serious high-standard quizzing that is seen at QFI's fortnightly meetings.

Bare-bones details (is that an oxymoron?): For more information see the above link.

Date: 3rd of June 2007 (Sunday)
Schedule: Prelims - 14:00 p.m. and Finals - 15:45 p.m.
Team size: Maximum of 3 members
Registration Fee: Rs. 50 per team. (This fee is waived for school teams. The registration fee must be paid at the registration desk in front before the quiz.)
Venue: 'Tattvaloka' Auditorium
No. 76 (Old No. 138), Eldams Road
Teynampet,
Chennai 600018
Ph: 044 24328124 / 25 / 26
Sample Question: The members of the Muduvar tribe, which inhabits the mountain ranges around Valparai (Tamil Nadu) and Munnar (Kerala) in the Western Ghats, have a unique method for calculating their ages. What is it?
Answer: They calculate their age with the blossoming of the Kurinji flower, which blooms only once every 12 years.

You can read The Hindu's review of the QFI Open 2006 here.

An opportunity for Chennai bloggers to make a team and participate?

Thinking Blogger Award

The Brownie has awarded me the Thinking Blogger Award! Its quite an honour - no, I am not referring to 'getting the award' part, but to the 'who gave it to me' part. Thanks GB. :)

GB has already 'claimed' one blogger from my list, apart from GB herself. But that doesn't matter - there are a large number of bloggers who have made think. I would have liked to cite more than the stipulated 5 bloggers to whom I am passing this meme, but I will stick to the rules.

By the power vested in me, I hereby confer the Thinking Blogger Award to:

Raman - He almost always says things, that is not the 'normal' way of looking at things. He begins by demolishing your own set of assumptions, creates a framework with his set of beliefs and assumptions and makes his point(s), which now seem to make sense. If there is anything that I learnt from his posts, it is being open to alternate viewpoints.

Hip Hop Grandmom - A person from the old guard, open to new thoughts, equally at ease with the young and the old, she is the symbol of stability in this fast changing world. Her posts and comments give solace to the generation that is caught between the two worlds.

Vishesh - A person from the generation to come, surprisingly, talks like an old person, having beliefs of an older generation. He has a wide range of blog interests, as is evidenced by the number of blogs in which he is a co-writer. Has a wide network of friends in blogosphere, and is a keen commenter in many, many blogs.

Itchy or Itching to write blogs - is a person from the present generation, has energy levels that amaze me no end. She is a working mom, looks after twins - her daily routine would send anyone into a tizzy - and a prolific blogger. Her lists, and now, her factual fiction series, are famous amongst her readers.

Rohini - another working mom and a mom-blogger, writes of her experiences in raising her child, coupled with the pressures of her job. She effectively communicates her emotions and feelings involved in the process; for all that her posts are well researched, balanced and cogently presented, revealing the academic in her.

To the five I've tagged, if you choose to pass it on, these are the Thinking Blogger Award rules:

This award was started here. You have to award five others whose blog you think deserve this award. Should you choose to participate, please make sure you pass this list of rules to the blogs you are tagging.

The participation rules are simple:

If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think.
Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme.
Optional: Proudly display the ‘Thinking Blogger Award’ with a link to the post that you wrote.
Please, remember to tag blogs with real merits, i.e. relative content, and above all — blogs that really get you thinking!

Near Death

It's not yet time for my next post, I like to space my posts, as Rajinikant spaces his moveis. :) But then sometimes one has to yield to pressures of real life. One was the promise to give link-love and the other was the availability of a post with a similar theme, which I have been wanting to link for quite sometime.

These posts relate to thoughts, that the bloggers had, when they thought their final moments were imminent.

Umesh - To be at death's door. Umesh has multiple interests that are captured in multiple blogs. His blog on photography, Photography Tip, that he co-writes with others has a truly wonderful collection of pointers to resources in photography. A useful link for people starting out on photography.

Rauf - Mother Earth Alive. Rauf's blog is a veritable treat for photograph lovers, as his posts are liberally peppered with lovely photographs. His blog contains links to other photoblogs.

Update:
Events, good or bad, seem to have the strange habit of happening in batches. After I had published this post, I heard of 2 such instances happening to people I know in the blogworld:

1. Arty - had published a similar post where Navy, Anush, Arty and her mom had a 'miraculous' narrow escape in an automobile mishap. Luckily no one was hurt.
2. Shikha too had a shaky experience in an airplane flight.

What comes through after such experiences is probably a relook at all the things that one wanted to do and to rearrange priorities.

A couple of motivational links

I put up the following links under the "On the spur of the moment" column. But they both deserve to be highlighted with separate posts.

“Professions for Women” is an abbreviated version of the speech Virginia Woolf delivered before a branch of the National Society for Women’s Service on January 21, 1931. (Link provided by Brownie).

What Am I Doing Here? seems to be the constant refrain of Adrianna Tan's life. (Link provided in Kathambamaalai by Premalatha.)

My comments would be superfluous - read for yourselves.

Literary lists, The Potter Saga Prophecies and so on...

I've always kept my distance from the literary types, being of the view that they would be dreadful bores, and would talk in some abstruse language, that I wouldn't understand. But The Brownie undid my misconception - but then for every rule there is an exception, and as they say, the exception proves the rule. See how poor my understanding of the English language is. :(

Recently I was pleasantly surprised to read Manasi, another literature student from that eminent institution - The Star of The Sea college. Far from being boring, her posts were quite engaging with their conversational style.

She discusses the Times list of 100 greatest books of the century in her post - Listlessness.

And the post, The Prophet Speaks, in which she prophecies the possible turns the final Harry Potter book would take, is ever so delectable. From that post I was surprised to know that there are people, who write books (and make money) on what will happen in HP7!

Happy weekend. :)

I dont lend books...

...so says Pingu...- a self-confessed book addict and book collector. She is quite the martinet when it comes to lending books. See what she has to say on the subject:

....Even when I very graciously, on very rare occasions, agree to lend someone a book; I, like a veritable pain in the neck, keep repeating my set of instructions on ‘How to Hold a Book While Reading.’

Yes, there are certain rules to be followed:

* The book must be covered in a temporary newspaper or brown paper cover.
* While reading the odd-numbered pages, one can/must hold...

Adoption

Today CNN-IBN was flashing a 'news' item about baby Shiv being given for adoption to a family after a court battle - read Court gives abandoned baby to millionaire family.

In my youth, after reading 'inspirational stories' in Reader's Digest, in a bout of idealism, I too had often harboured visions of having adopted children. I remember that some friends of ours, a childless couple by choice, had adopted a boy and a girl. I used to be surprised that they had decided to have only adopted children, because I think it requires mental maturity and strength to be able to do it. Today, if I ask myself whether I am mentally prepared to adopt a child, my response would be no. I think I dont possess the mental reserve to take up such a commitment.

From what they said, I gathered that the legal adoption process in India, was a rigorous and often times a time-consuming process. And not without reason - they check the background of the prospective parents, their marital stability, financial stability, mental preparedness and various other parameters.

Recently in Indian Mommies, in a debate on whether one should have the second baby or not, some mommies had expressed the desire to adopt a second child.

I thought it might be useful to share some information regarding the adoption process in India. (Courtesy: Google) :)

To start with one can see the FAQ section of indianngos.com - which gives a brief outline of the process through its FAQ.

ICHILD - India Adoption Resources - is a website and mailing list, that gives support to persons who are thinking of adoption. I quote from their web-site:

The purpose of the ICHILD WEB SITE & MAILING LISTS would hopefully be to offer a source of inspiration, information, support & resources for those interested in adoption from India and the subcontinent. And of course, to help bring together prospective adoptive parents and children in India who wait for their families.

This link takes you to the adoption process page from their site.

Alliance for Children is an adoption agency that places children with adoptive parents.

The Alliance for Children, Inc. is a non-profit international adoption agency based in Massachusetts, serving families throughout the USA.

We have placed thousands of children from around the world in permanent adoptive homes.

They are currently not accepting applications for adoption of children from India.

Catalysts for Social Action (CSA) - This site also provides some info on in-country adoption process, costs etc.

Catalysts for Social Action (CSA) is a Social Welfare Organization promoted by Kale Consultants Ltd., India, a reputed IT Consulting Company with global presence. CSA commenced operations in September 2002. We work on Child Welfare which includes Adoption, Foster Care, and Institutionalised Rehabilitation. Our specific focus is on Adoption. A key role for us is to work as Catalysts / Change Agents. Our aim is to enhance the total number of adoptions in the country. Also, to work towards better child care while the child is institutionalized.

CARA - Central Adoption Resource Agency - this site provides information on adoption in/from India. One can download relevant forms too from here.

Central Adoption Resource Agency is an autonomous body under the Ministry of Women & Child Development, which functions as the Central Authority of the Government of India in matters related to adoptions.

Read their FAQ.

Here is a review in The Hindu of , "Adoption in India - Policies and Experiences", a book by Vinita Bhargava.

I have obtained all the above information from the web. The information is neither comprehensive nor definitive.