Praggnanandhaa missed out on becoming the youngest ever by three months with Sergey Karjakin of Ukraine holding the record of being the youngest Grandmaster in the world at 12 years, 7 months
Chennai :
Chennai’s 12-year-old Praggnanandhaa who has brought laurels to the country after becoming the world’s second youngest chess grandmaster got a rousing reception in the city. A student of Velammal School, Praggnanandhaa was felicitated at the airport by his teachers and classmates.
“I am very happy. I started playing when I was three years old. My sister is my inspiration,” said Praggnanandhaa whose sister is an international women’s champion in chess.
Coming from a middle class family in Chennai’s Mugapair, Praggnanandhaa did not have a very easy ride. The family struggled financially till the boy got a sponsor in 2015.
His mother said, “He is a small boy. It was difficult to manage his tour abroad. I used encourage him, especially when he was defeated. Till he got a sponsor, I struggled a lot financially.”
“We never forced him to join the game. It is a joyous moment for all of us. We are proud of him,” Praggnanandhaa father Ramesh Babu told ANI.
“We didn’t expect anything. We left in god’s grace and his natural gift,” he added.
Legendary Viswanathan Anand lauded Praggnanandhaa’s feat and he will be meeting the young achiever soon.
___________________________
Vishwanathan Anand
✔@vishy64theking
Welcome to the club & congrats Praggnanandhaa!! See u soon in chennai?
____________________
He got his third Grand Master at the age of 12 years and 10 months.
Praggnanandhaa won his first Grand Master norm at the World Junior Championships in Tarvisio in November 2017. He achieved his second norm by winning the Herkalion Fischer Memorial Grand Master Norm tournament in Greece in April earlier this year.
He missed out on becoming the youngest ever by three months with Sergey Karjakin of Ukraine holding the record of being the youngest Grandmaster in the world at 12 years, 7 months – a feat achieved in 2002.
(With Inputs From ANI)
source: http://www.ndtv.com / NDTV / Home> Tamil Nadu> Section / by Richa Taneja (with inputs from ANI) / June 27th, 2018
M. Savithru displaying his micro carvings on pencil tips. | Photo Credit: M_Periasamy
A 24-year-old engineering graduate from Coimbatore is attempting to get into Universal Book of Records (World Records) through micro art carved on pencil tips.
M. Savithru completed his B.Tech in Fashion Technology and is passionate about micro art since the age of 16. He has carved Tamil letters, statues of leaders like Kamaraj, Jayalalithaa, and Nethaji on the pencil tips.
Apart from pencil tips, he has done carvings in soaps, chalk piece, fruits and vegetables too. He attempted to enter the Universal Book of World Records on January 24 this year by making 100 carvings from 1.10 p.m. on January 24 to 1.10 p.m. the next day. He had created 30 micro arts on pencil tips, 50 in soaps, 10 in chalk pieces and another 10 in vegetables and fruits. His attempt was witnessed by a representative from the Universal Book of Records.
He also plans to enter the Guinness Book of World Records by creating world’s tiny chess board in the size of 1 cm x 1 cm, as the previous world record was 1.53 cm x 1.53 cm.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Coimbatore / by R. Arivanathan / Coimbatore – June 25th, 2018
A device that helps school children with kinesthetic dyslexia has bagged the top honours at the Smart India Hackathon 2018 – Hardware Edition under the ‘Smart Communication’ category held at the CSIR-CEERI here.
A brainchild of students from KCJ College of Engineering, Chennai, the device makes life easier for dyslexic kids who find it difficult to read, write or interpret words, letters and other symbols.
The second and third spots went to the teams from Bengaluru and Delhi respectively for coming up with a solution to the perennial problem of lost baggage at airports.
This was the second edition of the hackathon, a national level technical event conducted by the Union Human Resources Development Ministry to harness the creativity and energy of the country’s youth and boost the digital India initiative.
In the first stage, 27 ministries and departments and 17 state governments shared their problems on the website.
Following that, over one lakh students from more than 1,200 high schools sent in their solutions to the ministry.
The grand finale was held on Friday at 10 major centres including the CSIR-CEERI, Pilani, IIT-Kharagpur, IIT-Kanpur, IIT-Roorkee and IISC Bengaluru. Before the prize distribution ceremony, Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar addressed the participants through video conferencing.
While appreciating the efforts of the participants, he interacted with two teams each from every centre.
Underlining the importance of the event, Javadekar said innovation was of utmost importance for a country like India. The students are talented and they must contribute to the development of the country with their creativity.
Speaking at the inauguration ceremony of the event earlier, the minister had said that the 27 inventions, developed by students in the previous edition of the hackathon, were in the final phase of testing and will be put to use soon.
At the CSIR-CEERI finale, a total of 13 teams had participated with six members each.
The other teams too presented their hardware prototypes that could help in solving a range of issues from preventing forest fires to issuing flood warning.
Notably, a team of students from Kolkata’s Guru Nanak Institute of Technology showcased a pair special gloves for mute people that can convert the hand gestures of the individual into audio format using a smartphone app.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> News> Education / by PTI / June 24th, 2018
Students can visit the museum at Manjoor that has an array of equipment and photographs
The hydro-electric museum which was inaugurated recently at Manjoor, boasting more than 600 pieces of equipment and historical photographs, aims to highlight the history of hydro-electric power, and the Nilgiris’ key role in electrifying Tamil Nadu till the second half of the 20th Century.
The museum, believed to be the only one of its kind in India, has been set up to not only detail the history of the various hydro-electric projects across the State and country, but to also serve as a centre for documentation for students and researchers to delve into, and to learn about the early techniques used for dam construction, operation and maintenance.
S. Ragu, Superintending Engineer, Kundah Hydro-Electric Circle, told The Hindu the museum highlights the roles of the people responsible for introducing hydro-electric power to Tamil Nadu and India, like the first chairman of the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board, V.P. Appadurai Mudaliar, who travelled to Canada and brought back expertise.
“In fact, the Sri Appadurai Collection in the museum comprises photographs and documentation brought back by the man himself after his trip to Canada,” said Mr. Ragu.
The museum also emphasises the crucial role the power stations played in fuelling the economies of the surrounding districts, including Coimbatore. Mr. Ragu pointed out that the Singara power station helped power the textile mills and other industries in Coimbatore. “We also have pictures and documentation of the now demolished, temporary power station at Glenmorgan, which used to produce around 1 megawatt of electricity for the Nilgiris,” he added.
One of the most striking exhibits at the museum is a series of 52 photographs documenting, step-by-step, the construction of the Emerald Dam. Each row contains images of the left and right banks, as well as the centre of the dam, showcasing in great detail not only the scale of the project, but also the thousands of workers engaged in the construction.
“The Kundah dam was constructed over a three-and-a-half-year period with over 10,000 workers reportedly working each day,” said Mr. Ragu.
V.R. Thimmarayappan, who joined the Kundah hydro-electric circle as Junior Engineer in 1961 shortly after its completion, and who was on a visit to the museum, said that the museum was showcasing instruments and equipment that have been in use since the early 1930s. “As the golden era of dam constructions have come to an end, college students and people interested in learning about the history of the various dams across Tamil Nadu must pay a visit to the museum,” he said.
It has taken officials more than a year to collect the items that are currently on display, including survey equipment, prepaid electricity meters, phone booths and other technical equipment that were installed in the power plants. Most of the items were rescued from scrap heap and restored to their original condition before being put on display. Mr. Ragu said the museum was open to visit by college students or of any educational institution.
“As the interest in the museum will be from a purely technical perspective, we feel that engineering students and students pursuing higher education will stand to gain the most from the visit. They are free to do so after getting permission from us,” said Mr. Ragu.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Coimbatore / by Rohan Premkumar / Udhagamandalam – June 19th, 2018
With his parents assisting him, a school student develops a mask with vetiveru
Inquisitiveness is at the root of innovation. Arul Srivastav, a Class VI student of a city school, has illustrated this, through a rare experiment he has conducted with the roots of Chrysopogon Zizanioides, called vetiveru in Tamil.
Two years ago, with the assistance of his parents, Arul Srivastav, now a Class VI student of Vanavani Matriculation Higher Secondary School located on the IIT Campus on Sardar Vallababhai Patel Road, Adyar, designed an anti-pollution mask with vetiveru.
“Vetiveru root is ubiquitous at our home. When boiling water, we add it to the water. I add it to my hair oil. Arul wanted to find out if he could ‘add’ it to a customised anti-pollution mask,” says Arul’s mother, Vijaya.
So, Arul’s parents — M. Vijaya and Abhishek Srivastav — encouraged him to make a mask from vetiveru roots. When Arul reached a stage where he had to make a filter, his parents took him to screen weavers found near Aavin Park at Adyar signal.
Arul and his parents also learnt to how to weave vetiveru roots. Vijaya helped Arul weave the roots into a triangular filter, measuring 10cm x 8cm. This was then wrapped within a soft net. His parents then took him to an automobile pollution testing centre at a petrol bunk in Thiruvanmiyur to check the efficacy of his filter.
“A simple test was carried out at the centre. Vehicular emissions from a car and a bike were first noted. With the vetiveru filter fitted to the exhaust pipes of the vehicles, emissions tests were again conducted. The readings were noted down. And, the report proved the efficacy of the vetiveru filter,” says Vijaya. Arul sent the findings of the project, which Vijaya put together for him, to the Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam IGNITE Awards, instituted by the National Innovation Foundation – India. The Foundation, located at Ahmedabad, is an autonomous body under the Department of Science and Technology. The aim of the award is develop scientific temper and innovation among children.
Soon, to Arul’s pleasant surprise, Foundation sent a letter, stating that his innovation had secured the “accepted” status, which means the applicant has substantiated his innovation and that the innovation is qualified for documentation.
“Similar tests should be conducted for smoke emanated from industrial chimneys. If hazardous emissions were found to be filtered by using vetiveru filter, then appropriate measures should be taken to contain air pollution,” suggests Arul.
Arul and his parents live at Kandhasamy Nagar in Palavakkam.
For details, call 95434 96569.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Chennai / by L. Kanthimathi / June 15th, 2018
Twenty-seven-year-old M.K. Hema Chandran lifts gym plates weighing 22.5 kg using his nails.
Every fifth record in the India Book of Records is from the State
Twenty-seven-year-old M.K. Hema Chandran, a juggler by profession, is obsessed with setting records. Six months ago, he lifted gym plates weighing 22.5 kg using his nails. “I grew my nails for seven months and then made a hole in them. I then inserted a nylon rope with which I lifted the plates,” he said. He now holds a record for the heaviest weight lifted using a fingernail.
Last year, Lokesh Jey, CEO of The Sight Media, put out a Facebook post saying that he was recuriting meme engineers. In a week’s time, his inbox was flooded with over 400 resumes. “I received so many meme samples from arcoss India. That’s when I decided to bring all the meme creators together and attempt a record,” he said. The online meme marathon saw over 21,619 memes created in three hours — a record.
Far from being stray instances, Hema Chandran and Jey are part of a growing band of record-setters. In fact, Tamil Nadu is a leader when it comes to records. “It is the leading state in terms of record holders. We receive the most number of applications from there and they make it to the record book too,” said Biswaroop Roy Chowdhury, chief editor of the India Book of Records.
He explained by stating that every fifth record is from Tamil Nadu. At an all-India level, every year close to 10,000 record attempts are made and approximately 1,000 make it to the record book.
Vivek Raja, adjudicator and state head (Tamil Nadu and Kerala), India Book of Records, said that in the last two years a lot of youngsters were aggressively attempting to set records in various fields.
For instance, the Centre for Innovation at IIT-Madras organised an event wherein a team of students fabricated 45 manually controlled floor cleaning robots. In March 2017, the Bannari Amman Institute of Technology organised one where 1,023 Android apps were developed in 12 hours. Both were recorded in the book. Several records have been set across Tamil Nadu in Bharatanatyam. Dancers set records for things like the most mudras performed by an individual in the least time.
According to the India Book of Records, the average age of the record holders is between 25 and 30 years. “Nowadays more women are creating records and smashing earlier ones. They comprise 33-37% of all record holders,” said Mr. Raja.
He added that even government organisations were getting creative and attempting to set records. In December 2017, the Handicrafts Marketing and Service Extension Centre, Salem, which falls under the Ministry of Textiles, Government of India, crafted a 107x45x2 cm replica of a ₹1,000 note.
Fake records
Both Mr. Raja and Mr. Chowdhury cautioned people attempting to set records to go through the right channel, and stay away from fake organisations. “On average we receive 10 to 12 complaints every month. It seems there is a dire need of a regulatory body in India to regularize the norms and prevent fake record books,” Mr. Chowdhury said.
Two chefs set up the highest altitude pop-up restaurant in the world
Chennai-based Soundararajan P, Corporate Executive Chef at Mahindra Resorts and Holidays, India, and Sanjay Thakur, Chef at Etihad Airways, called their mission Project Triyagyoni (which translates to organic Nature in Sanskrit)and it was was certified by Guinness World Records as the world’s highest pop-up restaurant at 5,585 metres, the first record of its kind. Set up on May 30, the pop-up was certified by the Guinness authorities on June 2. An aerial survey was done by the representatives of the Guinness World Records to assess the pop-up and its height.
“Sanjay Thakur, had already done an 80-kilometre trek up the Himalayas, and when we met at one of the Club Mahindra Resorts at Naldehra in Shimla, we took Thakur’s idea of cooking on the highest altitude on earth a step further, and Project Triyagyoni came into being,” says Soundararajan.
The pop-up was set up at Imja Tse (popularly known as Island Peak), tucked away up the Chukkung valley, flanked by the stupendous Lhotse/Nuptse South Wall to the north and Baruntse to the south, making it seem like an actual island amid the gigantic mountains. At a temperature between three and five degrees centigrade, it took the team all of eight hours to set up, and three hours to cook. The meal was served to trekkers who were scaling the Himalayas to get to Imja Tse and the higher peaks.
They reached there after a choppy and nerve-racking helicopter flight from Lukla to Kathmandu, before proceeding to climb. The chefs and their team of seven foraged the scattered Himalayan flora and fauna on their way to their destination to supplement what they had bought at Namche Bazaar, a small town in Solukhumbu district. They collected mint, oregano, small green chillies, green onions, yak cheese and Rhododendron flowers amongst other things. The fresh unadulterated ingredients heightened their experience of cooking in the Himalayas. The team ensured that it was a zero-trash project, and kept the meal, the cooking, the dining area and even the furniture eco-friendly and left nothing behind on the mountains.
Their menu included traditional Indian recipes as well as dishes borrowed from Nepalese cuisine. “We cooked a total of seven dishes, including shisno mousse with mushrooms that we had foraged locally, and basa fish with wild spinach,” says Soundararajan. They also made daal bhat arancini stuffed with nak cheese, which is made from yak’s milk. The cheese is pressed to get rid of the water and then dried over a wood fire which gives it its smoky taste. The dish is served with herbal lemon tea. And on the menu for dessert was yak milk panna cotta.
Soundararajan says he worked hard on his physical fitness before the mission. He had been practising pranayama, and also began to walk 10 kilometres a day. The pranayama helped him with his breathing in the high altitude.
Even so, he says he doesn’t clearly remember a lot of the trip, as people get forgetful, thanks to the drop in oxygen supply to the brain. It also made the cooking process more challenging: the food took longer than usual to cook.
Nepalese lore has it, that sometime in the 90s, there was once a famished Australian, by the name of James Scott, who had to wait for 43 days — lost in the Nepalese Himalayas — to be found and fed. Wouldn’t stumbling upon a pop-up like this have been heavenly for the poor man?
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Life & Style> Travel / by Rajashree Das / June 13th, 2018
An Ironman Triathlon is an extreme form of the Triathalon and consists of a 3.86-km swim, a 180-km bicycle ride and a 42.2-km marathon run, raced in that order and without a break. I
It was a warm evening in Port Elizabeth, South Africa; the sun had just begun to sink over the horizon. Raghul Sankaranarayanan vaguely remembers the crowds lined up across the last kilometre cheering the weary contestants on. What’s clearly etched in his mind is the pain — the pain from having swum 3.8 kms, cycled 180 kms and run 42.2 kms without a break in the last 11 hours.
With each thud of his shoes on the asphalt, he felt an electric pain shoot up from his ankles to his knees. There was a spasm on his right hamstring, which was close to locking up. He crossed the finish line and looked at his watch: it read 10 hours, 56 minutes and 59 seconds.
Raghul was speechless. He had just broken the Indian record of 11 hours and 3 minutes jointly held by Kaustabh Radkar and Akshay Samel. He was now officially the fastest Indian Ironman.
An Ironman Triathlon is an extreme form of the Triathalon and consists of a 3.86-km swim, a 180-km bicycle ride and a 42.2-km marathon run, raced in that order and without a break. It is widely considered one of the most gruelling one-day sporting events in the world, with a limited time of 17 hours to complete the race.
Sankaranarayanan recalls that day — April 15 — at Port Elizabeth. He says, “Everything started off badly that morning. The ocean was a bit choppy and I exceeded my goal by 2 mins, which for a swimming leg is quite a lot. To make matters worse, the aerobar on my bike broke loose at around 20 kms.”
“The aero bar is where the cyclist leans and places his elbow on, and this position helps cut wind resistance,” Sankaranarayanan explains, “I had to ride the remaining 160 kms in more of an upright position, causing me to slow down a bit and also causing my right hamstring to become a bit sore.”
“As I got off my bike at the 180-km mark, my right hamstring cramped up and the organisers had to carry me off to the side. I sat on the side of the road for a couple of minutes, wondering whether to continue or not. I still had a full marathon to run. But thankfully, after walking for a couple of kilometres, the hamstring eased up and I was able to start running at my normal pace,” he says.
The accidental athlete
Sankaranarayanan was not a born athlete. He played no sport in school and his first exposure to exercise was when he was doing marine engineering in Pune, where it was compulsory for the students to go for a 3-km run every morning. After moving to Chennai for his job, Sankaranarayanan started trekking with the Chennai Trekking Club on weekends in the hills and forest areas of Tamil Nadu and nearby states like Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala. In March 2012, the club organised a mini triathlon, which consisted of a 750-metre swim, a 20-km cycle ride and a 5-km run. Though he struggled to finish the race, he was buoyed by it. He started training seriously, taking part in triathlons organised by the club, including a half Ironman in August 2012.
He participated in his first official Ironman in Malaysia in 2014. After completing the race in 15 hours, he was officially recognised as an ‘Ironman’ for the first time.
Sankaranarayanan says his plan for the future is to continue participating in triathlons across the world for the next 10 years. What drives him to push his body to the limit? “I’ve discovered that it’s in pushing myself beyond my comfort zone that I learn more about myself. When people talk of Ironman, they associate it with the body being as strong as iron,” he says, “But what it means to me is the strength that comes from overcoming the things I thought I couldn’t. Endurance training has taught me that true strength is not the iron of the body, but the iron within.”
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Life & Style> Fitness / by Reji Varghese / June 11th, 2018
The Daibutsu in Tōdai-ji , the world’s largest bronze statue of Buddha. | Photo Credit: Getty Images/ iStock
The oldest recorded Indian in Japan impacts the country’s culture even today
The Indian diaspora in Japanhas historically been small, but has encompassed a colourful cast, from revolutionaries to textile traders. The oldest documented Indian resident in Japan, and arguably the most influential, was Bodhisena, a monk from Madurai whose outsized impact on Japanese culture persists even some 1,300 years after he docked on the archipelago’s shores.
Bodhisena, or Bodaisenna as his name is pronounced in Japanese, was born around 704 AD. His life and journeys exemplify the multi-directional flows of Buddhist influence and the complex ways in which these tied swathes of Asia into a civilisational embrace. Like many South Asian Buddhist monks, Bodhisena came to believe that Manjushri (the bodhisattva of wisdom) lived on the Chinese mountain of Wutai, and therefore travelled there to pay obeisance. While in China, he met the Japanese ambassador to the Tang court, who persuaded him to carry on to Japan on the invitation of the then Emperor, Shomu (701-756 AD), a devout Buddhist.
Influence of Sanskrit
Bodhisena voyaged to Japan via Cambodia and Champa (central and southern Vietnam) with a gaggle of theological glitterati that collectively shaped much of the contours of Japanese Buddhism and courtly culture.
On board was Genbo, a bureaucrat of Emperor Shomu’s court at Nara, who had spent 17 years in China collecting over 5,000 Buddhist texts. Another shipmate, Kibi no Makibi, is linked to the development of the Japanese syllabary and script of katakana, still in use today. The influence of Sanskrit on katakana is sometimes attributed to the time Makibi spent travelling with, and learning from, Bodhisena. Makibi also introduced to Japan the art of Chinese embroidery, as well as the lyre, which as the koto, became a standard feature of Japanese court music.
The Indian themes
A disciple of Bodhisena from Champa, Buttetsu, rounded off the band of monastic travellers. Buttetsu went on to teach a style of dance that featured themes taken from Indian mythology, set to a musical rhythm, common in South Asia, but unknown at the time in Japan. These dances became known as rinyugaku and were absorbed into the local artistic oeuvre.
Bodhisena’s ship docked at Osaka in 736 AD and the group made their way to the capital: Nara. It was during the Nara era (710-784 AD) that Buddhism, buttressed by learnings from Tang dynasty China, became firmly established in Japan, overcoming initial resistance from the Shinto-devoted elite. Under Emperor Shomu Buddhism was granted official recognition as a religion that was a “protector of the state.” Temples in Nara began to accumulate vast landholdings and wielded huge political influence.
The Kegon school
Bodhisena’s arrival in the capital took place within this context. Until then, Japan’s knowledge of Buddhism had been entirely mediated through either Korea or Japan. As an Indian, Bodhisena was immediately held in reverence and housed at Daian-ji temple, the preeminent education and research institute for Buddhism at the time. The Indian monk taught Sanskrit and helped establish the Kegon school of Buddhism, a variant of the Chinese Huayan school. He died in 760 AD and is buried in Ryusenji-temple on the slopes of Mt. Omine.
The Tōdai-ji temple | Photo Credit: Wiki Commons
Unlike some historical Buddhist sects, the Kegon continues to flourish today, with its headquarters at Nara’s Tōdai-ji temple, a Unesco World Heritage site. Founded in 738 AD and officially opened in 752 AD, Tōdai-ji is best known for its 500-tonne, 15-metre-high Buddha — the largest bronze statue in the world.
The gargantuan sculpture, known as the Daibutsu, was commissioned by the Emperor in hope of gaining divine favour and thereby reversing the effects of a devastating drought, compounded by an outbreak of smallpox that had ravaged the area in 737AD.
The hall that houses the Daibutsu is one of the world’s largest wooden structures. It is Nara’s most popular tourist draw and is thronged with visitors from around the world. After gawping at the Daibutsu, they usually head to a hole in one of the pillars that holds up the edifice. According to legend, the hole is the exact size of one of the Buddha statue’s nostrils and anyone who crawls through it will gain enlightenment, albeit in their next life. No one seems to know the exact dimensions of the hole/ nostril, but it is large enough for a child to tunnel through with relative ease. A number of adult Chinese tourists attempt to pass, but all get stuck at the hip.
To one side of the main temple are the living quarters of the Morimoto family, the head priests of Tōdai-ji. The lodgings comprise a series of low-roofed rooms, interconnected by covered walkways, overlooking classical Japanese gardens, dotted with pine trees and rockeries. Seated in a reception area facing a late-blooming, weeping cherry tree, Kosei Moritomo sips from a cup of green tea. The Elder Moritomo (as he is respectfully known) has retired as the 218th head of Tōdai-ji and leader of the Kegon school of Buddhism. But he remains sprightly, his eyes lively and darting when he talks of Bodhisena, as though an old friend.
He dwells on the role of the Indian monk in the consecration ceremony of the Daibutsu. For it was Bodhisena, of all the eminent Buddhist scholars in Nara at the time, who was chosen to perform the statue’s “eye opening” ceremony. In front of a huge, cosmopolitan gathering that included ambassadors from Persia, Korea, Vietnam, China and Central Asia, Bodhisena painted the pupils on the eyes of the Buddha statue, inviting the spirit in to animate the sculpture.
“I think in India you understand about the spirit coming into the statue?” the Elder Moritomo asks. “It is a very difficult concept to explain to Westerners.” The former head priest turns reflective. He says that Japan has tried to dominate the world first by military means and then with its electronic industry. Both failed. “I believe it is in Buddhism that it can most exert an global influence,” he concludes.
Then he smiles and offers this writer another cup of tea.
The writer is a globetrotter who is currently parked in Japan.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Society> History & Culture / by Pallavi Aiyar / June 09th, 2018
WWDC 2018: Calzy, an elegantly designed calculator app, by Chennai-based developer Raja Vijayaram won the Apple Design Award.
Apple WWDC 2018: Chennai-based developer Raja Vijayaram won the Apple Design Award for his app
It was a surprise Raja Vijayaram will never forget. When he packed his bags for Apple WWDC from Chennai, Raja has no idea he would be on stage receiving an Apple Design Award on Day 1 of the developer conference. His app Calzy, an elegantly designed calculator app, had been picked up by Apple for the awards and Raja had been flown in to San Jose without being told that he was a winner. So there Raja was on stage in his Rajnikanth T-shirt with the world watching his reimagining of the calculator.
“I had no idea. I thought I would be meeting people at WWDC,” says the unassuming man from Chennai. In fact, Raja’s story is a fascinating one. A mechanical engineer from Theni, he switched over to VFX a few years on and moved to Chennai where he worked on a few movies, even some starring Rajinikanth himself. “That’s when I bought my first iPhone and used apps. I taught myself about apps and even learnt to code,” says Raja, who is not sure if his time as a graphics artist is helping with his design thinking.
Either way, it is the out-of-the-box design concept behind Calzy that is blowing everyone away. In fact, Raja’s calculator is as simple as a calculator can be and there is nothing there that does not need to be there. So he removed the memory functions and created his own flow for the same with drag and drop. He’s also added an expression view, where you can see all the steps you are following. There is a scientific calculator too, but hidden away behind settings which is pulled up using 3D touch.
The Calzy 3 app is priced Rs 159 and is available only on iOS, but across works across all Apple devices from the Mac to Apple Watch. In fact, the app from Raja’s WapleStuff works as a Today Widget and even an iMessage extension.
Another interesting feature is the bookmark option for earlier calculations you might have done, along with the ability to put those behind a password. Also, everything about the app is customisable and you can even set a button to calculate a specific tax on the amount.
Raja’s Calzy app was launched in 2014.
Raja is a one-an army and does everything himself. Calzy was first launched in 2014 and the latest version is a full revamp of the earlier one. Though flooded by requests for more features, Raja is certain he wants to keep it as simple as possible. This calculation is clearly working for Calzy.
Disclaimer: The writer is in San Jose attending WWDC 2018 at the invite of Apple India
source: http://www.indianexpress.com / The Indian Express / Home> Technology> Social / by Nandagopal Rajan / June 06th, 2018
