City-based lawyer Ashok Daniel on what it takes to be the first Indian to complete the Tor des Geants, one of the most gruelling trail races in the world
The Alps stands defiantly outside of time as we know it. Stretching across the spine of Europe, this sky-soaring mountain range has dared warriors Hannibal, Napoleon and Hitler to set foot on its flanks. Its gentler slopes have invited the Romantics, naturalists and alpinists to roam beautiful paths and celebrate a heritage of cheese and watch-making. But to conquer its massifs such as Mont Blanc and Matterhorn, you need to be a giant, one whose strides can summit its peaks with as much ease as its valleys, when running one of the world’s toughest mountain races, the Tor des Geants. Chennai-based lawyer, 26-year-old Ashok Daniel recently became the first Indian to run across Italy’s Aosta Valley, named after the imperial Augustus, to successfully complete the race.
Daniel, who was schooled and educated in Chennai and Nottingham, is now senior counsel with a law firm that specialises in Intellectual Property rights. An ultra-runner for five years now, he grew up an overweight kid who shammed at the gym and tried many ways to lose weight till he discovered running. When he walks in for the interview, Daniel is as fit and tight as a coiled spring, his obese past well behind him.
“I lost eight kilograms over a week,” laughs Daniel. “The race spans a distance of nearly 330 kilometres and an altitude of 28,000 metres across 25 passes. You need to finish in 150 hours with intermediate cut-offs at checkpoints which means you average 50-60 kilometres and heights of 4,000-5,000 metres a day. You are lucky if you can run on level ground for at least 10 kilometres. That happened only around the 275th kilometre; by then my legs felt nothing.”
Every year, the Tor des Geants is run in September, beginning and ending in Courmayeur, an Italian town that is home to Europe’s highest botanical garden. Running through the day and night at such altitudes puts runners at risk of hypothermia, disorientation and the possibility of gently expiring within view of the Matterhorn. Trail running also means changing your stride every now and then, bounding past obstacles and scrambling through scree and obtuse rock faces.
“On Day 4 and 5, the nights were down to 10 degrees Centigrades, the streams were frozen and my lips were bleeding. Trail races are not just about putting one foot in front of another; one moment you are on the valley floor, the next you are close to the sky. Tor des Geants has a trail only up to tree cover; its alpine zone is completely rocky and verglassed and there are ropes and ladders to help you. But, it can be frustrating at night even with crampons and hiking poles. You can’t switch off and when you see someone being rescued by helicopter you stop hallucinating and drag your mind back to the present,” says Daniel, who slept for one to two hours a day. “That’s what you train for, else you don’t finish. There are days you don’t want to get out because it’s so cold. But, the views are spectacular and you can see the seasons change from summer to fall to early winter.”
For this race that saw 880 people begin and only 53 % finish, Daniel has been preparing over the past year. In 2016, he was the youngest Indian to complete the Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc (UTMB) that covers three countries and 10 alpine summits. Earlier, he had done the North Face Lavaredo Ultra Trail that runs through the Italian Dolomites. And, in June, he ran the Old Dominion in the Shenandoah Mountains, US. After the Tor des Geants, Daniel went on to complete the Malnad Ultra and another at Reunion Islands.
The runner, who turned vegetarian two years ago, and acclimatised in Manali, Spiti and Chamonix before he set off, says ultra running is both about kit preparation and an understanding of your own capabilities. “Training in Chennai’s humidity helps build endurance. However, when you scramble past suspended hunks of ice it calls for both physical and psychological strength. Tor des Geants is very professionally organised. At 650 Euros, everything from mountain rescue to cubicles and food is taken care of,” says Daniel, hoping ultra racing will grow in India that has the world’s highest mountains.
Daniel is now training to run the Petite Trotte a Leon. A team race within the framework of the UTMB, this one has no trails and calls for finding your route with GPS trackers and maps. When it’s time to leave, he says he’d like another go at the Tor des Geants. But why, I ask incredulously. “The race ends in the heart of the town to the peal of bells. People are giving out beer and ice cream and yelling your name. You run through old Roman roads, historic towns and spectacular scenery. When they see the name of the country on your bib, it gets you many cheers. And, when you finish the race wearing the gilet, the Tricolour around you and hit that high note of positivity, you know you are home.”
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Chennai / by Deepa Alexander / October 25th, 2017
The audience was silent and tense, with heads rapidly turning from the auctioneer to the two people engaged in a heated bidding match. “Going once, going twice, sold at 10,500!” he yelled. A balding man sniggered and instructed his accountant to write a cheque. The two bidders, accustomed to such thrilling encounters, shook hands. Kannan, a first-timer at the auction house mumbled discreetly: “I could have bought what they were fighting over in Chennai’s Pondy Bazaar for Rs600. This was an ego match.”
Murray and Company, which started out in Chennai’s Parrys’ area, opposite the high court on Thambu Chetty Street, has been thriving for the last 90 years. It started off by auctioning properties from the Madras high court and eventually became a household name in the 1960s.
In the 1920s, the last functioning British auction house, Dowden and Company, which worked out of Broadway in Chennai, moved back to the UK. Two years after Dowden’s departure, the government of India and the Madras high court expressed a need for auctioneers in the city. That year S Vedantam and his brother S Rajam started Murray and Company as an auctioneering firm specialising in immovable properties.
In 1930, a building that later became the Life Insurance Corporation’s office (and has now been demolished) functioned as the headquarters of the auction house. Everything from used machines and vehicles, industrial processes and maintenance scrap, unused spares, stock, and unclaimed cargo were sold off here. Thus began the custom of the famed Sunday Murray and Company auction.
The thrill of the bid
Hemant Srivatsa, the auctioneer and one of the two partners of the auctioning and valuing firm, sat on a plush teakwood podium. Two men held up a gold plated imitation of a Ram Durbar painting. Srivatsa looked at the article and smirked. “My problem with this Durbar is that everyone is standing,” he said. But the audience was in bidding mode, and the wisecrack was lost in the confusion over the valued price.
“Bring an almirah, bring a toy, bring industrial scrap, bring your grandfather’s chair, Murray’s will handle it!” Kannan had said describing the auction held at Gemini Tower on Oct. 01. At least some of the 100-150 people present were seated on the antique chairs and sofas put up for auction. Many were present only for the spectacle and thrill.
Sujan Gangadhar, Srivatsa’s partner in the firm, took the dais and sighed looking at the clock. A hundred and seventy-six items still had to be auctioned in two-and-a-half hours. He positioned his glasses, took a deep breath and began. For Gangadhar, this was a test of stamina. For Srivatsa, it was about auctioning the right item at the right time.
Fame and idiosyncrasies
The auction hall in Mount Road was where Ramnath Goenka once bought the Express Estate, where the Apollo Hospital property in Greams Road was auctioned off by the royal family of Kochi and where The Madras Club and the Agurchand Mansions were auctioned off.
The humour at the Sunday auctions is timeless. According to many who attended auctions in the past, Rajam conducted the auctions best, peppering monotonous announcements with quips like: “Sold to the lady whose husband has his hand on her mouth!”
There were more elaborate jokes too. In the 1930s the founder secretary of Vidya Mandir School, Subbaraya Aiyer, a tall, heavy-set man, had squeezed himself into a child’s rocking chair during the auction in Mandaveli. Ramnath Goenka was visibly amused and bid for the rocking chair Aiyar sat on. Later, Goenka is believed to have had the chair delivered to Aiyar’s house with a note: “This chair suits you and I hope you enjoy it.”
In 1930, the Travancore Royal Family approached Aiyar and requested that Murray auction off their jewellery, chandeliers, and lustre lamps. “While the chandeliers and miscellaneous items were sold, the jewellery never was. To date, we have never known why,” Srivatsa said.
In a bid to preserve the sanctity of the auction, cellphone bids during the auction are not accepted. Telephone bids, however, are accepted and executed regularly. “We have a bidding form and we allow telephone bids in advance,” said Sujan, acknowledging that he saw a future in accepting remote bids, and might eventually reconsider his stance.
Method to madness
The process for auctioning curios begins with cataloguing them, recounting their history in a thorough fashion, described in poetic detail. Srivatsa navigates through the ebb and flow of the process.
“It’s all about maintaining that attention span through interest points,” he said. “A swivel chair will always follow a desk, not a piece of crockery.”
Property auctions hold equal weight, but the process is long drawn and rife with legal tussles. “Normally in mortgaged property and properties sold by the court, nobody likes to lose their property—so if there is a default, there is always a question of whether the auction was done correctly, and no lawyer worth his salt will cast a few allegations just to make his case stronger. But the proof is in the cross-examination,” said Gangadhar.
Srivatsa is a repository of history and adores the thrill of auctions. Gangadhar is more interested in securing Murray’s future. “Online auctions, e-auctions are the way to go,” he said. “People don’t have the time to sit through an auction anymore. They want specifics, they want to save time. Unfortunate perhaps, that this generation will not discover the thrill of auctions. We intend to keep the physical auctions, but want to tap the market that bids from their computer.”
This post first appeared on Scroll.in. We welcome your comments at ideas.india@qz.com
source: http://www.qz.com / Quartz.com / Quartz India / by Divya Karthikeyan, Scroll.in / October 23rd, 2-017 – Quartz India
The business in Chennai is currently being promoted through the social media and word of mouth publicity. Picture used for representation purpose.
Start-up aims at replicating the most successful business model
Even in today’s age, when a couple of taps on the phone are all you need to get food at your doorstep, the ‘dabbawalas’ of Mumbai remain legends. The enormously successful business model, marked by highly efficient food delivery to thousands via cycles and suburban trains, has not only been studied by management students, but is also a cultural phenomenon with books and at least one famous recent movie focussing on it.
Chennai Dabbawala as it is called has been launched in the first week of October by L. Deva. Having nil knowledge about the working of the Dabbawalas of Mumbai, Mr. Deva who is the proprietor of Chennai Dabbawala, does not find it a shortcoming in launching the food box delivery in the city.
The Computer Science graduate having had a hand in courier service in Guindy finds food delivery an extension of it. He said Chennai Dabbawala has been launched with the motto: ‘Delivered on time, each time’.
At present the business is being promoted through social media such as Facebook (@ChennaiDabbawala) and word of mouth of their courier clients. Mr. Deva said: “Already we have a number of clients particularly north Indians who prefer home-cooked food being delivered fresh and fast.”
Mr. Deva said the lunch box delivery rate for the first three km is ₹600, for three to six km ₹700 and for six to nine km ₹900.
From cab to food
Uber, the taxi-aggregator, has entered the bandwagon of food delivery by launching UberEATS. The mobile app of food delivery service was launched in the city on Friday.
UberEATS has partnered with more than 200 restaurants in the city including A2B, Aasife Biryani, Cream Store and Fruit Shop on Greams Road.
Bhavik Rathod, Head of UberEATS India, said the food delivery app UberEATS has been launched in the city within five months of commencing the food delivery operations in the country.
To tap the festive season, UberEast has started FestiveEATS where customers could order their foods on the UberEATS app at exclusive offers with an introductory delivery fee being ₹1. The FestiveEATS service would be open from October 14.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Chennai / by R. Srikanth / Chennai – October 24th, 2017
James Ajoo, a man who grew up in Chennai, realised that his grandfather was a pawn in one of the greatest heists of the 19th century – the Great Tea Robbery.
Canton, Kwangtung province, China. Photograph by John Thomson, 1867. Image: Wellcome Image
When James Ajoo, a Chennai-based English professor, was growing up, he often wondered why his surname was so different from that of his classmates. It was not a typical South Indian name – for that matter, it didn’t even sound Indian. When he asked his paternal grandmother, her answer was so unexpected that it set him off on a quest to trace his roots.
His grandmother told him that his ancestor was one of the six Chinese tea manufacturers that Robert Fortune smuggled into India to help the English manufacture tea, harvested from their newly planted tea estates. Some of these estates are in what is now The Nilgiris in Tamil Nadu. His grandfather was a primary player, albeit a pawn, in one of the greatest heists of the 19th century – the Great Tea Robbery pulled off by Robert Fortune, a botanist and plant hunter who stole tea from Imperial China.
In modern day terms, there are three serious violations: Geographical Indications (GIs), bio-piracy and the theft of a process.
James Ajoo
James questioned other older members of his family, but none of them knew anything more. The information he had gathered was inadequate. Several years later, when James went to the US to study, he found the time and resources to further research his ancestor, the mysterious John Ajoo.
European interest in China
Since the Ajoo family story in India is tied up with that of Robert Fortune and the nascent tea industry in India, let’s start with the Scottish botanist. What made him a hero in the times he lived in and a villain thereafter? Robert Fortune was best known for stealing tea plants from China, the only country where tea was grown at that time. Tea growing and manufacture in China was a closely guarded secret.
Trade with China was much sought after by the European trading powers of that time, primarily the English, Americans and the Dutch. Trade with China grew and flourished right through the 18th century, when the English East India Company traded woolens and Indian cottons for Chinese tea, silk and porcelain.
However, with the widespread popularity of tea in England, tea soon became the single largest export item out of China, while the imports declined. The Chinese made things more difficult by insisting that tea has to be paid for in silver. Soon, there was a shortage of silver and the English were forced to look for other commodities to offset the balance of trade.
L0056403 China: women tea plantation workers by John Thomson Credit: Wellcome Library, London. Wellcome Images images@wellcome.ac.uk http://wellcomeimages.org Fukien province, China: women tea plantation workers. Photograph by John Thomson, 1871. 1871 By: J. ThomsonPublished: – Copyrighted work available under Creative Commons Attribution only licence CC BY 4.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
This is when they introduced opium grown in India to China, which proved to be a profitable business.
The tea robber
After the Treaty of Nanking in 1848, Fortune was sent by the Royal Horticultural Society to collect exotic plants from China, tea primarily. The latter was to be replanted in parts of India which was considered to be congenial to tea and thus break China’s monopoly of global trade.
“The task required a plant hunter, a gardener, a thief, a spy,” writes Sarah Rose, in her award-winning book ‘For All the Tea in China’, which charts Fortune’s great British Tea Robbery. Though some of the saplings perished, the tea seeds brought back by Fortune were instrumental in starting the tea industry in India and breaking Chinese monopoly on tea.
Rober Fortune. Source: Wiki Commons
In 1849, Fortune disguised as a wealthy Chinese trader travelled to the remote tea growing areas in China and witnessed both green and black tea being processed. He realized that manufacturing tea was a complex and intricate process and experienced tea manufacturers would be required. So, he recruited a team of experienced tea farmers and manufacturers from Hawgchow, present day Huizhou in the Anhui province of China, with help of Chinese contractors called Wang tih Poon and Hoo. Fortune and this small band of Chinese set sail for India from Shanghai.
John Ajoo enters India
James Ajoo, now in his 30s, is of the opinion that his ancestor took the name John when he arrived in India, because he had been secretly converted to Christianity by the Jesuits who had been active in China since 1582. The name Ajoo, he says, could be the phonetic pronunciation of a Chinese surname.
James started his research by digging deep into the available material on the internet. After months of searching, he finally got lucky when he found a log entry made on February 15, 1851 which mentions that the Chinese tea manufacturers are to be paid from that date and the order was to be executed by the Chinese contractor Wang tih Poon.
Ajoo was clutching at straws but persisted in his search; he combed through endless maritime lists and passenger arrivals lists and then finally, struck gold when he found an old notice of passenger arrivals into Calcutta port on November 27, 1851, when the streamer Lady Mary Wood docked in Calcutta with six Chinese on board. (Most records show that there were eight Chinese – six tea manufacturers and two pewterers, whose sole job was preparing lead casings to the tea chests).
When Ajoo came to Nilgiris
James Ajoo followed the progress of the Chinese tea manufacturers who were sent to work in the tea gardens of the North-West Province. It was hard work, (for James Ajoo) for there was but a scant mention here or there. In May 1862, the Chinese left government service and entered private employment for higher wages.
The next year, a report on the tea plantations in East Indies made to the House of Commons mentioned that Dr HFC Cleghorn, Conservator of Forests of the Madras Presidency, had asked the government for Chinese tea manufacturers to help tea growers in the Neilgherries (as Nilgiris was spelt those days). This report also states that there were no Chinese tea manufacturers available for the Nilgiris planters, and instead “native” tea manufacturers were offered.
However, may be because of continued pressure from the Nilgiris planters, two Chinese tea manufacturers were sent to the hills in 1864, one of them being John Ajoo. It is interesting to note that these two were not the only Chinese in the Nilgiris at the time.
Did Chinese PoWs teach Indians how to manufacture tea?
Between 1856 and 1860, the British brought in Chinese Prisoners of War (PoWs) captured during the second Anglo Chinese war, also known as the Opium Wars, which involved British trade in opium to China and China’s sovereignty. Chinese prisoners were also brought to the Nilgiris from the Straits Settlements of Singapore, Malacca, Dinding and Penang. They were initially sent to the Nilgiris because of the overcrowding in the Madras jails, but later, when it was discovered the Chinese were good workmen, they were put to work in the newly opened tea and cinchona plantations.
An 1850 depiction of the tea cultivation process in Assam. By Joseph Lionel Williams after Thomas Brown, via Wiki Commons
Many senior Nilgiri planters have poofed the idea that the Chinese PoWs taught the pioneer planters how to plant and manufacture tea, mainly because the PoWs were mostly seafaring men with no experience in tea farming or manufacture. Sir Percival Griffiths, a British civil servant and tea historian is one who dismissed claims that Chinese PoWs instructed planters how to plant and manufacture tea. But records indicate that at this time, Miss Cockburn, (pronounced Coburn) daughter of the Collector of Salem and pioneer tea and coffee planter, had one Chinese man help on the tea estate near Kotagiri, while Thaishola Estate, where many PoWs were housed, has anecdotal evidence that the Chinese planted tea and has a Jail Thottam (garden) even today.
Chinaman’s field
James Ajoo at this point, reiterates that his ancestor, John Ajoo, a free man, worked with some planters in the Nilgiris for a short while and was then lured away to work with a tea planter called AW Turner, who founded the North Travancore Land Planting Agricultural Society in Munnar.
S Muthiah, the Chennai based historian, in his book “A Planting Century” which records the history of South India’s plantations has made a mention of John Ajoo, a Chinaman who planted 13 acres of tea in Munnar, and this plot of land was known popularly as the Chinaman’s Field.
Somewhere along the line, John Ajoo married a local woman, though there is no mention of that. (It would be pertinent to note that most of the Chinese PoWs who settled down in Nattuvattom, a small hamlet in the Nilgiris where the Government cinchona factory was located, married local women and lived the rest of their lives tending cattle and growing garden vegetables.)
The Chinaman’s son
\John Ajoo’s son John Antony, referred to as the Chinaman’s son, was born in June 1869 and would become the owner of a small estate called Vialkadavu near Talliar Estate in which the Turner family had an interest.
Now John Antony was quite a colorful character and had worked in a provision store owned by an Englishman in Munnar town. He taught himself English, joined the Anglican Church and endeared himself to the English planters in the area. He was a skilled tracker and shikari and in the course of time, became a favourite with the planters for the hunting jaunts; which lead him to be acquainted with the Sri Kerala Varma Valiya Koilthampuranan, who was married to Her Highness Bharani Thirunal Lakshmi Bayi, the adopted niece of the Maharajah of Travancore.
A plac of John Antony
Anecdotal evidence within the family is that, the marriage of John Antony to Mariamma was brought about by none other than the Koilthampuranan himself. Mariamma, it is said, was a child widow of a member of royal family. Nothing more is known of the mysterious Mariamma (that may not even be her real name) as there is no documentary evidence to the marriage or her background.
John Antony died when he was 82 after establishing himself as a planter and with a large acreage under him. He was also a founder member of the Travancore Cardamom Planters Association in Madurai district. Subsequently, the Ajoos moved away from the plantations and turned to the Church with many of them becoming pastors.
James Ajoo has never visited the land of his ancestor but hopes to do so one day. But now he has a story to tell too, of John Ajoo’s long journey from the tea growing farms of his youth in China, to the High Ranges in the south of India. One wonders, did John Ajoo ever think of going back home? We will never know.
source: http://www.thenewsminute.com / The News Minute / Home> History / by Nina Varghese / Sunday – October 22nd, 2017
India openers, Ranji Trophy veterans and most recently Tamil Nadu Premier League (TNPL) talents — not many educational institutions in Chennai can boast of grooming a galaxy of star cricketers. But Guru Nanak College in Velachery has been doing just that for more nearly four decades.
Though sports is promoted in many educational institutions, Guru Nanak College stands out because of its facilities, a dedicated sports quota and its exposure as a playground for national-level matches. The college, set up in 1971, encourages its students to take part in various sports. Over the years, they have produced some of the finest cricketers like India batsmen Sadagoppan Ramesh and S Badrinath and former Tamil Nadu opener S Vidyut.
Most strikingly, 10 of its students are playing in TNPL and various domestic competitions. B Indrajith, S Kishan Kumar, S Abishek, Sathyanarayanan, S Lokeshwar, S Aravind, Silambarasan,
B Aparajith, S Arun, R Rajan are some of the prominent names who have been playing in the Ranji Trophy, Duleep Trophy, Irani Cup and various other championships.
The college is run by the Guru Nanak Educational Society — a not-for-profit organisation. According to Manjit Singh Nayar, general secretary of the trust, the motto of the institution is to promote sports for the overall development of students. ”Our trust is managed by people with an army background who have been sportsmen. Our goal is to encourage students to participate in a sport of their interest. We are one of the few educational institutions to allocate huge funds for sports development,” says Nayar.
Former Tamil Nadu skipper Badrinath, who grew up in Velachery, fondly remembers his practice sessions at the ground. “There was not a single morning when I would not be at the ground. It was like my backyard. The best part was watching great players like Rahul Dravid and Javagal Srinath during Ranji Trophy games, which motivated young players like us. I benefitted a lot,” says Badrinath.
Tamil Nadu Ranji Trophy star Aparajith, who has been pursuing marketing management in the college, feels without its support he wouldn’t have become a professional cricketer. “It’s not like other institutions that promise a lot but fails to deliver. My college is an exception and it has been extremely supportive to its students who are seriously taking up sports,” says Aparajith.
Its well-maintained cricket ground, has been hosting first-class cricket matches since 1978 and Ranji Trophy matches since 1996. The Women’s One Day International was also held there in 2002 and was one of the venues for hosting warm-up matches for the Women’s World Twenty20 last year.
While cricket is the preferred sports among Guru Nanak students, the institution, along with Loyola College, A M Jain College, Pachaiyappas College and Vivekananda College, has been at the forefront in acting as a launchpad for aspiring sportspersons in the field of athletics, squash, volleyball and other disciplines. Abhay Singh, who won the junior world title earlier this year, is one of the prominent squash players from the Velachery college.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News>City News> Chennai News / TNN / October 23rd, 2017
lying high Aswin has set his eyes on representing India in the Commonwealth and Asian Games next year
In conversation with JK Aswin, a third-generation cyclist who is winning laurels for the country
Practising a sport requires commitment and dedication but excelling at it needs grit and determination. Coimbatore-based JK Aswin, a gold medallist from the Track Asia Cup 2017 and a third-generation cyclist, talks about his journey in spinning the wheels. Excerpts:
What inspired you to take up cycling?
Coming from a family of cyclists, there was no lack of inspiration and motivation. My grand-dad, late Jayaraman was a member of the national road cycling team from 1958 to 1962. My dad Krishnamoorthy was also a member ofthe national squad from 1984 to 1987. I was a late bloomer, started riding a bike when I was seven years old. I had always been fascinated by my grandad’s and dad’s medals and certificates. once on the bicycle, the joy of riding inspired me to aim for my own collection of medals.
Can you talk a little about your formative years?
In the first couple of years, I spent a lot of time riding with my dad along Kovaipudur and through the villages around Coimbatore. This helped build my riding technique and connect with the bike. My first taste of racing was at the age of 10 in the Tamil Nadu State Cycling Meet in 2009. I finished fourth in the under-13 category. After that, the fun rides were gradually substituted with more intense training. Three to four hours of riding became a norm during weekdays and weekends were booked for hill training sessions in The Nilgiris.
Why did you go in for track racing?
The different disciplines in cycling require specific skills. A 100 km race requires endurance and efficient usage of energy reserves, whereas a track sprint requires muscular power, ability to understand the competitor’s weakness and technique to ace. I was hooked on speed and quick short sprints so I picked the latter. Another key reason was that training indoors was safer than on open roads. We in India are still warming up to cycling as a sport and road users are not used to a bicyclist riding at over 40 kmph.
How did the transition from state to national level happen?
It started in 2014 when I was selected to train in the national camp hosted by the Cycling Federation of India and Sports Authority of India. The training was scientific and focussed. The regular rides were measured and post-training effects analysed. Speed and duration became secondary parameters and training with heart rate and power was introduced. In time, I got to understand that recovering after a training session was key to performance rather than slogging day in and day out on the bike. The technique was to push the body and mind to higher levels of performance through High Intensity Interval Sessions (HIIT), give the muscles just enough time to recover, gain strength and slot in another HIIT session focussing on another performance parameter.
What about the training camp in Germany?
The big jump came when the Indian squad at the CFI camp enrolled for a three-month training programme in Germany between June and August 17. We were trained by the German national coach in the Cottbus Velodrome. The formula was to train, race, recover and repeat. The team was not allowed to use mobile phones for three months and the training was intense. We also got an opportunity to compete with teams from other European nations and the take-away was immense. Competing with these Olympic standard teams became part of the training schedule and we were able to finetune our understanding of aerodynamics, riding posture and race strategies.
What is next?
The interim goals is to represent India in the 2018 Commonwealth Games to be held in Queensland, Australia. I also have my eye on the Asian Games in August 2018 at Indonesia. Good results in these two will win India a berth in the 2020 Summer Olympics at Tokyo. This would be a big one for us as a nation, as the Indian cycling team would have won a slot to compete in the Olympics after 56 years. The last time India was represented was in 1964 at the Tokyo Olympics.
Achievements
National medallist in Track Championship 2012, 2013 and 2015
Won the National Award for Exceptional Achievement in 2010. The award was presented by then President of India Pranab Mukherjee
Track Asia Cup. Gold in team sprint (men junior) and bronze in sprint (Men junior) at the Track Asia Cup in 2017
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Life & Style> Fitness / by Deepak Samuel / October 20th, 2017
Since 1967, a doctor in Perambur has been making medical care affordable for the economically underprivileged residents of the locality
In 1967, Dr. D. Shanmugam opened Dr. Shanmugam Child Health Clinic on Patel Road in Perambur. The same year, an unexpected patient came knocking on his clinic.
S. Vijayalakshmi, a resident of Perambur, was suffering from severe abdominal pain. With tablets proving futile in controlling the pain, she turned to Dr. Shanmugam. As he was running a clinic for children, the young and tall doctor was reluctant to treat her. He however broke the rule and treated her.
Through this intervention, Dr. Shanmugam gained not only a new patient, but also received his life partner. Impressed with what he had done for their daughter, Vijayalakshmi’s parents were only too glad to give her in marriage to him the same year.
Now 84 years old, Dr. Shanmugam completes 50 years of service in the neighbourhood this year.
Born to M. Dharman and D. Nagammal, who worked at the Kolar Gold Mine Fields (KGF) in Karnataka, Shanmugam pursued his schooling in Kolar before coming to Chennai, where he was enrolled at Pachaiyappa’s Higher Secondary School. Later, in 1957, he pursued MBBS at the Government Stanley Medical College.
With a meagre income, his family struggled to send him his monthly allowance of ₹15, let alone afford the education fee. Scholarships saw him through school and college.
For a decade he studied medicine and later worked in a Primary Healthcare Centre (PHC) in Karunkalagudi village in Madurai and also spent a few years at the paediatric section of Madras Medical College (MMC) in Park Town.
After serving at the PHC in Madurai for a few years, he was posted in various districts as government medical officer for child care.
His longest stint was at the state-run Institute of Child Health and Hospital for Children in Egmore, where he served the as Regional Medical Officer for 22 years.
The clinic, which celebrated its fiftieth anniversary on October 15 with a free health camp, has maintained a ‘no-charge policy’ with its patients, many of whom are economically underprivileged. If the treatment went beyond consultation and basic treatment, he would refer the patient to government hospitals.
Over the years, Dr. Shanmugam’s son Dr. S. Nagaderan, a pedestrian, has assisted his father at the clinic.
“I was keen on having my own clinic as doing so would help residents receive timely treatment.
“For nearly four decades, I had my clinic on Patel Road before shifting it to my house on Anandavelu Mudali Street in Perambur as the building on Patel Road was demolished,” he says.
Patients from as far as Ambur, Vellore, Walajabhad, Tirupathi, Sulurpet near Gummudipoondi, Thiruvannamalai and Kancheepuram have come here to consult Dr. Shanmugam.
For patients who can afford a fee, Dr. Shanmugam charges ₹200 for a consultation, while for those who cannot afford a fee, he offers free consultation and treatment.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News>Cities> Chennai / by D. Madhavan / October 19th, 2017
Fairfield Marriott has inaugurated its hotel in Coimbatore. | Photo Credit: HANDOUT_E_MAIL
Marriott International has opened its 128-room hotel, Fairfield by Marriott, in Coimbatore.
According to J.P. Menon, hotel manager, the property on 47,000 sq.ft. plot near Coimbatore International Airport, has 100 basic rooms (Superior Queen) and 26 Superior Twin rooms.
It also has an all-day restaurant (Kovai Kitchen), a gymnasium for guests, and three meeting rooms of different seating capacities. A spa will come up soon.
The property has been developed by Samhi Hotels and is managed by Marriott. Targeting business travellers to the region, the hotel wants to provide hassle-free travel to the guests. “We want to target 60 % occupancy in the first year,” he said.
Mr. Menon said that five Fairfield hotels have been opened across the country in the last one month, including the Coimbatore property, taking the total number of Fairfield hotels to nine.
In a press release, Neeraj Govil, area vice-president – South Asia, Marriott International, said that as Marriott expanded its brand portfolio across tier-two cities, it saw opportunity for Fairfield to become “a favourite with regular travellers.”
According to Ashish Jakhanwala, founder and CEO of Samhi Hotels, the business community was growing in the country and was looking at facilities that offered options, comfort, and value when they travelled.
Samhi and Marriott had come together to launch the Coimbatore property to cater to this demand.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Coimbatore / by Special Correspondent / Coimbatore – October 16th, 2017
