June 9th 2008 updates

Quotes of the week
I will donate the money to Mother Teresa or something like that - Shoiab Aktar on his IPL earnings
There aren't many people who understand exactly how hard she's been working. I am one of them- Barack Obama on Hillary Clinton.
For years falling food prices and rising production lulled the world in to complacency . Today we are literally paying the price- Ban Ki Moon UN secretary general
Humour Club
The hall was packed to the capacity inspite of a hot sultry day- The open session was eventful with the kids having their quota with the elders. Babu's daughter was missed- two things came out that were unrelated to the humour club- But they were relevant due to the large audience and were topics that could be shared- one senior citizen walked up and talked about cleanliness and hygiene- He is / was a big betel leaf /nut chewer and was proud to say that he had created modern art in many public places threw his spitting of the betel with the red colour background- he turned Samaritan and talked about how we can change our city by being conscious of what we do around-- All this talk and change was due to the fact he made a trip to Japan where his son is and he could not smuggle enough to last the trip and also noticed the clean habits of the Japanese- The rules laid by the Corporation was also dealt and welcomed by him-- better late than never -- A small lesson.
The second was to appreciate one of the members who had during the summer holidays picked up Slum students and taught them the reciting from Ramayana , Bhagwad gita and also helped with some indoor work that helped these kids to earn some money as well- two of the children came up and recited verses from the Vishnu Sarasranamam-- Very laudable to spend time with such children and educate them - She said the children that she dealt with were a talented lot and it was a question of the right opportunity and guidance that is needed
The chief guest was Sethu of Vijay / Jaya TV ( Kalaka Poovatha Yaaru / hari Giri assembly ) and he did not disappoint a bit- A Sunday evening well spent.

French Open
While the women's singles went on expected lines and was keenly contested , the men's final was a tame affair- Roger Federer gave up easily to Rafael Nadal- Nadal won his fourth consecutive French open equalling Bjorn Borg's record- On clay Nadal is the champion and Federer tried very hard and this as I have written earlier led to his defeat- Nadal has the uncanny ability on clay to retrieve and throw back on a clay court and this is strength- BY playing to overpower him just does not work and it has not worked for the past four years-- Federer has to try again to win a grand slam that has been eluding him-
Ana Ivanovic continued the success story of Serbian players as she played well to defeat Dinara Safin who had come in to the finals be doing miraculous acts of recovery to beat more famed opponents ( Sharapova and Dementiva ) and thought she was destined to win. Not to be Ana won the final and also will be the No1 ranked player in the world after this victory- Ana success has not been easy- Coming from a war strife nation , she had put in extra hours and climbed the tennis ranking ladder slowly but surely with single minded focus on the game- A success story worth reading
Formula One
The Canadian GP always has been full of drama - this week end was not anything different- With Hamilton on pole followed by Kubica and Raikonen , the stage was set for a exciting race- everything went to plan till Adrian Sutil of Force India moved off and the safety car was called in- During this period when the pit lane was open for refuelling all the leaders went in for Fuel and tyre change- The script was fine- nothing unusual about this- raikonen and Kubica exited at the same time and were greeted by a red light at the exit of the pit lane ( just like a traffic signal light ) -- they stopped- Hamilton did not see the cars nor the light- he went on and crashed in Raikonen throwing himself and Riakone out of the race in the pit lane ( not on the racing track mind you ) Poetic justice ? In the last race , Raikonen had crashed Adrian Sutil of Force India out of race- the race from here on went on predictable lines and it was no surprise that BMW finished one two - Kubica followed by Heidfield-- BMW are the most impressive after the Ferraris and McLaren and so there was no surprise- Kubica the polish driver is improving by every race and he won his first race in his career- The third place went to Coulthard of Red Bull and this must have been a pleasant surprise. Here is something that has not happened for a long time- Kubica from BMW also leads the driver championship with 42 points followed by Hamilton and Massa at four point behind and lying fourth is the reigning world champion Raikonen-- This has opened up the interest and one can be sure of good entertainment as the title challenge goes through the year at different circuits.