This is What I Call Experience!

The day is October the 26th of 2009.It was the day slated for the prestigious Trivandrum leg of The Hindu Young World Quiz 2009. The venue was Tagore Theatre. The first level to cross for me and my teammmate, Nicole Noyal Thomas, was the inquisitive and intriguing preliminary round to select the best six of the region. As 25 questions came to us in quick succession, we stood firm and gave the answers, based on what we knew the best. We were strong believers of the fact that, we should never give up until and unless we are forced to. The discussion of the answers to the prelims made us more and more confident and almost made us sure that we were among those 6 best teams of this region. A long wait and then it was time, as the Quiz Master, Mr.V.V.Ramanan, called upon the best six in ascending order of their points in the preliminary round of selections. Then he called, as the third best scorers in the prelims, from St.Thomas Central School, Nicole Noyal Thomas and Ramu N.Bhattathiri. We sat on the fourth table and were praying and praying to God.

The final began. In the first round, we disappointed. We had a big zero on our score sheets. Second round passed and we were off the mark, with 5 points. But the next round, the Audio-Visual round proved to be immensely crucial for us. After the round, we were leading and that too with 95 points. A single round gave us 90 points. The rounds continued. When the last round began, we were at 115 points. The team following us had 98 points. This was really the test for our grey cells. That turned out to be the buzzer round, which had seven questions. In that round all the teams had 35 points to win and 35 points to lose.+5 points for a correct answer and -5 for a wrong one. The first two questions were answered by the teams placed fourth and fifth. The third question was wrongly answered by the 2nd placed team. That meant negative 5 points for them. They then had 93 and we had 115 points. At that moment, we sensed that there was never any other chance for them to cross our points, even if they answered correctly all the remaining questions. So we thought, why should we go for the buzzer and dig holes for ourselves. We kept calm and cool, and rested in first position.
Winners, Nicole Noyal Thomas (right) and Ramu Bhattathiri(Me) with celebrity guest, M. Jayachandran. Courtesy:The Hindu

The most important thing that I had on stage for the finals was confidence. My confidence was moulded when I studied at the Magic Academy. The classes at the Academy for building confidence helped me immensely and taught me how to remain calm and cool in times of apprehension and pressure. So, the victory that Nicole and I got has a huge part played well by the Academy for boosting up my confidence.

Article Courtesy:magicweekly.blogspot.com

Global Warming-Its serious!

Let's take a look at some of the things we will need to say goodbye to, if our Earth gets any hotter!

While their mothers hunt for food, walrus pups rest on sea ice.Now as the ice melts, walrus pups are being stranded!

Grass has started to grow in Antartica in areas that were covered by ice sheets and glaciers previously.Warmer temperatures are allowing grass to survive through winter for the first time!

In the Swiss Alps, a rock twice as big as the Empire States Building collapsed onto the canyon floor, nearly 700 feets below due to the melting glaciers.

In 2002, a chunk of ice in Antartica, larger than the state of Rhode Island, weakened by warm winds, collapsed into the sea.

Upto 72 percent of bird species in Australia and more than a third in Europe could go extinct due to global warming!

Arctic ice is rapidly disappearing.The region might have its first completely ice free summer by 2040 or even earlier.

The amount of ice in the Arctic at the end of summer 2005 was the smallest seen in 27 years.

An average home is responsible for more harmful Carbondioxide emissions than an average car produces every year.

Globally, electricity generation is the biggest source of Carbondioxide emissions, amounting to 37 percent.

The number of emperor penguins in the Antartic Peninsula have dropped from 300 breeding pairs to just nine!

About 2000 of Indonesia's islands could disappear by 2030 due to rising sea levels.Many islands in the Sundarbans in India have already disappeared.According to one study, in the last 30 years, nearly 31 square miles of the Sundarbans have vanished entirely.

The Albert Hitchcock we know!

A tribute to Sir Hitchcock

Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock KBE (August 13, 1899 – April 29, 1980)was an iconic and highly influential British/americanfilmmaker and producer, who pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres.

After a very substantial career in his native United Kingdom in both silent films and talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood and, in 1956, became an American citizen, also retaining his British citizenship.

Hitchcock directed more than fifty feature films, in a career spanning six decades, from the silent era, through the invention of sound films, and far into the color era. 

As a director, he was among the most consistently recognizable by the general public, and was one of the most successful of his lifetime. He continues to be one of the best-known and most popular filmmakers of all time.

Awards

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awarded Hitchcock the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award, in 1967. His other Oscar nominations were:

Best Director in 1960 for Psycho.

Best Director for Rebecca (1940), Lifeboat (1944), Spellbound (1945), and Rear Window (1954).

Producer for Best Picture: Suspicion (1941).

Rebecca, which Hitchcock directed, won the 1940 Best Picture Oscar for its producer David O. Selznick. In addition to Rebecca and Suspicion, two other films Hitchcock directed, Foreign Correspondent and Spellbound, were nominated for Best Picture.

Hitchcock is considered the Best Film Director of all time by The Screen Directory. Hitchcock was knighted in 1980.

Sixteen films directed by Hitchcock earned Oscar nominations, though only six of those films earned Hitchcock himself a nomination. The total number of Oscar nominations (including winners) earned by films he directed is fifty. Four of those films earned Best Picture nominations.

In 2008, four of Hitchcock's films were named among the ten best mystery films of all time in the AFI's 10 Top 10. Those films are Vertigo (at No. 1); Rear Window (No. 3); North by Northwest (No. 7); and Dial M for Murder (No. 9).

Quotes

"Suspense is like a woman. The more left to the imagination, the more the excitement."

"Drama is life with all the boring bits cut out."

"The length of a film should be directly related to the endurance of the human bladder."

Last film work

Near the end of his life, Hitchcock had worked on the script for a projected spy thriller, The Short Night, collaborating with screenwriters James Costigan and Ernest Lehman. Despite some preliminary work, the story was never filmed. This was due, primarily, to Hitchcock's own failing health and his concerns over the health of his wife, Alma, who had suffered a stroke. The script was eventually published posthumously, in a book on Hitchcock's last years.

Vertigo

Vertigo (1958) is a psychological thriller directed by Alfred Hitchcock, and starring James Stewart, Kim Novak and Barbara Bel Geddes. The film tells the story of a retired policeman who falls in love with a mysterious woman he has been hired to follow. Although it received mixed reviews on its first release, it has since gained in esteem and is frequently listed among the greatest films ever made. It is sometimes seen as the middle installment in a trilogy of Hitchcock films concerning voyeurism, starting with Rear Window (1954) and ending with Psycho (1960).

Knighthood

Hitchcock was made a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II in the 1980 New Year's Honours. Although he had adopted American citizenship in 1956, he was entitled to use the title "Sir" because he had remained a British subject. Hitchcock died just four months later, on April 29, before he could be formally invested by her.

Born Alfred Joseph Hitchcock

August 13, 1899

Leytonstone, London

Died April 29, 1980 (aged 80)

Bel Air, Los Angeles

Other name(s) Hitch

The Master of Suspense

Years active 1921-1976

Spouse(s) Alma Reville (1926-1980)