India's dream run continued in WPC

World Puzzle federation started off with international championship WPC (World Puzzle Championship) in early 90s to recognize the global talents. Since its inception, it has come a long way with almost 40+ countries being the member, some active while some inactive. This year the event was organized by Brazil and was held in Rio de Janeiro. Their official web site is located at http://www.coquetel.com.br/wpc2007/

India has been one of the top emerging countries since they started participating in 2000. Though the progress has not that been incredible till last year, but this year has been like a begining of a dream run. Not only did they beat last year's record, but beat by miles. This was the best ever performance from Indian team, which not only recognizes the Indian brains but also adds to its image as an emerging threat for the top countries. Though topping the chart may not happen in coming 3-4 years, but the manner in which activities are progressing it holds good for optimists.

The official results are still awaited, and there is a hope that the organizer would do something in that regard sooner than later. After having followed World Sudoku Championship (another event organized by WPF) live on internet and result updates coming quite blazingly fast, very much same was expected from Brazillian organizers. They didn't live upto the expectation, and even after a day after the event is over, results aren't availalble. (I coudn't find any link from the official site).

Unofficial results are available (courtesy Hendrik Hardeman, Captain Team India).

Individual ranking (95 participants):

1. PAL MADARASSY 2031
2. THOMAS SNYDER 2280
3. ULRICH VOIGT 2129
28. AMIT SOWANI 1850
66. RITESH GUPTA 1599
68. RAJESH KUMAR 1582
74. SUMIT BOTHRA 1531

Note that points for top three are those before semi-finals / finals.

Team ranking (23 complete teams):

1. USA 10714
2. JAPAN 9670
3. BELGIUM 9083
13. INDIA 8057

Ending with a note of congratulations to Indian Team. Good show and hoping the trend continues.

[Author has been member of Indian Team in WPC'2005 & WPC'2006 & WSC'2006]

investment

Until last year, it hasn't been much fruitful for me as far as the investment goes....haven't been able to save even a penny....salary was the input, and my so called lavish expenses were the output....and in the middle was my bank.....

but things have changed in last one year.....my job didn't give me that much as my resignation did....suddenly my account had a surplus amount, something it has never witnessed or handled before......it was crying to be released of that burden.....but I, as intelligent as I could have ever got, squeezed my desires and decided to put the money to better use.....so u r a software engineer, u have free Internet access at office and home, u have surplus money, what do u do???? that wasn't a big question for me knowing that I wasn't unfamiliar to stock market....and with online brokers floating around, I invested in secondary market.....made money somewhere, lost somewhere....overall came out well.....had no regrets at any point of time.....

then late in that year, got a call from my bank.....my relationship officer was on the line.....suggestion was to quit the secondary market and invest in MFs to have balanced risk-growth curve......well not to disregard her, I did as she said.....with no disregard to my intelligence (ain't i intelligent to have accepted her request), the money grew further.....then one fine day the stock markets plumps.....and before i could close my over-awed mouth, within a span of 3 weeks my 12% profit chart dips to 9% loss.....the first time green turning red was hurting me......things returned to shape, but at much slower pace than it was deformed.....

now real estate thing is bugging me.....i vacated my MF portfolio slowly and now in process of my third investment strategy......ain't I intelligent? will be the question to be answered in coming months.....wait and watch.....

Live today or dream tomorrow

been in dilemma for some time now....shud i only care for today...and be left behind from the rest.....or shud I dream of tomorrow, overshoot today, fall down and be left behind the rest.....
shhhhhh...wherez my beer....heyyyyyy who took the can???

ukodus fever

Since I am based in Bangalore I was a witness to the National Sudoku Championship'2007 regional round here. Was there as a volunteer and spent the whole day clicking photgraphs.It was a remarkable competition, with everyone fighting to the last inch of sword. Though I was already aware about the madness that prevailed in Delhi and Kolkata, I never imagined it could be of this magnitude. There were humans spread all over the ground, some participants, some parents, some friends, some neighbours, and lots of spectators. The competion exposed the real character of each participant. A proper mix of patience and aggression, a proper gel of talent and hardwork, days and nights of practice. Wow!

The best part of the day was that throughout the competition, there was equal particpation from both sex of society. We had almost 50% females in the final 62, and 5 females in top 11. An icing over the cake, the winner is young lady who is studying in an Engineering college, Ms Sumalatha. She recieved close competition from 2nd and 3rd positioned, Mr Nishant and Mr Chetan (I hope I got the names right). They missed the title with few points only. But all hats off to the winner.

It was day full of experience for me, and yes I do have a wild card entry for the finals. But I am keeping my fingers crossed, I know I have to fight it out with tons of practice for next few weeks, if I want to make it to WSC team.

Signing off.