Mutual praising

I was delighted to receive the following comment for my latest blog. 
The reader said: "I really appreciate your knowledge on shlokas. I like the way you start off with any general topic and end it with a relevant shloka. English translation is also very helpful. Keep blogging, Kudos!"
I am publishing his comments forthwith.{I am afraid he may get second thoughts!}. 
Rarely you find people who read the posts, appreciate the content and write few words of compliments. Who is not pleased with compliments ? If no one praises us, well, we should find a person and compliment each other.
उष्ट्रानाम च विवाहेषु गीतं गायन्ति गर्दभा:


परस्परं प्रशाम्संति अहो रूपं अहो ध्वनि:  


{Donkeys sing in the weddings of Camels. They admire each other. How beautiful! What a voice!}

Bribe proof garment

I am a regular reader of Taxindiaonline, a portal dedicated to indirect taxes of India. In one of their recent posts, they had published the following news item. I am reproducing the same with a link to the actual post.

Bribe-proof garments - Pocketless trousers to prevent Corruption

TALKING of Nepal, the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) of Nepal has come up with a novel idea to stop corruption in  Kathmandu's Tribhuvan International Airport.  Now all airport officials will be given bribe-proof garment - trousers with no pockets. But pockets are not the only places where corruption can be hidden. It was held that a Keralite keeping gold in his underwear was not actually concealing gold, because as his lungi had no pockets, that was the only place where he could keep the gold safely.

                                                (TIOL -14^th July 2010)

http://www.taxindiaonline.com/RC2/inside2.php3?filename=bnews_detail.php3&newsid=11123

अर्थानामर्जने दु:खं अर्जितानाम च रक्षणे   | 

आये दु:खं  व्यये दु:खं धिगर्था: कष्ट संश्रया: || 

{There is lot of pain in earning the money. Pain in holding on to the earnings. Difficulty in earning and sadness in spending. Oh contemptuous wealth!} 

Tourney over, finally

The chess tourney is over and I have to drag myself to office from coming Monday. My performance or lack of it is evident in the final placings. I ended up taking the 130th slot in a tourney of 350 players. You may see the final standing in the following link.
http://www.chess-results.com/tnr36028.aspx?art=1&rd=10&lan=1&m=-1&wi=1000
I may lose about 20 ratings as well. Chess players generally would worry about the ratings they may lose.
ಅಹೋ ರಾತ್ರಾಣಿ ಗಚ್ಚಂತಿ  ಸರ್ವೇಷಾಂ ಪ್ರಾಣಿನಾಮಿಹ 
ಆಯುಮ್ಶಿ ಕ್ಷಪಯಂತ್ಯಾಶು ಗ್ರೀಶ್ಮೆ  ಜಲಮಿವಾಮ್ಶವ:
[Just like sunrays suck water from the earth silently in summer, with each passing day, people lose their life span] Hence, there is no point in worrying about even trivial things like FIDE ratings. 

No point for winning an argument!

Eight out of 10 rounds are over in the 4th Mangalore FIDE rated chess tourney and I am lagging behind with just 4.5 points. The just concluded 8th round against Mr.Rajat Kumar of Tamil Nadu produced some fire works off the board. He had white pieces and offered draw soon after 22 moves. I declined the offer and said "let us play". He offered the draw again after few moves. I assertively told him "you cannot offer the draw successively". He nodded and the game continued. On the 35th move, I  made a King move and he objected. The transcripts are as follows:
Rajat: "You touched the pawn at a5 sqaure. So you have to move that".
Me   : " I have n't touched any pawn. You are mistaken"
R      : "No  sir. You touched the pawn. I wrote in my score sheet" (He pointed to his score sheet)
M     : "You may write whatever in your score sheet"
R      :" No. You had touched the pawn"
M     : " I have not touched any pawn. If you are not satisfied, call the arbiter"
{Players from adjacent board got curious and other onlookers surrounded us. Assistant arbiter comes and enquires. Rajat claimed that I had touched the pawn but moved the King. I asserted to the contrary. The asst arbiter looked for witnesses and obviously there was no one.The asst arbiter told that the game would continue and he intends to give a warning to me. I firmly told the arbiter that warning is to be given to the person who made a false claim and not to me. The asst arbiter vacates the scene and main arbiter stepped in. He turned down the claim of my opponent and asked the game to continue.}
The game finally ended in draw after 46 moves with repetition of position.
Well, in chess, there is no point for winning an argument.
Did we left the playing table on a bitter note? No way. Much to the surprise of onlookers, we analysed the game for while and discussed the possible alternatives and then walked out of the hall.
Do you need tips as to how to win arguments? Well, the 17th century poet Neelakata Deekshith stated thus:
 न भेतव्यं न बोद्धव्यं न श्राव्यम   वादिनो वचा : | 
झटिति प्रतिवक्ताव्यम सभासु विजिगीशुभि:      ||
[The one who desirous of winning arguments need not fear. Need not understand nor hear what the other person says. Retort quickly. That's sufficient.]
Well, the poet has given few more very useful tips, which I will reveal at appropriate time. (after all, I am a chess player!)

Joy short lived

The joy of drawing an IM (pl see the previous post) was short lived as I was pitted against the top seed Grand Master R R Laxman (elo rating 2503) in the 3rd round. Though, the GM won against me, I derived some satisfaction in opening the game with a Gambit (just to convince myself that I am not over awed by the credentials of my opponent); giving a check and managing equal material for major part of the game. I even offered draw at move 29 which was politely declined by the GM. He put me in a mating net 5 moves later.

Round 3:    Date : 11.07.2010   Time 3:00 pm
Madhusoodana Bhat (1959) Vs GM R R Laxman (2503)
1. e4   e5    2. Nc3  Nf6     3.f4    d5    4. ed5 fe4    5. Bb5+   Bd7     6. Bd7   Nbd7
7. d4  Bb4  8. Bf4   Nd5   9. Qe2+  Qe7   10. Qe7  Ke7  11. Bd2  Bc3  12. bc3  N7b6
13 Nf3  f6 14. Kf2  Kd7  15. Rhe1  Nc4   16. Rb1  b6    17. Kd2   c6   18. Kd3    b5
19. Nh5  Rhe8  20. Nf5  g6   21. Nh4  N5b6   22.Nf3   Na4   23. Bc1   Re1 24. Ne1 Rae8
25. Nf3 a6  26.Rb4  Nab6  27 Rb1  a5  28. Rb4  Kd6   29.Rb1(=) Kd5  30.Rb3  a4
31.Rb4 a3 32.Ng1? Re1! 33. Nd2 Rd1+      0-1

Draw with an International Master

The 4th Mangalore FIDE rated all India Chess Tournament is in progress at Mangalore. The 2 nd round is just over and I have reasons to be delighted. My game  with an IM  Praveen Kumar C (rating 2395) ended in a draw. This is my first encounter with an IM (who is rated 436 elo ratings higher than me - my current rating is 1959 and it is declining!) and the result is pleasing especially when, I have not been playing regularly for the last few years. That is also the reason why I am in such a hurry to post this on the blog, as the euphoria may not last long as more games are to be played in the next few days.
Here is the game.
IM Praveen Kumar C (2395) Vs Madhusoodana Bhat (1959)
1.  d4   Nf6   2. Nf3    e6    3. e3    d5     4. Bd3   c5     5. b3  Nc6         6. Bb2   cd4
7. ed4  Be7   8. Nbd2 0-0   9.0-0   Nb4  10. Be2 Qc7  11.a3  Nc6        12. Bd3   b6
13. c4  Bb7  14. Rac1 Rac8  15.Qe2  Rfd8.  16. Rfd1 Qf4 17.Nf1 Na5  18.g3 Qg4
19.Ne3 Qh5  20. Nd2 Qe2   21. Be2  dc4     22.bc4 Ne4   23. Bf3 Nd2  24.Bb7 Nb7
25.Rd2 Bf6(=) 26.Ng4 Bg5   27. f4   Be7     28.Ne5 Nc5    29. Rc2 Na4 30. Ba1 Ba3
31. Rb1 Bd6    32. Nf3 a6  33. Nd2 (=) 1/2 -1/2 .


काल:  करोति कार्याणि काल एव विहंति च  |  
करोमि इति विहंमीति मूर्खो मुह्यति केवलं   ||
{Time alone does the work. Time alone gives results whether good or bad.
Fool believes that his decisions cause success and failure }