Washington; In the end, it all boiled down to "pococurante". Summoning a degree of nonchalance after six never-wracking hours of wordathon, Sai Gunturi, a 13-year old eighteen grader from Dallas, Texas, spelled out p-o-c-o-c-u-r-a-n-t-e (which menas nonchalance) to win the 76th US National Scripps Howard Spelling Bee Championship.

There was a brief collective gasp from the audience followed by a deafening cheer as the judges confirmed that Sai had got it right to beat New York's Evelyn Black-lock, his only remaining rival (from 251 finalists). She had earlier fluffed on "gnathonic" (which means fawning attention; she was misled into spelling it "nathonic" because the 'g' is silent).

As the young man in braces collected the trophy and a $12,000 winners check - with lots more to follow - his parents Lakshmi and Sarma Gunturi, who were about the most relaxed among the frenzied scores who witnessed the nail biting daylong finale, swept him into their arms. Among the words Sai spelt correctly en route to the title were marmoraceous, mistassini, solfeggio, voussoir, halogeton, dipnoous, peirastic, rhathymia.

With each passing year, the spelling bee competition has become toughter, more dramatic, and had a wider audience. This year's event telecast live on ESPN and watched in schools and homes across the country, acquired and added timbre following the critical acclaim received by a documentary called Spellbound which captures the heart-stopping suspense and behind-the-senses tension and agony of the competition.

The even is also widely covered in the mainstream American media, in part because it is hosted by a media house, and top participants are sponsored by their hometown newspapers. Sai was sponsored by the Dallas Morning News, which not only profiled him extensively before the competition, but splashed his victory on page one on Friday.

For the Gunturis, spelling has become a family affair. Sai's sister Nivedita is a 1997 finalist and he had to beat his brother Abhiram in the state level finals this year to advance to the national round.

Courtesy: Times of India, May 31, 2003

Top Hollywood banners are getting into the Indian commercial movie business in an unprecedented way. For the first time, 20th Century Fox will be distributing a commercial film, Jhankar Beats written and directed by Sujoy Ghosh. Columbia Tristar and its parent entity Sony Pictures are also considering 'Bollywood' projects.

So far, the Hollywood biggies had sporadically handled mainstream Hindi films like December 16 and some crossover movies like Monsoon Wedding, Bent it Like Beckham and Bollywood Calling. But now, Fox is lining up Ek Haseena Thi, a Ram Gopal Verma movie starring Saif Ali Khan and Urmila Matondkar, and possibly a Ketan Mehta flick after Jhankar Beats.

Fox says it is serious about selling Indian commercial cinema. For Hollywood majors, easier clearances by the Foreign Investment Promotion Board has also helped. But they cite the coming of age of content in Indian cinema as the main driver.

"There's a certain level of maturity among the Indian audience today which was not there two years ago," says MD of 20th Century Fox, India Aditya Shastri. "People watch a good film even if there are no stars. So, we are looking at films that content driven and have an intrinsic script." He says even most film-makers have matured and are fully committed to a project.

Jhankar Beats, a slice-of-life film starring Juhi Chawla, Rinkie Khanna, Rahul Bose and Riya Sen, is about three young couples. The guys work in the same office and at night they play for a local band. Jhankar Beats is a contest that they want to win desperately.

"It is urban, contemporary," says Siddhartha Das, COO of Pritish Nandy Communications, which has produced the movie. "The market is looking at substance now, and exploring non-formula stuff. I think people today have such a lot of choice in entertainment that unless they find a film compelling, they reject."

Courtesy: Times of India, May 26, 2003

Arundhati Roy's Booker Prize winning novel, The God of Small Things, has been voted as the 20th best by a woman in the list of top 50. Her book has been rated above the likes of Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Wolf, George Eliot's The Mill of the Floss, Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen and two of JK Rowling Harry potter books.

But, while Harry Potter's magic helped JK Rowling beat the Queen in the list of wealthiest Britons, it has failed to overcome the allure of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, which appears to continue inspire a devotion by successive generations. Pride and prejudice has been voted the "best-loved novel" by a woman author.

The result of the poll in which both men and women voted, should bring comfort to the so-called thinking classes.

Courtesy: www.hindustantimes.com, May 13, 2003

For the first time in Tamil, an encyclopaedia listing all the major historical events that had happened in the world, India and Tamil Nadu is going to be released in book and on CD-ROM.

The man behind the unique venture is a Tamil writer, I Shanmughanathan, or Nathan as he is popularly known in the Tamil literary world.

The encyclopedia is titled 'Karkalam Mutal Kamputer Kalam Varay' [From the Stone Age to the Computer Age].

It all began when Nathan chanced upon a book titled 'Chronicle of the 20th Century History' at a book exhibition 5 years ago. He noticed that the book did not mention much about events in India and particularly in Tamil Nadu. It set him thinking. Why not a book in Tamil with emphasis on the history and events in India and in Tamil Nadu?

The result of his three years of research, which started in 1998, was a 600 page book with 500 rare photographs titled 'Oru Tamizhan Parvayil Irupatham Nootrandu Varalaru' [20th Century History in the Eyes of a Tamilian]. The book listed all the major events that happened in history of the world, India and Tamil Nadu from 1900-2000.

He used the viewpoint of a Tamizhan [Tamilian] as he felt till now "we got to read only the western point of view in other books".

The unique feature of the book is that it is split into three parts. The first contains the world history, the second on Indian history of the same period and the third consists of the corresponding happenings in Tamil Nadu.

"For example, when I mention about world war in the first section, the Indian section will have the recordings of Indian freedom struggle of the same period while the Tamil section will have what happened in Tamil Nadu during the same period."

The book and its electronic version in CD-ROM and VCD with video clips priced at $10 each (Rs 500) were released simultaneously in Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Colombo and Chennai in the year 2000.

The reason for an electronic version of the book was because he wanted to satisfy the ten million Tamils all over the world. "If there are 50 million Tamils in India, there are more than ten million outside India. Those who live outside India are very keen to encourage the language," Shanmughanathan says.

Not only the Tamil diaspora, but the Tamil Nadu government also appreciated Nathan's effort. He received a grant of Rs 300,000 for the research work and the government has asked all the state, district and taluk libraries in the state to buy a copy of the book.

As he researched for the 20th century history, he realised that he should add more information and make it an encyclopedia. His work on the encyclopedia took lest time, only one and half years.

The reception his first book received gave him the confidence to finish the encyclopedia in record time. "If a book on the history of the last 100 years can receive such warm reception, I knew readers would love to have a comprehensive history of the world."

The encyclopedia starts from the beginning of the universe to the modern era that developed the computers. Hence the title 'From the Stone Age to the Computer Age'.

The book consists of 400 pages with rare photographs and also has a CD-Rom version, which will be released in June 2003.

Nathan, who is now the editorial adviser of the Daily Thanthi, the largest circulated Tamil newspaper, was the former chief news editor of the same paper. He has also written 16 novels and 100 short stories in Tamil.

Nathan can be reached at support@dt.co.in or 14-6, Pandaram Street, Purasawakkam, Chennai 600 007. Phone 011-91-44-25325851.

Courtesy: www.rediff.com, May 05, 2003

The Visva-Bharati would launch the university's cultural magazine on the Internet on the eve of Rabindranath Tagore's 142nd birth anniversary, on May 9.

A reader may log on to www.Visva-bharati.ac.in to browse the 'Santiniketan', which is perhaps the first e-magazine published in a regional language (Bengali) by an Indian university.

Vice-Chancellor Prof Sujit Kumar Basu said the first issue of the e-magazine would be dedicated to the bard. Enriched by articles from the archive of the Visva-Bharati, the magazine would include write-ups on culture and science.

The magazine would also contain contributions from outside the campus.

"The idea of launching the e-magazine is to project our culture for a wider audience with the help of modern information technology," Basu said.

Courtesy: www.hindustantimes.com, May 01, 2003