Sourav Ganguly

Sourav Ganguly

affectionately known as Dada (meaning "elder brother" in Bengali), is an Indian cricket administrator, commentator and former national cricket team captain who is the 39th and current president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India.

As a cricketer he played as a left-handed opening batsman and was captain of the Indian national team. He was elected as a president of the BCCI in 2019. and President of the Editorial Board with Wisden India.  Before being elected as the President of BCCI, he was the President of Cricket Association of Bengal, governing body for cricket in West Bengal, India. He is regarded as one of the greatest captains in the Cricket world. During his playing career, Ganguly established himself as one of the world's leading batsmen and also one of the most successful captain of the Indian national cricket team. While batting, he was especially prolific through the off side, earning himself the nickname God of the Off Side for his elegant stroke play square of the wicket and through the covers. 

Ganguly was introduced into the world of cricket by his elder brother, Snehasish. He started his career by playing in state and school teams. After playing in different Indian domestic tournaments, such as the Ranji and Duleep trophies, Ganguly got his big-break while playing for India on their tour of England. He scored 131 runs and cemented his place in the Indian team. Ganguly's place in the team was assured after successful performances in series against Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Australia, winning the Man of the Match awards. In the 1999 Cricket World Cup, he was involved in a partnership of 318 runs with Rahul Dravid, which remains the highest overall partnership score in the World Cup tournament history. Due to the match-fixing scandals in 2000 by other players of the team, and for his poor health, Indian captain Sachin Tendulkar resigned his position, and Ganguly was made the captain of the Indian cricket team. He was soon the subject of media criticism after an unsuccessful stint for county side Durham and for taking off his shirt in the final of the 2002 NatWest Series. He led India into the 2003 World Cup final, where they were defeated by Australia. Due to a decrease in individual performance, he was dropped from the team in the following year. He returned to the National team in 2006, and made successful batting displays. Around this time, he became involved in a dispute with Indian team coach Greg Chappell over several misunderstandings. Ganguly was again dropped from the team, however he was selected to play in the 2007 Cricket World Cup. He is regarded as one of India's most successful captains in modern times and one of the greatest ODI batsmen of all time.  Currently, he is the 8th highest run scorer in One Day Internationals (ODIs) and was the 3rd batsman in history to cross the 10,000 run landmark, after Sachin Tendulkar and Inzamam Ul Haq. In 2002, the Wisden Cricketers' Almanack ranked him the sixth greatest ODI batsman of all time, next to Viv Richards, Sachin Tendulkar, Brian Lara, Dean Jones and Michael Bevan. 

Ganguly joined the Kolkata Knight Riders team as captain for the Indian Premier League Twenty20 cricket tournament in 2008. The same year, after a home Test series against Australia, he announced his retirement from international cricket. He continued to play for the Bengal team and was appointed the chairman of the Cricket Association of Bengal's Cricket Development Committee. The left-handed Ganguly was a prolific One Day International (ODI) batsman, with over 11,000 ODI runs to his credit. He is one of the most successful Indian Test captains to date, winning 21 out of 49 test matches. Sourav Ganguly is the most successful Indian test captain overseas with 11 wins.  The Indian team was ranked eighth in the ICC rankings before he became the captain, and under his tenure the team rank went up to second. An aggressive captain, Ganguly is credited with having nurtured the careers of many young players who played under him, and transforming the Indian team into an aggressive fighting unit.

Along with Harshavardhan Neotia, Sanjiv Goenka, and Utsav Parekh, Ganguly is also the co-owner of Atlético de Kolkata, a franchise of the Indian Super League, which won the inaugural season in 2014. 

Ganguly was awarded the Padma Shri in 2004, one of India's highest civilian awards. Ganguly was awarded with the Banga Bibhushan Award from the Government of West Bengal on 20 May 2013. 

Ganguly is currently a part of the Supreme Court of India appointed Justice Mudgal Committee probe panel for the IPL Spot fixing and betting scandal's investigations. 

Sourav Ganguly was born on 8 July 1972 in Calcutta, and is the youngest son of Chandidas and Nirupa Ganguly.  Chandidas ran a flourishing print business and was one of the richest men in the city.  Ganguly had a luxurious childhood and was nicknamed the 'Maharaja', meaning the 'Great King'. Ganguly's father Chandidas Ganguly died at the age of 73 on 21 February 2013 after a long illness 

Since the favourite sport for the people of Calcutta was football, Ganguly was initially attracted to the game. However, academics came in-between his love for sports and Nirupa was not very supportive of Ganguly taking up cricket or any other sport as a career.  By then, his elder brother Snehasish was already an established cricketer for the Bengal cricket team. He supported Ganguly's dream to be a cricketer and asked their father to get Ganguly enrolled in a cricket coaching camp during his summer holidays. Ganguly was studying in tenth standard at that time. 

Despite being right-handed, Ganguly learnt to bat left-handed so he could use his brother's sporting equipment.  After he showed some promise as a batsman, he was enrolled in a cricket academy. An indoor multi-gym and concrete wicket was built at their home, so he and Snehasish could practice the game. They used to watch a number of old cricket match videos, especially the games played by David Gower, whom Ganguly admired.  After he scored a century against the Orissa Under–15 side, he was made captain of St Xavier's School's cricket team, where several of his teammates complained against what they perceived to be his arrogance.  While touring with a junior team, Ganguly refused his turn as the twelfth man, as he reportedly felt that the duties involved, which included organising equipment and drinks for the players, and delivering messages, were beneath his social status.  Ganguly purportedly refused to do such tasks as he considered it beneath his social status to assist his teammates in such a way.  However, his playmanship gave him a chance to make his first-class cricket debut for Bengal in 1989, the same year that his brother was dropped from the team

Reference

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sourav_Ganguly

Vikram Batra

Vikram Batra

Captain Vikram Batra, PVC (9 September 1974 – 7 July 1999) was an officer of the Indian Army, awarded with the Param Vir Chakra, India's highest and most prestigious award for valour, for his actions during the 1999 Kargil War

Batra was born on 9 September 1974, in Palampur, Himachal Pradesh, India. He was the third child of Girdhari Lal Batra, a government school principal, and Kamal Kanta Batra, a school teacher.[2] He was the elder of twin sons and had two sisters.  He attended the D.A.V. Public School in Palampur, where he studied up to middle standard.  He received his senior secondary education at Central School, Palampur.  In 1990, he and his twin brother represented their school in table tennis at All India KVS Nationals.  He also was a green belt holder in Karate and went on to attend a national level camp in Manali. 

Later, he attended DAV College, Chandigarh in B.Sc Medical Sciences.  At college, he joined the Air Wing of the National Cadet Corps (NCC) while he was in the first year. ] During the Inter-State NCC Camp, he was adjudged the best NCC Air Wing cadet of Punjab Directorate in North Zone.  He was selected and underwent a 40-day paratrooping training with his NCC Air Wing unit at Pinjore Airfield and Flying Club.  During the next two years in DAV, he remained a cadet of the Army Wing of NCC. 

He afterward qualified for the 'C' certificate in the NCC and attained the rank of Senior Under Officer in his NCC unit. Subsequently, in 1994, he was selected for the Republic Day parade as a NCC cadet, and when he came back home, he told his parents that he wanted to join the Army.  In 1995, while still in college, he was selected for the merchant navy at a shipping company headquartered in Hong Kong, but ultimately he changed his mind.  That same year he completed his bachelor's degree, graduating from the DAV College in Chandigarh. 

Following completion of his bachelor's degree in 1995, he enrolled at Panjab University in Chandigarh, where he took admission in MA English course, so that he could prepare for the "Combined Defence Services" (CDS) Examination.  He attended evening classes at the University and worked part-time in the morning as a branch manager of a travelling agency in Chandigarh. 

In 1996, he passed the CDS examination and got selected at the Services Selection Board (SSB) at Allahabad.  He was among the top 35 candidates in the Order of Merit.  After completing a year (session 1995—96) toward the degree of MA in English, he left the University to join the Indian Military Academy. 

In the words of his father, Vikram had found his purpose in life. He had found the way to a righteous path that would lead him to his goal — to a service that was extraordinarily high and supreme. 

Reference

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vikram_Batra

World Chocolate Day

World Chocolate Day

World Chocolate Day, is referred to, in some instances, as International Chocolate Day,  is an annual observance that occurs globally on '7th of July.  References to World Chocolate Day being observed on 7th of July have been recorded as early as 2009.  Celebration of the day includes the consumption of chocolate. Some references indicate that this day celebrates the introduction of chocolate to Europe in 1550. 

Many other chocolate day celebrations exist, such as National Chocolate Day in the United States on 28 October.  Confusingly, the U.S. National Confectioners Association lists 13 September as International Chocolate Day. 

Other more specific chocolate-themed days are celebrated throughout the world.  The West African country, Ghana, the second largest producer of Cocoa celebrates chocolate day on February 14th. In Latvia, World Chocolate day is celebrated on July 11. Others include Bittersweet Chocolate Day on 10 January, Milk Chocolate Day on 28 July, White Chocolate Day on 22 September, and Chocolate Covered Anything Day on 16 December.

Reference

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Chocolate_Day

ملبورن

ملبورن

ملبورن (بالإنجليزية: Melbourne)‏ هي عاصمة ولاية فيكتوريا الأسترالية، وأكبر مدنها. تعتبر ثاني أكبر مدن أستراليا بعد سيدني، وعدد سكانها 4,077,036 نسمة (عام 2010). مساحتها 8860 كم2 وتصل مساحة منطقتها الحضرية إلى 6,100كم2، وهو ما يعرف بملبورن الكبرى، حيث تمتد الضواحي الشمالية والغربية عن مركز المدينة بنحو 20كم، وتمتد الضواحي شرقًا إلى 40كم، ويصل أقصى امتداد لها صوب الجنوب الشرقي إلى 50كم.

يزيد عدد سكان ملبورن سنوياً بمعدل 30 ألف نسمة، ويعيش نحو 2,500 نسمة من السكان الأصليين في المدينة، وثلث السكان المهاجرين إلى المدينة منذ عام 1945م هم من بريطانيا وأيرلندا، أما بقية المهاجرين فمن بقية أقطار أوروبا ودول جنوب شرقي آسيا.

وفي ملبورن ما يزيد على 600 مدرسة ابتدائية و170 مدرسة ثانوية حكومية إضافة إلى العديد من المدارس الخاصة. وهناك سبع جامعات و16 كلية وبعض الكليات التقنية المتقدمة.

مراجع

https://ar.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D9%85%D9%84%D8%A8%D9%88%D8%B1%D9%86

Melbourne

Melbourne

 is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia and Oceania.  Its name refers to an urban agglomeration of 9,993 km2 (3,858 sq mi),  comprising a metropolitan area with 31 municipalities,  and is also the common name for its city centre. The city occupies much of the coastline of Port Phillip bay (Kulin: Naarm) and spreads into the Hinterland towards the Dandenong and Macedon ranges, Mornington Peninsula and Yarra Valley. It has a populatio  

Home to Indigenous Australians for over 40,000 years, the Melbourne area served as a popular meeting place for local Kulin nation clans. A short-lived penal settlement was established at Port Phillip, then part of the British colony of New South Wales, in 1803, but it was not until 1835, with the arrival of free settlers from Van Diemen’s Land (modern-day Tasmania), that Melbourne was founded.  It was incorporated as a Crown settlement in 1837, and named Melbourne by Governor General Richard Bourke on 10 April 1837  in honour of the then British Prime Minister, William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne.  In 1851, four years after Queen Victoria declared it a city, Melbourne became the capital of the new colony of Victoria.  In the wake of the 1850s Victorian gold rush, the city entered a lengthy boom period that, by the late 1880s, had transformed it into one of the world's largest and wealthiest metropolises.  After the federation of Australia in 1901, it served as the interim seat of government of the new nation until Canberra became the permanent capital in 1927.  Today, it is a leading financial centre in the Asia-Pacific region and ranks 15th in the Global Financial Centres Index. 

Melbourne is home to many of Australia's best-known landmarks, such as the Melbourne Cricket Ground, the National Gallery of Victoria and the World Heritage-listed Royal Exhibition Building. Noted for its cultural heritage, the city gave rise to Australian rules football, Australian impressionism and Australian cinema, and has more recently been recognised as a UNESCO City of Literature and a global centre for street art, live music and theatre. It hosts major annual international events, such as the Australian Grand Prix and the Australian Open, and also hosted the 1956 Summer Olympics and the 2006 Commonwealth Games. Melbourne consistently ranked as the world's most liveable city for much of the 2010s. 

Melbourne Airport, also known as Tullamarine Airport, is the second busiest airport in Australia, and the city's port is the nation's busiest seaport.  Its main metropolitan rail terminus is Flinders Street station and its main regional rail and road coach terminus is Southern Cross station. It also has Australia's most extensive freeway network and the largest urban tram network in the world.

Reference

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melbourne

Eric Joyce

Eric Joyce

Eric Stuart Joyce (born 13 October 1960) is a British politician, former military officer, and a convicted sex offender  who served as a Member of Parliament (MP) from 2000 to 2015 and served as Shadow Minister of State for Northern Ireland in 2010. A former member of the Labour Party, Joyce was MP for Falkirk West from 2000 to 2005 and MP for Falkirk from 2005 to 2015.

Joining the army in his teens, Joyce served as a private in the Black Watch before attending University and subsequently receiving a commission in the Royal Army Educational Corps. He resigned from the army under threat of discharge in 1999 at the rank of major after being found to have broken Queen's Regulations. He then worked as the Public Affairs Officer at the Commission for Racial Equality (Scotland).

Joyce was first elected to the British House of Commons in the 2000 Falkirk West by-election. From 2003, Joyce served as a Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to several UK government ministers. He resigned as the PPS to Bob Ainsworth on 3 September 2009, citing concerns over the war in Afghanistan. He was the Shadow Minister for the Northern Ireland Office under Ed Miliband in 2010.

Joyce was arrested five times during his last five years as an MP, most notably in February 2012 on suspicion of assault after an incident in the Houses of Parliament. This led to his immediate suspension from the Labour Party, before pleading guilty to all charges and resigning from the party the following month. He continued representing his constituency as an independent until retiring at the 2015 general election. On 7 July 2020, Joyce pleaded guilty at Ipswich Crown Court to making a Category-A indecent movie of a child said to be 12 months old, between August 7, 2013 and November 6, 2018. Joyce was ordered to sign the sex offenders register and will be sentenced in August 2020. The Judge at the trial told Joyce that due to the seriousness of the crime he was facing a custodial sentence.
Joyce lived in Perth, Scotland, with his family for most of his childhood and adolescence. He joined the Army in 1978, initially as a private in the Black Watch before taking a sabbatical between 1981 and 1987 to attend technical college and university where he gained a BA (Hons) in Religious Studies from Stirling University. As a university candidate, he was made a probationary second lieutenant on 25 August 1987. In 1987 he attended the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst before being commissioned into the Royal Army Educational Corps (later Adjutant General's Corps) as a subaltern with seniority to 7 October 1981.  After receiving his commission he continued his studies part-time and acquired an MA in Education from the University of Bath and an MBA from Keele University. During his time in the Army he served in Great Britain, Northern Ireland, Germany and Central America. He was promoted to captain on 25 January 1990  and to major in 1992.

Joyce publicly described the armed forces as "racist, sexist and discriminatory", A Fabian pamphlet by Joyce titled Arms and the Man: renewing the armed services had been published without the proper authorisation, breaching Queen's Regulations, which govern the conduct of officers in the British armed forces.  He continued to speak out about how he perceived the army to the disapproval of his superiors. At a hearing in January 1999 which invoked the Pay Warrant rules, Joyce was requested to resign from the army by 13 March or be discharged.  He resigned his commission on 12 March 1999 and left the army,

Joyce subsequently served on the staff of the Commission for Racial Equality (Scotland) before his election to the House of Commons
Reference
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Joyce

The Secret She Keeps

The Secret She Keeps

The Secrets She Keeps is an Australian psychological thriller drama television series that officially premiered on Network Ten on 22 April 2020 at 8:45pm  The series was given a special release on 10 Play on 4 April 2020 as a part of the streaming website's "10 shows in 10 days" promotion  during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The six-part series is set in Sydney and is about two women from vastly different backgrounds with explosive secrets that could destroy everything they hold dear.  The series is written by Sarah Walker and Jonathan Gavin, based on the psychological thriller novel by Michael Robotham

The BBC are broadcasting the series on BBC One from 6 June 2020, with the whole series concurrently available on BBC iPlayer.  In Ireland on public broadcaster RTÉ One every Tuesday from 9 June 2020 and it will also be available on the RTÉ Player

Reference

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Secrets_She_Keeps