World Chess Olympiad 2022

 The 22 nd World Chess Olympiad kicked off in Mahabalipuram on 28th July. The tournament consists of open and women's teams,  and has attracted enthusiastic participation from the country, to say nothing from across the globe. Tamil Nadu leads the charge, as befits the host state. After all, 24 of the country's 75 Grand Masters are from Tamil Nadu. The sport (if sport you call it) has benefited from both the inspiration and efforts of Vishwanathan Anand,  who has been a role model, right since he was 19, and lived in Chennai in Besant Nagar. 

Meanwhile,  the state has gone to town over the Olympiad, with the advent of everything from Chess Kolams to Chess Saris. A particularly beautiful combination has been the marriage of dance moves and chess moves in a video  

commissioned by the Collector of Pudukottai, who is a classical dancer herself. See and enjoy.

This blog post is by Sumathi Rao and Neelima Gupte.

Smile or Snarl

The latest controversy in circulation is about the appearance of the four lions in the Ashoka Pillar, i.e. the ones in parliament, as opposed to the ones in Sarnath. Having seen the ones in Sarnath, we vouch they were smiley. Look at the back of any Indian coin for confirmation. The mint does a pretty good job of reproducing the Ashoka Pillar. 

Now as for the parliamentarian lions. Only a privileged few have seen those up to now. However, definitely a snarl, or to be exact, 4 snarls, from the pictures. So what gives? 

 Explanations range from aggressive nationalism to a naturalistic representation of an intrinsically ferocious species. The sculptor's family swears he spent long hours in a zoo near the lion enclosures. In lieu of this fancy stuff, we offer a simple explanation encoded not in an acrostic but in a limerick. 

 There was a young lady of Riga, 

 Who went for a ride on a tiger, 

 They came back from the ride, 

 With the lady inside, 

 And a smile on the face of the tiger! 

 In short, the parliamentary lions are before the ride, and the Sarnath ones are after. 

 Caveats:

 1. These are lions not tigers. 2. 4 ladies might be needed. One might not suffice. 

 3. Kalinga ladies would have to be as foolish as the Riga ladies. 

 We hope our explanation finds some public support.

 This blog post is by Neelima Gupte and Sumathi Rao.