GREAT CHESS MOVEMENT IN GUJARAT - DREAMS BLOOM WHERE FEW LOOK

Prasant Rupera writes in The Times of India of 7 August 2026

100-house Guj village produces 17 Fide-rated players in 4 years.
Maths Teacher Behind Chess Movement

A 100-household village in Gujarat's Mahisagar district has shown that talent needs neither skyscrapers nor elite academies - only a chessboard and a chance . 

Ratusinh Na Muvada has produced 17 Fide-rated players in just four years and its little champions - mostly children of farmhands and daily wage labourers  - have also collected 120 trophies and 179 medals.

Driving this improbable rise is Sandip Upadhyay, a 45 year old Maths teacher at the govt-run Bal Vatika. From a crumbling five-room school, where only two classrooms are usable and many of its 200 students study in the open, he launched a chess movement in 2021 with a daring endgame - producing 50 grandmasters and 10 world champions. 

A FIDE rating is an official international skill measurement assigned to competitive chess players by FIDE(the International Chess Federation). It uses the Elo system to gauge performance against other rated opponents.

"I want to build a place where talented children from villages across India who cannot afford opportunities, can stay, study and receive world-class chess coaching. Alongside chess, they should also prepare for competitive examinations like GPSC and UPSC," Upadhyay said. His larger dream is India's biggest govt-funded chess school in the village.

After TOI spotlighted the village in Sept 2025, the Mahisagar administration began planning a new school, nearly 8.5 times larger than the existing building, complete with a dedicated chess hall.

Upadhyay spends much of his salary on entry fees,travel, books and chess kits.

Results have arrived at lightning speed. 

His students have played 24 state tournaments, finishing among the top three in 22. Bal Vatika was named the best performing institution at Students' Chess Festival in gandhinagar last Dec. The village has sent 21 children to the govt-run District Level Sports School, where they receive free education, residential facilities and specialised coaching. 

Support has steadily gathered pace through donations, equipment and free coaching, including monthly sessions by grandmaster Ankit Rajpara.

Among Upadyay's brightest pupils is class 8 student Divya Chauhan, daughter of a farm labourer who remained unbeaten in taluka tournaments for two years, finishing third in a state women's championship and now training at Gujarat's sports school.

"My dream is to become a grandmaster and represent India. I want girls from villages to believe they can achieve too," she said.

Never underestimate a passed pawn.

In Ratusinh Na Muvada, every child is pushing a pawn across a worn out board believes the next move could change a life.

PEDESTAL FANS TIMES OF INDIA 7 AUGUST 2026

 

MMA CHAMPION SANJANA GEORGE AFFECTED BY FLOODING IN CENTRAL KERALA

                                   MMA CHAMPION SANJANA GEORGE AFFECTED 
                                             BY FLOODING IN CENTRAL KERALA

Trivandrum Times of Times of India  7 August 2026

Breaking Home Ties, by Norman Rockwell, on the cover of the Saturday Evening Post in 1954.

Let me post a forward I received yesterday. 

This is one of the most beloved paintings in America, and it puts its finger on something we all pass through, first as the child, and one day as the parent left behind...

The painting is Breaking Home Ties, by Norman Rockwell, on the cover of the Saturday Evening Post in 1954. 

It has moved people for 72 years

This is one of the most beloved paintings in America, and it puts its finger on something we all pass through, first as the child, and one day as the parent left behind...

The painting is Breaking Home Ties, by Norman Rockwell, on the cover of the Saturday Evening Post in 1954. A father and his teenage son sit side by side on the running board of a battered farm truck, waiting at a railway stop. A single track runs along the bottom of the picture. A ticket pokes from the boy's pocket. His suitcase is stacked with schoolbooks and wears a "State U" pennant. The train is coming to carry him off to college, away from home, for the first time in his life.

Everything is in the way they sit.

The son sits upright, scrubbed and dressed in his best, eyes fixed on the horizon, on the track, on the future rushing toward him. He is already half gone. For him that train is the beginning of everything.

His father sits beside him in worn work clothes and scuffed boots, looking the other way, down the line, as if he cannot bear to watch it arrive. The same train means the opposite thing to him. For the son it is the start of a life. For the father it is the day the house grows quieter, the chair at the table sits empty, and the person he built his world around walks out into a life that no longer has him at its centre.

Look at his hands. He is holding two hats. His own battered one, and resting on top of it, his son's crisp new one, held carefully together, because it is the last small thing he can still do for the boy...

And then the dog, its head laid in the son's lap, gazing up, refusing to look away. Rockwell knew exactly what that was for: "The father couldn't show how he felt about the boy's leaving," he said. "The dog did."

It has moved people for 72 years because every leaving is a beginning for one person and an ending for another. The child steps out into the world, as they should. And someone stays behind, watching them go, and loving them enough to let them go anyway...

It was poignant.
It took me to that Sunday, the first Sunday of June 1965.
I had to leave my precious home where love was the hallmark.
It relived the day I had to leave my house at the age of 15.
That day and its previous day  are vivid in my memory.
I was reading the narration aloud for Lila. 

After a point I couldn't go on. 

I was crying

Tears flew down

I couldn't ever get over that separation.

The feelings are intense

And for my Papa and Mummy

And my siblings

They couldn't absorb the shock.

Every one was crying 

As I left home

Mummy later said

Papa after seeing me off

At the bus stand

Returned alone

She saw him

Lying down on my bed

Gave vent to the strife within

Unashamedly crying.

ENTENDRE AND DOUBLE ENTENDRE

Entendre  

Pronounciation: English:  ahn TAHN druh 

                           French:  ahn-tahn-dr

In English, "entendre" (as in double entendre) is pronounced on-TAHN-druh or ahn-TAHN-druh (/ɑːnˈtɑːn.drə/). 

In French, it is pronounced with nasal vowels as ahn-tahn-dr (/ɑ̃.tɑ̃dʁ/), where the final "re" is barely heard. 

You can listen to an audio breakdown via the Cambridge Dictionary

The word entendre is a French verb that means "to hear". 

In English, it is most commonly seen as part of the phrase double entendre, which is a word or phrase with two meanings, where one meaning is usually risqué, crude, or socially awkward

French Verb 

Meaning Is:To hear: 

Passive perception of sound (e.g., J'entends un bruit / "I hear a noise").To understand: 

Grasping the meaning of something (e.g., Bien entendu / "Of course" or literally "well understood")

Double Entendre 

FeaturesTwo interpretations: 

The first meaning is innocent and fits the normal conversation. 

The second meaning is often suggestive or taboo.

Wordplay: 

It relies on puns, homophones, or ambiguous phrasing to deliver a hidden joke

EMINENT EDUCATIONIST D.Y.PATIL PASSES AWAY

 

Eminent educationist, D.Y. Patil passes away, the news read.     

He was 91.

He leaves behind one of India's largest private education networks comprising of 182 institutions, three deemed universities and five state private universities with over 1.5 lakh students and around 26000 employees.

His son and Congress MLC Satej Patil said, "He was the pillar of our family and the institutions he created. Throughout his life, he connected people and transformed the lives of lakhs of students through education. His teachings will continue to inspire us."

He had begun his public career at the age of 19. 

He was known for his loyalty to Congress.            

He was awarded Padma Shri in 1991.

At the peak of his political career, he had stepped away from active politics to pursue his vision of building educational institutions.

He established a vast network of institutions spanning medicine, engineering, pharmacy and other disciplines, transforming higher education access for thousands of students

GOALKEEPERS FOOTBALL OR HOCKEY

 

A goalkeeper has to bear in mind, every goalkeeper concedes goals. 

The important thing is to forget about it quickly and move on. 

If you do that it would help you focus much better.

If you concede a goal and keep thinking about it, you won't be able to perform in the next moment. 

Your biggest quality must be your sincerity. You have to dedicate yourself to improve all the time.

You have to be good in decision making. You have to know the best line you have to take as a goalkeeper, when to come off  the line, how to narrow the angles and how to coordinate with the defenders. 

The need is to keep excellent communication between the goalkeeper and the defence.

They must understand which areas the goalkeeper covers and which areas the defenders should take responsibility for.

The goalkeepers have to be put through goalkeeping exercises by the coaches.

For a goalkeeper, even learning one small skill can make a huge difference. He should have mental toughness. He has to possess a mindset that prompts him to never give up.

If it is hockey, the goalkeeper should constantly work on drag flicks.

Bear in mind it is the goalkeeper who is the last line of defence. 

If he fails, the team fails.