Another Award

I have been presented with this Cherry on Top award by Insignia. Thank you very much Insignia and it is an honor to receive an award from you.

There is a ground rule for accepting this award. I have to say 3 good things about me.

Usually when describing about themselves, people are critical …..unless they are in an interview situation. Most of us think saying good things about us are considered as self-praise. Still, since this post calls for saying 3 good things about me, here they are:

1. We have been living in the United States for a long time and still converse only in Tamil at home.

2. I will give anything, including my own life, for those people who I love and who are dear and near to me. I consider their happiness is my happiness. Every day I pray God for their health and happiness. As the Tamil saying goes, even if they need Tiger’s milk I will get it for them. Incidentally, they are the same people I engage in petty arguments and fights.

3. Whenever I help someone (like a sick person unable to afford a doctor or operation), only me and my wife will know about it. Sometimes, even the patient will not know who helped.

Now, I would like to present this award to the following:

Chitra

A

NumeroUnity

Sulagna

Please accept this award. Thanks.

Spellbound

Once again an Indian-American won the Scripps National Spelling Bee contest and took the Championship Trophy and $40,000 in cash and prizes. She is Anamika Veeramani, a 14 year old girl from Ohio State. In the finals, she spelled the word “stromuhr” correctly. The meaning: It is a tool that measures the speed of blood through artery.

Congratulations to Anamika. Well done. Her parents Alagaiya and Malar immigrated from Chennai, India.

Incidentally, this year’s runner up also is an Indian-American, Shantanu Srivatsa, a 13 year old from North Dakota. Shantanu could not spell the word “ochidore” correctly. (I have no idea what “ochidore” means.) Congratulations to Shantanu also for winning the second prize.

Anamika became the third consecutive Indian-American spelling bee champion. In 2009, the winner was Kavya Shivshankar. The winner in 2008 was Sameer Mishra.

This is the 83rd annual spelling bee contest. Indian-Americans took the trophy in the last eight out of twelve years.

1999 - Nupur Lala

2000 – George Abraham Thampy

2002 – Pratyush Buddiga

2003 – Sai Gunturi

2005 – Anurag Kashyap

2008 – Sameer Mishra

2009 – Kavya Shivshankar

2010 – Anamika Veeramani

When asked by the reporters, Anamika’s father, Alagaiya Veeramani said he had no clue why Indian-Americans seem to do so well at the competition. He guessed it has something to do with hard-work ethic.

Munchausen Syndrome?

"I learned a very important lesson that night. People believe whatever they read. Something magical happens once it’s put down on paper. They figure no one would have gone through the trouble if it wasn't the truth.”
Eugene Morris Jerome in the Neil Simon movie, Biloxi Blues

It amazes me quite a lot how people believe, without question, what they read. Taking advantage of this, some writers write sensational journalism. Some others have the chutzpah to write anything in order to get attention, sympathy, and pity. Recently I came across one like this.

Here is this writer. He is a real jerk and a joker. He recently put up a "stunt" for getting sympathy from his readers and behaved like an idiot. In a particular post, he wrote that this was his last post and he is quitting blogging. And, the innocent readers believed that and pleaded with him not to quit. Next week he said “gotcha”. He said he wanted to lighten up, could not find anything to write, and therefore performed this stunt. Looks like a guy who writes his own obituary, publishes it, and reads it for the fun of it.

We don’t know what kind of other stunts he is capable of performing to gain sympathy and pity from others.

And then, there are a few people suffer from Munchausen Syndrome. Munchausen syndrome is a disorder wherein those affected would do anything to draw attention or sympathy. These people tend to seek sympathy to feel cared for, and understood. They use their writing as an attention seeking device. They are desperate. I feel sorry for those few.