I would unhesitatingly say that Crossword puzzles are the most intellectual of games man has ever invented. When I was growing up, one of my uncles used to complete all the grids in the Statesman every morning in just ten minutes. I used to ignore it until I too became an addict. My senior colleague in All India Radio, T R Panchapagesan too used to complete the puzzle in no time.  Now, Vatsan, a colleague of mine in Chennaionline is an adept.

Well, you may wonder why I should write about crosswords. Recently I came across a news item that many students of a school in Palayamkottai were imparted the skills of solving crossword puzzles by a professional under The Hindu’s ‘Newspaper in Education’ programme. This novel programme had been designed with the objective of increasing the students’ awareness of a wide range of topics, contemporary issues, developing critical thinking and strong reading habits and providing ample space for showcasing their inherent talents.

After all, intelligence is in the head, not in the age.

An Indian-origin couple in Australia is on cloud nine after being blessed with a baby girl who was born at 09:09 am on 09/09/09. The baby was due on September 12. The happy parents, Dhara and Sudish Patel said the time of delivery, considered auspicious in many parts of the world, particularly China, was a surprise.

In Chinese, “nine, nine,” or “jiu, jiu,” means “for a long time.” Thousands of Chinese flocked to get married on that day believing that the date will guarantee longevity of their wedding and life.

We can believe what we choose. We are answerable for what we choose to believe!

Death is still the most enigmatic of experiences. What would happen after we die?

Let us leave the inscrutable aside. Yet, it gives us solace to know that a modern crematorium in Erode has secured ISO 9001 and ISO 14001. This is the only civic body in the country to bag both the ISOs for a crematorium.

This has been developed under the public-private partnership model in association with Aathma Trust. Its cost? Over Rs.3 crore.

They charge Rs.1,300 to cremate a body, including Rs.500 on transport.

It was Woody Allen who said, ’It's not that I'm afraid to die, I just don't want to be there when it happens.’ Yet, I feel it would be fun to die in Erode!

I recently came across a tragic news. A woman, Tirumalaiammal(55) was bitten to death by a snake at Azad Nagar in Tenkasi in Tirunelveli. While her son came with his daughter Harini for performing the funeral rites, the snake which was hiding in the house, bit Harini(6) later in the day. She died on the way to the hospital.

Misery Never Comes Singly and Misfortune Loves Company.    

Do you know? A total of 38,465 temples in Tamil Nadu are being administered by the department of Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments. There are 85 monuments in the state and some are pre-historic paintings and rock-cut caves.

That is not all. There are about 25,000 Tamil inscriptions across the temples in the state. The Tamil Nadu Government is in the process of documenting these Tamil inscriptions found in different temples under an ambitious programme to preserve and protect heritage sites and documents.

A generation which ignores history has no past and no future!

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Hobart Brown, a sculptor whose mother was only 15 when he was born in 1934, said, "Money doesn't always bring happiness. People with 10 million dollars are no happier than people with nine million dollars.”  But a bridge player in four hearts or four spades is much happier with 10 tricks than with nine.( Phillip Alder)