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3.NEWS

WEATHER NEWS :

This batch of showers will decide the future of city’s water supply

The city, which is in need of rain, may get some respite this weekend. A well-marked low pressure area, now lying 700 km east of Parangipettai in Cuddalore district, may intensify and bring rainfall over the city.

The downpour from this depression could possibly ameliorate the water situation in the city.

The city receives its major share of annual rainfall of 140 cm during the northeast monsoon. On an average, Chennai gets rainfall of 80 cm between October and December. However, since October 1 this year, the city has got only 22 cm, which is a deficit by 38 per cent for the season.

Officials of the Meteorological department said the well-marked low pressure area is expected to intensify into a depression, and bring rains over Chennai and its neighbourhood as well as coastal districts of Tamil Nadu from Friday. Surface winds could be gusty at times due to the low pressure area.

Y.E.A. Raj, deputy director general of meteorology, Regional Meteorological Centre, Chennai, said, “We are monitoring the weather models and tracking the movement of the system. Many coastal districts would receive a good rain spell if the system crosses between Nagapattinam and Cuddalore.”

On the fog that residents in south Chennai have reported, he said it was a local phenomenon, rare in November. It could occur when the minimum temperature drops and the dew point temperature remains stable.

Reservoirs’ storage remains low

A heavy rain spell would not just recharge groundwater but also help resume daily drinking water supply. Officials of Chennai Metrowater said a good rain spell is essential to fill the reservoirs that are the main sources of drinking water supply to the city. At present, the four reservoirs in Poondi, Red Hills, Chembarambakkam and Cholavaram have a combined storage of 2,715 million cubic feet (mcft), which is only 25 per cent of their capacity.

Due to the dipping resources, Chennai Metrowater was forced to reduce the volume of supply from 830 million litres a day (mld) to 575 mld. In May, it had started providing water on alternate days to the city. The water agency would be able to resume daily water supply only if the reservoirs’ storage reaches a comfortable level, officials said.

“We need about 8,000 mcft in reservoirs to start supplying drinking water daily. Last year, about 6,000 mcft was added to the storage in the water bodies during the northeast monsoon. This year, since last month, the storage has gone up by only 500 mcft so far,” said a source in Metrowater.

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SPORTS NEWS:

A Short Biography of Sachin Tendulkar:

SACHIN TENDULKAR

A man of short stature in appearance but a man of tall stature in achievement-he is Sachin
Tendulkar -The God Of Cricket-the sporting icon and one of the best cricketers the world has
seen.

 Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar was born on 24 April 1973 in Mumbai. His father, Ramesh
Tendulkar was a famous Marathi novelist. He went to Shardhashram Vidhya Mandir (high
school) and was very inclined to playing cricket. Cricket was his passion from a very early age
and played with friends on street . He began serious coaching at school, under Ramakant
Achrekar practiced for hours and tried to perfect his skills in batting. When bored of batting,
his coach would place a rupee coin on the stump and gift the coin if Sachin managed to bat
well and stay not out. He won such 13 coins and they are among his prized possessions. Today
he is rated second after Sir Donald Bradman, the greatest cricketer ever and one of the three
batsmen to surpass 11,000 runs in test cricket (first Indian to do so). He is also the greatest one
day batsman. He has rightly earned the titles – ‘THE LITTLE MASTER’ and ‘MASTER BLASTER’.

 Sachin Tendulkar, first made debut in a memorable match in Mumbai cricket team at the
age of 14 and scored a century. At the age of 16, he made international debut (1984) against
Pakistan Karachi. While still at school, he and Vinod Kambli, another talented cricketer, who
later played for India made a partnership score of 664, runs (1988) which become a record in
domestic cricket.

 Every cricketer has a distinct style, whether a batsman or a bowler. Sachin while batting
has complete balance and composure. He is strong in hitting the ball to all parts of the field
(to make the fielders run!) and there is variety in his short. Donald Bradman, himself found
similarity to his batting style. Even commentators often compare him to Donald Bradman.
Apart from attacking batting, he is known for his unique punch stlye of hitting the ball over
square. He has his own shot which cannot be played by anyone around the world, named the
’Leg glance’ shot.

 As a batsman Sachin is a great achiever and his achievements are records. But he too
had his career peaks and lows. He is the only player to score hundred in all three of his Ranji,
Duleep and Irani trophy debut. During 1991-1992, he developed into a world class batsman,
while on a match tour of his Australia which included an unbeaten 148 runs in Sydney and
a hundred on bouncy track at Perth. In 1992, at 19 years he represented Yorkshire (country
cricket in England), played 16 first class matches and scored 1070 runs. His peak performance is
considered between 1994-1999. In 1994, as an opening batsman, he scored 82 runs of 49 balls
at Auckland against Newzealand.

 In 1996, he enabled a win against Pakistan in the series with his performance. The same
year in the World cup, he was the leading scorer. His excellent bowling too gave a new end to
the otherwise failing matches 1998 against Australia. He took 5 wickets in ODI for just 32 runs
10 overs. He also scored 3 consecutive centuries which prompted Australian Shane Warne to
joke that he was having “night mares about his Indian nemesis”.

 He played under many captains and was successful. He was again the leading run scrorer in
2003 world cup. He also gave excellent performance in the ‘Border-Gavaskar Trophy’ matches.
 His contribution to cricket and bringing fame for the country is enormous. He was showered
with many awards. In 1994, he was awarded the Arjuna award and in 1997 he received the
Rajiv Ghandi Khel Ratna award, which is the highest sporting honour. In 2008, he was awarded
the Padma Vibhushan, the second highest civilian award of India. The Indian government
announced Bharat Ratna for sachin Tendulkar. In July 2002, when he equaled Bradman’s record
of 29 centuries in test cricket , Ferrari–the automotive giant gifted him with a “Ferrari 360
Modena”, presented to him by Micheal Schumacher, the F-1 racing champion.

 He is married to Dr. Anjali, a pedetrician and they have two children. He sponsers 200
under privileged children at an NGO, Apnalya and has a chain of restaurants.

He is a gentleman player and never shows off. He is an inspiration to many aspiring cricketers
and a face which sells many products. He is one of the player who played in the international
level from 1980 s till 2013.His retirement made the whole world cry. He is one of the greatest
player ever in the cricket history. He will stay in everyone’s heart.

LEGENDS WILL NEVER RETIRE FROM THE HEART

the hype surrounding Sachin Tendulkar’s retirement reaches a crescendo, Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni on Wednesday said the senior batsman should simply “enjoy his last Test match to the fullest” as there are “no guarantees” of a fairytale hundred that all his fans are hoping for.

As India get set to take on the West Indies in the second and final Test, Dhoni found himself questioned relentlessly on the little maestro.

“I would like him (Tendulkar) to enjoy his last Test match. As much as you want him to score hundred, double hundred or triple hundred, you can’t guarantee performance,” Dhoni said in a very practical reply to one of the innumerable questions he answered about the retiring legend in the pre-match press conference.

But Dhoni certainly wants Tendulkar, the ‘Man with Golden Arm’ to get a few breakthroughs.

“Since this is his last Test match, I would like him to enjoy to the fullest and may be get a few wickets for us. That will be fun as one expects some turn and bounce from the wicket,” Dhoni said.

It was inevitable that all questions were directly or indirectly related to Tendulkar but Dhoni again stressed that “focus was on the match” as there was “no point talking about the distractions“.

“It will be one of the greatest matches in cricketing history but as it is his last game, we need to keep it as normal as possible. There are plenty of things going around. We have done our best to keep focus at the right place. For us, enjoying the moment is the key,” the skipper said.

The most appealing aspect of Tendulkar’s 24-year-journey, according to Dhoni, is how he handled success.

“With due respect to the greats of earlier generation, they didn’t have to face the kind of pressure Tendulkar faced.

“I have seen a lot of foreign players who can handle on-field success but when it came to handling the off-field pressure, they buckle down. That’s what makes Tendulkar special.”

Dhoni also said that there has been no visible change in the maestro’s body language and the team members also want to keep it as simple as possible.

“If you ask about the body language, I have not seen any change. As far as doing anything special is concerned, we would like to keep things simple. As it is, everyone is trying to do something special. We do have a few things on our mind.

But you guys need to wait and concentrate on the match,” the skipper said in jest.

A new team in the making

Dhoni believes that if Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, VVS Laxman “brought colour to the team”, the new crop of players will “bring a different set of colours.”

“It’s not that cricket won’t remain colourful. New players will bring new colours. You can’t expect the new generation to bring the same colour that Tendulkar, Ganguly or VVS brought. These youngsters will also bring a lot of colour to the side.”

Dhoni praised Mohammed Shami, stating that his deadly reverse swing was the reason for the Kolkata Test ending inside three days as the “pitch didn’t look like one that would have a match end in three days“.

An honour to play with the Maestro

“It’s no wonder that for any cricketer, it was a privilege to share the field and dressing room with Tendulkar,” said the Indian skipper.

“I played 8-10 years with him. He guided the youngsters and showed us how to perform under pressure. The most emotional moment with him was winning the World Cup. The boys found it difficult to control their emotions. I have spent quite a number of Diwalis with him on various tours. We burst crackers together,” Dhoni recollected.

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INTERNATIONAL NEWS:

Maoist supremo Prachanda had a narrow escape when his vehicle was targeted with a roadside bomb in western Nepal on Wednesday.

The UCPN-Maoist Chairman was heading towards Belauri to address a rally ahead of the Constituent Assembly polls on November 19. No one was injured by the blast, police said.

Bombs were also found near the venue where Prachanda was scheduled to address the closing ceremony of his party’s Mechi-Mahakali National Campaign, the Himalayan Times reported.

The attack came a day after an army bomb disposal team defused an improvised explosive device (IED) planted merely 100 m away from a dais from which Prachanda and former premier Baburam Bhattarai were to address an election rally at Kanchanpur.

Meanwhile, police rounded up at least a dozen CPN-M activists from Chitawan district in southern Nepal for trying to enforce a transport strike.

A 33-party alliance, headed by the Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist, a breakaway faction of UCPN-M, is boycotting the crucial polls. This is Nepal’s second national election since a 10-year civil war ended in 2006.

More than 100 parties, including the three major ones — the Unified Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (UCPN-M), the Nepali Congress and the Madhesi Jana Adhikar Forum, are fielding candidates for the 601—seat assembly, which will draft a new Constitution.

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