BETA

In March, there was a special competition, which Tamil students across London took part in. It was the UKTSU BBP – United Kingdom Tamil Students’ Union Britian’s Brainiest Pillai (“child” in Tamil.) There was a 1st round and a 2nd round. In the first round there was a written test of 50 questions about general knowledge. If you passed that, you would go to the 2nd round, which was when a member of the UKTSU asked you questions alone verbally, and you had to answer them verbally back. There were two divisions, Under 12’s and Under 14’s, these groups would compete separately to make it fair.

Two weeks after the 1st round and 2nd round, I found out I passed to the 3rd and final round. This was would be very huge, as I would have to compete with others in front of a live audience in Copland School in Wembley. This ironically was also like my other column on the 14th of July. The 3rd round of competition took place at 4:00 PM to 7:00 PM.

So straight after I attended the protest rally at Trafalgar Square, I went to the competition. The well-organised members of TSU, gave us tags, with our name and a number. I was in the group 4. We went onto the stage, and got ready for the questions. I could see my Amma and my brother Mahison in the audience. It was quite tense, we had whiteboards, pens and rubbers; and the happy host called out the nine general knowledge questions, which we drew on the whiteboards, and showed to the judges and the audience. After every group was finished, and the marking was finished, it was decided who would go to the next round.

20 Under 12’s      20 Under 14’s

1st round – Whiteboard Round-10 highest scoring people progress                
2nd round-   Head to head- Balls from the hat decides which two people will face each other in head to heads. There were 5 questions; first to get 3 correct answers wins.  5 leave the contest, 5 remain

The stereo-typical view on children nowadays is that we are some kind of silly rascals, who are not going to make a difference in this world. As I discovered riding my bike with my friends….

As I was riding to cross a road, on the other side a woman looked at me and gave a smile, seeing I was enjoying the holidays: I immediately smiled back. 
Minutes later...  another lady looked at me gave me a look as if I was about to beat her up and steal her money, grab her keys, go to her house, pull a gun and kill all the people in her house!

I didn’t seem to understand, even though I was wearing a hoody, what was so threatening about me. It was raining, does she want me get a cold?

The whole idea of a hoody is to keep you warm or to stop raining like a cool raincoat. However, I’m not trying to say all children are not killing one another. Though I understand why she probably gave me that look, she has no right to make a judgement on me, when she doesn’t know me at all.

Children are the future after all, we all going to die one day. Life is a cycle, and there is going to be a time when Death touches you on the shoulder – but it doesn’t seem the case now, people dying everyday, not all of them even being 70 or over. Some dying are even 10, which is disgraceful if they are just the ordinary well behaved kids.

My point is though; children will grow up to adults, whether they become the next footballers of today, or run the country as prime-minister. Not all of the children are bad; I can’t describe how annoyed I was when I got that dirty look.

What does she want from me - a chance to see my clean criminal record! If I was a 30 year old, would she give me “that” look?
 
I mean, wasn’t she a child before….

Football

Manchester United F.C. are the champions of England, after it was proved mathematically impossible for Chelsea to catch Man United. Chelsea, the reigning Premiership champions drew 1-1 against Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium, as Manchester United defeated Manchester City 0-1 on Saturday thanks to Cristiano Ronaldo’s first half spot kick, and a crucial penalty save by Van der Sar from Vassell. Manchester United are 7 points clear of Chelsea with only 2 games left, including a mouth watering yet meaningless clash with clash with Chelsea, and another much more imperative game in the F.A. Cup Final, ironically against runners up Chelsea.

At the other end of the table Charlton joined Watford in relegation after a 0-2 defeat to Tottenham. It looks likely Wigan will also be in the Championship, but if they can   muster a win at Sheffield United and West Ham lose away to Manchester United they will stay up on superior goal difference.

In the German league, it is now assured Bayern Munich will not qualify to the Champions League, as they are below the top three.
The Spanish league provided a 5 – goal sizzler with Real Madrid defeating title contenders Seville 3-2. Barcelona are in pole position, 2 points ahead.

Cricket

Marcus Trescothick hit an impressive 185 N.O, to show England what they’ve been missing. Kevin Pietersen is a doubt for the West Indies series, whilst Sri Lanka’s protest about Adam Gilchrist’s batting glove have been dismissed by Australia. Adam Gilchrist hit a world breaking supreme 149 off 104 balls.

Tennis
 
Brits Tim Henman and Andy Murray have both lose in the first round of the Rome Masters. Henman blamed himself for his poor play, whilst Murray says he was “rusty” 

Snooker