ALL-ROUNDERSALL-ROUNDERSALL-ALL-ROUNDERSALL-ROUNDERSALL-ROUNDERSROUNDERS

AN PRESENTATIONSHAPING THE FUTURE JUNE 2011 - ISSUE 15

TECH BUZZVOLT AGE 1006 13 SPORTS MANIA

JUNE 2011

03editor’s note

The winds have changed direc-tion, our planet earth has also done several

rounds on its axis. The changing colour of date and the soaring mercury often reminds us that the season has changed. Change is perhaps the only truth of life and that’s why your favou-rite Campus has also adopted a completely new look. From now on your favourite magazine gets handier as we are chang-ing a bit of our shape, a whole new design with more youthful and colourful look. We have increased the dosage of youth and put some extra energy to your magazine by bringing a change that was required with time.In this new and revamped issue of Campus we in-troduce you to the young faces who are represent-ing Students’ Councils in different colleges of Muscat. Besides we also give you a sneak peak of BlackBerry’s latest tab Playbook. If you are a car buff then we have Chevrolet Volt’s review waiting for you. And if you still don’t have time for all these and you are glued to your Face-book account most of the day then watch out, as in this issue we throw light on how to make your Facebook account safe from hackers. Everyday uncountable numbers of people are falling prey to these hackers who get away with vital information of an individual with just a click thousands of miles away.

I hope the content line-up must have given you some excitement about the all new Campus. So go ahead, take a deep breath and turn the pages. There is a lot more coming-up for you from your favourite magazine in the issues to come. And yes, if you have an inclina-tion for writing or want to send some articles, then simply mail us at campus@happening-media.com

Opinion PollIn last month’s Opinion Poll, most of the readers said that they found their idol in Books, while a lesser number of readers said they found their idol in Television.

Do keep in touch via qazi@happening-media.com

Qazi Faraz Ahmad

ALL-ROUNDERSALL-ROUNDERSALL-ALL-ROUNDERSALL-ROUNDERSALL-ROUNDERSROUNDERS

AN PRESENTATIONSHAPING THE FUTURE JUNE 2011 - ISSUE 15

TECH BUZZVOLT AGE 1006 13 SPORTS MANIA

DO YOU THINK, THERE ARE ENOUGH INTER-SCHOOL/COLLEGE ACTIVITIES HAPPENING IN OMAN ?

a) YESb) NO

SEND your response ‘a’ or ‘b’ tocampus@happening-media.comor SMS to 96145406 by June 30, 2011.

OPINION POLL

Oops! You don’t like something? Or want to give any suggestion. Mail us straight-away at campus@happening-media.com

JUNE 2011

n888

TECH BUZZPLAYFULBlackberry’s news tablet PlayBook is taking the market by storm besides giving a tough competition to its competitor Apple’s iPad.

VROOMVOLTAGEChevrolet Volt extended range of electric car is full of surprises, writes Mark Phelan.

8

10

Founder & ChairmanMohammed Bin Suleiman Al Taie

Editor-in-ChiefAbdul Hamied Bin Suleiman Al Taie

Editorial ConsultantNeville Parker

EditorialZoher Al ArabiJeta PillaiVinod RaghavanQazi Faraz Ahmad

TranslatorSuleiman Ameen, Ahmad Abdul Hamid

Design & LayoutFaisal Moideen

DesignerMuntaha AlKhatib

PhotographsHamama AL Kindi, MCT News Service, Wikipedia, Agencies, and Archives. Cover photo Pictures send by studentsMarketing:

Talween Al Alamiah LLCP O 1570, PC 130Al AzaibahSultanate of OmanTel: 2461 3618. Fax: 2461 3619Email: info@happening-media.com

Business HeadNikhil Nigamnikhil@happening-media.com

Advertising ManagerHussein Hashimhussein@happening-media.comMobile 99255965

Advertising & MarketingShallu Matharushallu@happening-media.comMobile 99255145Manoj Issac manoj@happening-media.comMobile 99255891

Publisher Omani Est. for Press Printing, Publishing & Distribution LLCP.O. Box 463, PC 100, Muscat, Sultanate of OmanTel: 24491919, Fax: 24613619

04 contents

10

16 GLOBE TROTTERHOLA MEXICO

COVER STORYALL-ROUNDERS

18

n888

VROOM

GLOBE TROTTERHOLA MEXICO

JUNE 2011

06 hot cake

DETROIT, Pam Aughe is never going back.After a year of using Facebook sporadically to keep up with family

and friends, two or three times a week, she says, her account was hijacked by a scammer seeking to bilk her friends out of money.According to the alarming coun-terfeit messages, Aughe, 41, of Clarkston was stuck in Scotland. Robbed at gunpoint, she needed money wired to Western Union immediately.Whoever hacked into her Facebook account earlier this year used it to message several of her friends through chat and inbox messages, asking each for money.As Facebook increasingly becomes the window to the wider Web for more than 500 million users, the security of your Facebook account has never been more important.Since 2009, 19 million Americans have fallen victim to identity theft at a cost of $93 billion, accord-ing to the Better Business Bureau of Eastern Michigan, which co sponsored the study performed by Javelin Strategy and Research.And Facebook accounts are increasingly being violated as the

first step to a wider breach of a user›s identity, security experts say.“The bad guys will take that log-in and password, and they›ll go to banks, they›ll go to e-mail accounts and start logging in,” says Kevin Haley, director of Symantec Secu-rity Response, a top Web security firm.Facebook, with its often deep per-sonal bonds and inherently com-fortable environment, is a fertile ground for exploitation by identity thieves as some users lower their

guard, experts say.“It›s exploiting trust,” says Dave Marcus, director of security research for leading Web security group McAfee Labs. “If you and I are in the same friends list, I›m not going to think twice that you›re sending me something mali-ciously.”Aughe›s ordeal which she says did not result in any friends losing money has nevertheless changed her outlook on the Web. For her, social networking is a thing of her past. Too dangerous, she says.“It was an easy way to see pictures and keep in contact, but I think I›m just going to have to create some-thing else, because I just don›t feel safe doing it,” she says.The scamster had also gotten access to Aughe›s e-mail account probably because of their similar passwords, she says and used it to send more money requests to her contacts. He or she had also changed the passwords of both, locking Aughe out.In the hours and days that fol-lowed, Aughe tried to regain con-trol of her Facebook account but kept running into dead ends.Facebook uses information like a user›s e-mail, phone number or a

security question to verify identity when a password has become compromised.Without them, it can be hard for the Palo Alto, Calif.-based social network to settle turf wars over the ownership of accounts.Nearly a month after first contact-ing Facebook through a form on-line, Aughe says she finally heard back from a Facebook employee Scotty in User Operations, who apologized for the delay and said the social network was busy with the “high contact rates.”But she had already deleted her account in frustration.Facebook says it has technology that prevents much of this from happening.“We have technical systems that operate behind the scenes to flag suspicious behavior and slow it down or block it entirely, and we›re constantly working to im-prove these,” Facebook spokesman Fred Wolens says.Those automatic red flags worked for Leah Meray, 32, of Ferndale, Mich., whose account was also compromised earlier this year.When Facebook noticed someone logging into her account half a world away in Nigeria, the social

HACKED! As Facebook increasingly becomes the window to the wider Web, the security of your Facebook account has never been more important. Mark W. Smith tells how to stay safe.

amusingfacts: By raising your legs slowly and lying on your back, you cannot sink into quicksand. 07hot cake

network contacted her through e-mail and told her the account would be closed until she could provide some specific details.After she replied with a detailed description of her profile picture, a short list of recent activity on her account and some other details, she was allowed back in.“Within a day and half, everything was back to normal,” Meray says.Cases like Meray›s are more the norm and Aughe›s the exception, McAfee›s Marcus says. Facebook, he says, does a good job of keeping the worst of the attacks under wraps.“There›s a lot that nobody ever really hears about,” Marcus says. “The scams that actually make it to the news are the small minority.”

The best way to protect yourself from an attack like Aughe›s, security experts say, starts with creating a strong, hard-to-guess password.But passwords can be discovered through malware, which can infect your computer and discover pass-words as you type them.“And then it›s on your machine,” Marcus says. “It›s going to sit there and wait for you to log in to Facebook.”The best defense against malware is an anti virus program on your computer that runs each day, scrubbing it clean.Facebook also has site-specific security settings such as the abil-ity to individually approve each computer that is able to log in to that account.If someone tries to log in from an unapproved computer or mobile device, an e-mail is generated and the account holder has the oppor-tunity to zap the hacker›s session immediately.For Meray, whose ordeal lasted just more than a day, small secu-rity breaches are just a price of admission.“This is the price you pay for the information that we›re able to extract from the Internet,” Meray says. But even with her newfound Web savvy and heightened guard, Aughe says she has moved on forever from the social networking world.

“There›s too much of my personal information out there. I›m going to do it the old- fashioned way and just make phone calls, I guess,” Aughe says.“We›ll see if I can find people that way.”

FAKE LINKS LEAD TO BIG TROUBLEFacebook has become a veritable cesspool of spam, with fake links promising to show users things like how many people have visited your profile or the never-released photos of Osama bin Laden›s body.These viruses of sorts _ called clickjacking schemes _ spread themselves by posting links to several of your friends› Facebook pages, gumming up the news feed of all of your mutual friends with links that, if clicked, will spread the spam even further.“It›s just too good a lure for the

user to pass up,” says Dave Mar-cus, director of security research for McAfee Labs. “They›ll take any headline out of the news and make it into a virus.”Other scams may promise an on-stage lap dance for a popular rapper or a Web-cam video of a teenage girl that got her in trouble with her parents.These links can lead to malware, which is downloaded to a user›s computer and helps spread the links even further, says Kevin Haley, director of Symantec Secu-rity Response.The best offense is to use an up-to-date virus program on a computer that has the most recent software update, Marcus says.“Most people will eventually click something,” Marcus says. “It›s just a numbers game.”

MCT News Service

TIPS FOR A GOOD PASSWORDUse a mix of numbers, letters, punctuation and symbols.Take a word or phrase that›s meaningful to you and alter it.Replace the first few charac-ters in your password with numbers or symbols.The longer, the better.Avoid personal information, repetition, sequences and dictionary words.

Source: Kevin Haley, Symantec Security Response

JUNE 2011

08 vroom

My first week living with a Chevrolet Volt extended-range electric car was full of

surprises, almost all of them pleasant.The batteries consistently car-ried me farther than I expected. Plugging the Volt in each time I got home quickly became second nature, like charging my cell phone and laptop. The week I spent driving the Volt will prob-ably raise my next electric bill by about $4, and I didn›t buy any gasoline while I had it.The Volt is not like any other car. Among countless other differ-ences, the fuel gauge adapts to your performance, like a teacher grading a class on a curve.Based on the behavior of its last few drivers, the Volt test car I drove predicted I could cover 30 miles on a charge. I didn›t consciously change my driving style, but I got 35 or 36 miles every time. My editor, who squeezes inches out of a gallon of

gas like he wrings excess words from my news columns, covered 41 miles on a charge.Volt prices start at $40,280, but a smart customer would ignore that figure and concen-trate on the three-year monthly lease payment of $350. That›s comparable to what you might pay for a conventional car. The Volt›s electric motor produces a relatively mild 148 horsepower, but the 3,781-pound car acceler-ated confidently on metro Detroit surface roads and highways. That›s because electric motors generate their maximum torque (the force that most directly affects acceleration) as soon as you depress the accelerator. The Volt›s motor generates a healthy 273 pound-feet of torque, more than some big V6 engines.Gasoline engines don›t produce their maximum torque until they hit several thousand rpm. Electric motors hit max torque immediately.The result is like riding an elevator. There›s no sensation of

gradual acceleration; you push a button and, bingo, you›re on your way. The Volt isn›t a race car, but it accelerates smoothly and steadily, either on battery power or in extended-range mode when the engine is generating new electricity.I noticed a low throbbing sound when the engine first turned on, but it quickly became back-

ground noise.The car›s gasoline-powered electricity generator a 1.4-liter four-cylinder engine started exactly once: When I spent an extra 10 minutes driving around the block because I wanted to see what it felt like when the battery ran down and the Volt switched into extended-range mode.I might not have noticed when it

VOLT AGE!VOLT AGE!

Chevrolet Volt extended range electric car is full of surprises, writes Mark Phelan.

An inside view of the 2011 Chevrolet Volt.

The 2011 Chevrolet Volt is not like any other car. Among countless other differences, the fuel gauge adapts to your performance, like a teacher grading a class on a curve.

amusingfacts: Every 25 miles a car produces one pound of pollution.

JUNE 2011

09happened, except that the bright green icon of a battery in the instrument panel disappeared. A blue silhouette of a gas pump popped up in its place. The digi-tal readout told me the engine could generate enough electricity to carry me another 340 miles, enough to drive from a Detroit Tigers game at Comerica Park to see the Cubs play at Wrigley Field in Chicago, with about 50 miles to spare. Instead, I pulled into my driveway and plugged the Volt in to recharge.Running a car with an electric motor and a 435-pound lithium-ion battery changes how every-thing from climate control to the sound system works. Heating the passenger compartment on cold days uses a lot of energy, so the car I tested had optional automatic heaters for the front seats.That›s because warming the passengers directly through the seats uses less energy than heat-ing all the air in the passenger compartment. The seat heaters read the climate control setting and turn on automatically when it›s cold out. The climate control system checks with the air bag sensor installed in the seats. It only turns a heater on if the seat is occupied.When I had the Volt, the heated driver›s seat turned on with the car when the outside tempera-ture was below 40 degrees. It kept me comfortable without draining the battery.On very cold days, January in

Buffalo, N.Y., for instance, the engine may run to produce more electricity to heat the passenger compartment. The Volt›s air-conditioning is also electrically powered, so the engine will oc-casionally switch on to run it on extremely hot days.The fact that the seats now have to talk to both the climate control and the air bag sensors shows just how complicated things get when you replace 100-year-old systems with efficient new electric parts.The sound system is another ex-ample of that. Bose developed it to combine premium sound with speakers that are smaller, lighter and use less electricity than in other cars. The result: excellent volume and clarity in a design that will soon show up in conventional cars, which will also benefit from its weight and efficiency.Despite its many innovations, the Volt›s not perfect. Its long, gently sloping rear window may be great for aerodynamics and looks, but visibility is poor in the rain and probably dreadful when it snows. The car needs a rear window wiper.I nearly never used the Volt›s engine, but it requires premium gasoline. The extra 20 cents or so a gallon would annoy me whenever I filled up.Based on my week with the Volt, though, that might happen only two or three times a year. I can live with that.

MCT News Service

2011 CHEVROLET VOLT

Front-wheel drive four-passen-ger extended-range electric compact hatchback

n Rating: Three out of four starsn Reasons to buy: Electric

power, fuel savings, advanced technology, practicality.

n Shortcomings: No rear-win-dow wiper, premium gasoline.

The cord used to charge the Volt is stashed beneath a flap under the cargo area.

A digital display illustrates battery life left.

vroom

JUNE 2011

1010

Officially announced in September of last year, the long-awaited BlackBerry PlayBook finally goes on sale

with a starting price of $499. Featuring the all-new BlackBerry Tablet OS, the PlayBook sports a 7» display that makes this tablet more portable for everyday use than Apple›s iPad.

INTERNALSRunning the show is a dual-core, 1GHz TI OMAP processor that’s expertly massaged and manipu-lated by the QNX OS here. QNX is a decidedly efficient and bullet-proof operating system that pow-ers everything from jet fighters to, well, little black tablets. That’s backed by 1GB of RAM and 16, 32, or 64GB of storage, with the smallest costing $499 and each subsequent step adding $100 to the cost of entry. Graphics are handled by a Pow-erVR design, which quite handily offloads video decoding and gam-ing acceleration from the proces-sor, enabling this thing to decode and display 1080p video over HDMI while still ticking along quite smoothly and running pro-ductivity apps on the seven-inch

display. Not a hint of dithering or pixelation, of course. Apps load quickly, tend to be impressively responsive, and switching from one to the next is effortless.Early builds of the PlayBook seemingly had some issues man-aging memory, and on multiple occasions we found upper corners glowing red. Our first thought was that the guns on our CRT had been misaligned by a wayward magnet, but this is just how the PlayBook alerts you to issues, in this case a lack of memory.

Memory management seems to be much improved in the most recent build we’ve received, but you can certainly still kill unwanted apps whenever you want by simply swiping them vertically, off into oblivion.

CONNECTIVITYThere are various flavors of 4G coming down the pipe for the PlayBook later this year, including a WiMAX sampler for Sprint as well as HSPA+ and LTE for... well, for other carriers. That leaves us

PLAYFUL!Blackberry’s news tablet PlayBook is taking the market by storm besides giving a tough competition to its competitor Apple’s iPad.

tech buzz

JUNE 2011

11tech buzzwith 802.11a/b/g/n connectivity, plus Bluetooth of course. Using that last standard you can pair up a keyboard and mouse; do so and a microscopic cursor appears on the screen. Left clicks for taps and right-clicks for gestures, initiated at the edge of the screen rather than off of it. This, as you’d ex-pect, turns intuitive gestures into clumsy mouse flicks.Curiously, though, the device doesn’t support simple USB mass storage -- you can’t just plug it in to your laptop and dump a bunch of files on it. You can mount it as a drive over USB, but then you have only access to a small, read-only volume that contains a single driv-er. Install that and the PlayBook shows up as a network drive. Deliciously, this driver allows you to access the device over the network or connected directly over USB, but if you’re rocking something other than a Mac or a PC you’re going to be disap-pointed the first time you try to tether here. And, with no simple mass storage mode, it’s far more complicated that it should be if you just want to get a file off the thing.

BATTERY LIFEWith day-to-day usage, WiFi on, screen reasonably bright, check-ing out some websites and playing some tunes, the PlayBook has plenty of juice to get you through a couple days without breaking a sweat. It’ll handily survive your all-day presentation at the office, make you look cool in front of your boss, then still have plenty of battery life left to chill out to some N.W.A. on the flight home.But, compared to the competi-tion, it delivers a solid mid-pack performance. We looped a standard MPEG4 video clip with WiFi enabled and screen brightness at about 65 percent, managing seven hours and one minute before everything went dark. That’s about an hour more than the Samsung Galaxy Tab, but over an hour less than the Motorola Xoom. The iPad 2, meanwhile, manages ten and a half hours when similarly stressed.

WHAT’S MISSINGNon-Bridge productivity apps (e-mail, calendar, etc.) are the biggest omission, but other things are missing too, like that awesome scrapbooking app from TAT that got us feeling all crafty. It’s nowhere to be found. Also missing? The mysterious Android compatibility, support that is com-ing but sadly won’t be working at launch. The ability to run Android apps could totally change the game -- or it could be a non-event. Overall, the selection in App World and on the device itself is rather limited at the moment. We’re sure they’re coming, but right now it’s slim pickins.Source

With day-to-day usage, WiFi on, screen reasonably bright, checking out some websites and playing some tunes, the PlayBook has plenty of juice to get you through a couple days without breaking a sweat

For more pictures and video’s of BlackBerry Playbook visit www.Facebook.com/campus.oman

amusingfacts: The Swiss eat the most chocolate. The average person eats 19lbs a year.

JUNE 2011

12 tech buzz

The Lazy Couch computer feet from Just Mobile raise your laptop or tablet for better comfort while typing. In addition, they help raise the devices from being flush on a surface to improve airflow, keeping both the com-puter and the desktop cooler. While many stands do the same thing, you really can›t beat how small, portable and easy these are to use.

Apple has updated its iMac computers with quad-core proces-sors, new graphics, high-speed Thunderbolt technology and a new FaceTime HD camera. Starting at R 64,900, the new iMac is up to 70 per cent faster and delivers up to three times the perfor-mance of the previous generation. The new computers feature Intel Core i5 processors with an option to choose Core i7 proces-sors up to 3.4 GHz. The 21.5inch iMac has a single Thunderbolt port, while the 27-inch model features two. The iMacs also include a FaceTime HD camera for widescreen video-calling.Also, the iMac continues to feature its aluminium and glass design, LED-backlit high-resolution display, SD card slot and comes with Apple’s Magic Mouse or Magic Trackpad. The 21.5-inch iMac is available in two configurations: one with a 2.5 GHz Intel Core i5, and one with a 2.7 GHz Intel Core i5.

IMAC GETS SPEED UPGRADES

The metalliKASE from Scosche is a little more mainstream but also offers great protection for the iPhone 4. Made with a thin metallic polycarbonate shell, it of-fers full coverage protection and full access to the device›s features but without adding any bulk. A mirrored screen protector is included, which can be used to turn the device into a mirror.

A neat looking iPad product called the Freedom comes in a variety of hardware options including a mobile mounting strap, four suction cups, screws and a built-in kickstand. The mobile strap will be great for sum-mer travelers for use as an in-car system mounted on the back of seats for backseat video watching. Other options for mounting include flat hard surfaces such as walls, refrig-erator doors, and countertops along with sitting on an angle for viewing with the kickstand.

Google Music, available now only by invitation, is really an online-offline version of the music player that›s of-fered with devices running Google operating systems such as Android.

Toss it, throw it, drop it, kick it, slide it on ice, drop it down a hill or even use it for office bowling. Those are some of the tests Grif-fin Technology ran on its new Survivor Extreme-Duty Case for iPhone 4. Survivor case is made with a shatter-resistant polycarbonate frame clad in rugged, shock absorb-ing silicone.

JUNE 2011

Sport is high on the Sultanate’s list of pri-orities and, as a result, our sportspersons are continuing to make

their mark in various disciplines, both in regional and international competitions.Take, for instance, two very sterling performances by the country’s sportsmen in indi-vidual events: Barakat Al Harthy’s bronze medal victory in the 100 metres at the Asian Games held in the Chinese city of Guangzhou last November, and Sultan Al Touqi’s silver medal win for the Australasian equestrian team at the Youth Olympic Games in Singapore last August.Harthy’s performance was the best by an Omani at such a high-level of athletics competition while Al Touqi’s brilliant ride was also laudable considering the truly global field that competed in the Youth Olympics equestrian

event.Both these outstanding achieve-ments were duly recognized in the Sultanate, and in May this year Al Harthy and Al Touqi were both honoured during a felicita-tion in Muscat. At a glittering ceremony organised by the Oman Journalists Association (OJA), Al Harthy was honoured as the Sportsperson of the Year while Al Touqi got the award for Most Promising Sportsperson of the Year.HH Sayyid Haitham Bin Tareq Al Said, Chairman of the Second Asian Beach Games Organising Committee, was picked as Best Sports Personality of the Year while Asian Beach Games Sports Committee Chairman HE Ali Bin Masoud Al Sunaidy, Minister of Sports Affairs, was also selected for the same honours. HH Sayyid Shihab Bin Tareq Al Said was named as the year’s Best Club Chairman while his club, Seeb,

was adjudged as the Best Club for the second consecutive year. While these sportspersons are to be congratulated on their excellent show in their respec-tive fields, one may point out that sport in the country is given due importance by His Majesty Sultan Qaboos Bin Said. The Royal Directives to support and enhance financial allocations for sport have boosted the country’s ambi-tions to achieve fresh glory in the international arena.Sport is an art form with a physi-cal and mental mix, it is also a great educator and builder of those essential qualities in youth that a nation can value as human capital. In this respect, Oman is fortunate to have policies in place that fuel growth of sport in its schools and colleges at the very grass-root level, leading to devel-opment of sportspersons who are fit and able to make an impres-sion on the global sporting stage.Children, who are taught the basics of any sport from an early

age, can be groomed as future athletes. The whole idea of letting kids kick a ball around or splash about in a pool is to acquaint them with physical activity that is beneficial for them in more ways than one. It is during the course of such activity that some children may display inherent tal-ent or skill at football, volleyball, athletics or some other sport that catches their fancy.A good coach can easily spot such talent and put it to good use for the benefit of a team, he or she can hone the skills of a player or athlete and, depending on skill levels, further develop a player’s ability to rise up to international standards.Schools, colleges and clubs are the breeding grounds of tomor-row’s sportspersons who can shine on the world stage. The Sul-tanate’s government takes great care in ensuring that sport and extra-curricular activities form an essential part of the academic calendar in schools and colleges.

13Sports-mania

Oman is fortunate to have policies that fuel growth of sport in schools and colleges, writes Neville Parker

JUNE 2011

14 around the world

Several thousand bees that were part a multi-million pound neuroscience research

project have been stolen from a British university.

Police in the Scottish region of Tayside were appealing for

information

on Tuesday after four

bee hives containing several thousand British black bees were stolen from a medical school in the city of Dundee.

“This theft will undoubtedly hamper our research,” said

Dr Chris Connolly, the lead researcher on the Dundee project, who

reported the bees missing

on Sunday.In a statement he described the bees as “very unique” and said they should be easy to identify if they are sold on.The hives are a part of a 2 million pound ($3.3 million) project at the Center for Neurosciences at the Dundee University’s medical school which is investigating the potential effect of pesticides on bee learning and health.Police said there were keen to trace a white van and two men that were seen in the area at around 0900 GMT on May 8.Connolly said he thought the bees may have been stolen for breeding, or for selling on to specialist bee-keepers.“Clearly whoever did this knows what they were doing and how to handle bees,” he said.

SCIENTISTS STUNG BY THEFT OF RESEARCH BEES

A christmas tree at the Emir-ates Palace Hotel in Abu Dhabi has set a new Guin-

ness Record as the world’s most expensively dressed tree.The tree is decorated with precious gems worth $11.2 million.

The hotel received the Guinness confirmation May 7. Hans Olbertz, general manager, said: “This is another unique mark by the Emirates Palace and it is our responsibility to ensure its best international presence.”

EMIRATES PALACE CHRISTMAS TREE SETS WORLD RECORD

EMIRATES PALACE CHRISTMAS TREE SETS WORLD RECORD

About 150 million com-puters are used daily in China, but six out of 10

computers have problems such as slow running speeds, according to a report. Excessive numbers of “startup programmes” lead to slower operating speeds, result-ing in lower overall efficiency, said the report by Qihoo 360, a major Chinese computer security company and largest free anti-virus software provider in the

country.

About two-fifths of the 10,000 programmes most commonly set to start running when users’ computers boot up, including web browsing and word process-ing programmes, are considered “useless” by Qihoo 360, Xinhua reported. The report said that the aver-age computer in China takes 56 seconds to fully boot, with about 380,000 computers taking more than five minutes to complete the process. “Some of these programmes can be useful, but it is unnecessary to automatically run these pro-grammes at start-up,” the report said, adding that “autorun” programmes, which automati-cally start running when the computer boots up, are often the targets of malicious com-puter hackers. Malicious browser helper objects (BHOs), system junk files, trojan software and pop-ups are the biggest problems for computer se-curity in China, the report said.

CHINA USES 150 MN COMPUTERS DAILY

JUNE 2011

15

Baldness could be halted or even reversed, thanks to a platelet-rich plasma

shot taken from the patient’s own blood.The injections will also contain Acell, a powder extracted from pigs’ bladders, which will be tried on a group of men in Britain.Raghu Reddy, a Harley Street clinician at The Private Clinic will perform the treatment with the help of Gary Hitzig, who developed it in the US, the Daily Mail reports. Reddy said: “It is as close as we have come to a cure for male baldness. This revolutionary injectable combination of ACell and PRP may be the answer to restoring hair growth for those in the early to moderate stages of hair loss.”

“Similar to how a flu shot can prevent one from catching the flu, ACell and PRP injections can help prevent further hair loss and help restore one’s hair,” he added.The treatment involves the formation of a protective bar-rier which protects remaining healthy hair-growing cells.It then goes on to duplicate the surrounding tissue, allowing healthy hair-growing cells to return. Male pattern baldness, suffered by comedian Harry Hill and British foreign secre-tary William Hague, is suffered by half of men over 50.It is caused by a mixture of genetics and hormones and while there are a number of treatments available, there is no cure.

REVERSING THE BALD FACT - SHOTS TO RESTORE HAIR GROWTH

Given the choice, what would you be most likely to press your

face against: A cellphone, a steering wheel or a toilet seat?IBNLive cites research from London that suggests a steer-ing wheel has 700 different bacteria per square inch com-pared to a public toilet seat with just 80 different bacteria per square inch.Touchscreens were not mentioned in this report, but last fall SacBee.com cited an-other study that found mobile phones harboring 18 times more bacteria than a flush handle in a typical men’s restroom.

HOW CLEAN ARE CELLPHONES, STEERING WHEELS ?

His wife was inconsol-able, his relatives were mourning his sudden

death. So, when 32-year-old Indian, Vijay Kumar Ratre ‘came alive’ and tried to jump out of the ambulance while being taken for post-mortem, the atmosphere changed from one of gloom to incredulous joy. It all started with the Tikrapara police station here getting sev-eral calls from local residents that a dead body was floating in a pond in Lalpur area since several hours. “Two policemen reached the pond and saw Ra-tre’s wife and family members crying, and some locals consol-ing them for his premature death,” said Lal Umed Singh, additional superintendent of police, Raipur. Amid mourning and emotional scenes, the po-licemen managed to fish out the body of Ratre, a labourer, with the help of locals. They called an ambulance to send his body for post-mortem at Bhimrao Ambedkar Government Medical College and Hospital.

‘DEAD MAN’ COMES ALIVE

A Chinese woman, whose 130,000 yuan ($20,000) worth of diamonds were

thrown away by mistake, em-ployed sanitary workers to go through mountains of garbage to seek them out. Six sanitary workers toiled in the afternoon heat in Songjiang district and finally found the jewels, Shanghai Daily reported.The owner - named Li - put the jewels in three glass jars which she placed in a tea box inside her refrigerator, before going out to work. However, her mother who did not know about the diamonds, noticed that the tea was past its sell-by date and asked their domestic helper to throw it out with garbage.When Li returned home, she was stunned to find the tea box missing.Discovering that the garbage

had been taken to a dump, she contacted the local sanitation company. An official with the company called back the workers who had collected the garbage from Li’s residential complex.Zhu Yangqing, a 58-year-old worker, said he could remember exactly where the garbage con-

taining Li’s lost diamonds was deposited.

The workers searched

using their bare hands. Following

two hours of sorting

through five tonnes of rubbish, the

team found the box and its glittering contents.

A team member asked Li’s mother, who was waiting at the scene, to have a look at the box he had found. Worry turned to relief and joy when she saw it was the box that had been thrown away, and that the diamonds were safe inside. Li paid the workers 100 yuan each as a reward for finding the jewels.

DIAMONDS RECOVERED FROM GARBAGE

around the world

JUNE 2011

16 globe trotter

SAN MIGUEL DE AL-LENDE, Mexico, Tour-ists have long flocked to Mexico›s historic village of San Miguel

de Allende. Maybe it›s the crisp nights and temperate days of this mountainside setting in the cen-tral plains. Maybe it›s the sunsets, which glow deep and red over the town›s tightly clustered Spanish Colonial haciendas and cast long shadows across its narrow cobble-stone lanes.What›s striking these days is that tiny San Miguel, which is more than 400 miles from the closest Mexican beach, now sup-ports three luxury hotel resorts. Dallas-based Rosewood (as in the Mansion on Turtle Creek) debuted its elegant, 13-acre property here in February. The modernist Hotel Matilda flung open its front gate to the public last fall. Longtime standard Casa de Sierra Nevada, which became an Orient-Express property in 2006, has upped the offerings at its multiple lush man-sions.All of this is a boon for travelers.

After spending all day shopping the markets at El Jardin square, perusing art galleries at the con-verted factory Fabrica La Aurora or admiring the gothic church spires of La Parroquia, who wouldn›t want to shelter-in-place with aromatherapy massages and a five-course wine dinner? We file this report on San Miguel›s three most over-the-top overnights._Rosewood San Miguel De Al-lendeSquint your eyes and Rosewood›s San Miguel hotel looks as if it has been there for years with its stucco walls, grand archways and stone columns. In fact, the 67-room luxury resort opened three months ago.Rooms feel like upscale Mexican haciendas: beamed ceilings, stone fireplaces, glass doors that open onto private garden terraces. The resort›s two swimming pools are equally inviting. The main pool is lined by a row of white tent ca-banas stocked with lounge chairs, fluffy towels, sandals and cool drinks from the poolside Agua lounge. You can also spend the

afternoon getting a treatment at the hotel›s Sense spa. Try the wild lavender aromatherapy massage or a blended mole spice and cocoa scrub.Whatever your day plans, get to the resorts Luna Rooftop Tapas Bar by dusk. The sunsets from this perch are amazing. Try a flight of fruit-infused margaritas

and a deconstructed shrimp cock-tail as you take in the 360-degree view of the mountains and glow-ing rooftops.Foodies will also want to book a table at the resort›s 1826 Restau-rant (named for the year that San Miguel de Allende adopted the name of Mexican hero Ignacio Jose de Allende y Unzaga.) The

HOLA MEXICO!

Christopher Wynn focuses on three luxury hotel resorts in Mexico’s historic village of San Miguel de Allende.

amusingfacts: The largest diamond that was ever found was 3106 carats.

JUNE 2011

17globe trotteropen-concept kitchen is ideal for watching locavore executive chef Carlos Hannon prepare every-thing from baked meat to crispy corn empanadas made according to his grandmother Elenas recipe. He was even able to name the goat from Mexican farmer Cris-tina Gerezs herd that produced the restaurants current batch of cheese. For the record, it`s Rita.The vibe: Extreme pampering in an old-world colonial environment with all of the new-construction amenities.Rates: Rooms from $295 to $2,250 (includes breakfast for two).Contact: 1-888-767-3966; www.rosewoodsanmiguel.com.

Hotel MatildaSleek, sexy Hotel Matilda could pass for a boutique hotel in New York, which is exactly why its cobblestone-lane setting in San Miguel is intriguing. The 32-room hotel is the vision of eccentric owner-developer Harold «Spook» Stream, who named it for his mother.Step up to the front desk and you see what appears to be a wall of traditional Mexican tiles. Seconds later, the tiles morph patterns and colors until you realize it›s actually a grid of digital screens, an installation by artist Nacho Rodriguez Bach. Even the staff looks high-design: The official uniform is a crisp suit paired with Converse sneakers.The Matilda is built around a central courtyard with an infinity-edge swimming pool and dramatic water-wall fountain. Guest rooms are minimalist and airy. Stream-lined furniture, marble floors and black-and-white prints by Mexico City artist Eduardo Zaylan set a contemporary tone. It›s worth not-ing that while many suites have expansive views, some smaller courtyard-facing rooms have only frosted windows (for privacy).The hotel›s Spa Matilda, which made this year’s Conde Nast Traveler›s hot list, counts the city’s only hammam steam cave among its bragging rights. We might tout the hotel’s night life. The upstairs lounge mixes cocktails made from small-batch. And be sure to make a pit stop here. Restaurant Matilda, with a patio overlooking the pool, is also a hot spot. Executive chef Bernard McDonough whips up everything from smoked duck to homemade fennel-pollen pasta. And if you stop by for lunch, don`t miss the house-made hot dog dressed with chipotle-and-papaya ketchup.The vibe: Hip-looking guests pout and sip cocktails in a minimalist gallery-like setting.Don’t miss: «The Archer» painting in the lobby library is a replica of famed Mexican artist Diego Rivera’s portrait of the hotel owner›s mother, Matilda Stream. (The original remains in the fam-

ily’s private collection.)Rates: Rooms from $319 to $894 per night; includes breakfast.Contact: 855-628-4532; www.hotelmatilda.com.

Casa de Sierra NevadaCasa de Sierra Nevada is the grande dame of San Miguel›s exclusive overnights. The reason in a word: privacy.The hotel is not a single building with a bustling lobby (and atten-dants taking note of your comings and goings), but six colonial man-sions loosely clustered less than two blocks from the city square. Check-in happens at a small office on a street so narrow that when they open the door for you to exit, be careful; there may be a passing taxi or donkey loaded down with firewood.Each mansion generally contains only five to seven rooms or suites (there are 37 total) arranged around interior courtyards bloom-ing with fragrant bougainvilleas and other native blossoms. The result is that you feel like you›ve scored keys to a friend›s in-town villa rather than a visitor with a hotel swipe card.Rooms have consistent fin-ishes such as carved-wood trim, wrought-iron details and polished-copper soaking tubs, but that›s where the similarities end. Each building›s architecture creates a variety of quirky floor plans. One garden-level room at Casa Fuente contains only a cozy bedroom and bath. In contrast, Case Limon has a sprawling suite complete with a steel spiral staircase that leads to a private rooftop deck equipped

with a plunge pool and an Imax-worthy view of La Parroquia. (Room service, anyone?)The hotel has a variety of perks. The 3-year-old Laja Spa offers ev-erything from a warm-river-stone massage to Reiki therapy. Every service begins with a ritualistic washing of the feet.A block or so away, the hotel›s Sazon Cookery School offers the expertise of Mexican chefs (and the occasional celeb such as Rick Bayless) to guests and the public. A tabletop boutique inside the school›s restored 18th-century casa sells local pottery, hand-stitched linens, cookbooks and utensils.If you prefer that someone else do the cooking, there are two restaurants led by hotel executive chef Felipe Ramirez Gorosica. The more formal Andanza has a central courtyard with orange trees, a roaring fire and live music. (Try the roasted stuffed quail drizzled with a mole sauce.) Casa del Parque housed in a former 17th-century fort, serves traditional Mexican fare for lunch and low-key suppers. Go easy on the house-made sangritas though; it can be hard to find the correct casa gate by moonlight.The vibe: Authentic, historic charm and privacy in the heart of the action near El Jardin.Don›t miss: The 60-foot garden swimming pool with a bronze sculpture by artist Jorge Marin.Rates: Rooms from $236 to $573.Contact: 415-152-7040; www.casasn.com.

IF YOU GOGETTING THERE: Fly to Leon/Guanajuato, Mexico. There, arrange transportation by shuttle or car service for the 80-minute ride into San Miguel.We tried a service recom-mended to us by one of the hotels, Operadora Turistica Bestur. Prices range from $75 to drive you in a midsize sedan to $100 for a full-size SUV. The driver will meet you at the gate at the airport and even provide bottled wa-ter for the trip. Tip: The drive to town can be a bit bumpy; take precautions if you›re prone to motion sickness. We tried an old trick that worked great: pop a peppermint in your mouth.DRESS APPROPRIATELY: Don›t even think about navigating San Miguel›s cobblestone streets and uneven sidewalks in heels or slick-soled shoes.COMMON-SENSE PRECAU-TIONS: Tourist safety in Mexico has received a lot of attention. Most concerns and warnings focus on border towns. San Miguel is considered very safe, and we felt comfortable even after dark. Use good judgment and travel major highways only during the day. As always, stick to bottled water.

JUNE 2011

ALL-ROUNDERSROUNDERSALL-ROUNDERS18 cover story

All-Rounders are not only the studious lot, but with varied interests - sports, music, arts, painting, poetry recital, literature, technology, social issues, world political systems.

JUNE 2011

ALL-ROUNDERSROUNDERSROUNDERSROUNDERSROUNDERSROUNDERSALL-ALL-ALL-ROUNDERSALL-ROUNDERSROUNDERSC

AMPUS magazine brings out the best amongst the stu-dents fraternity from various colleges and

Higher Secondary students from Muscat. The best are not only the studious lot, but an all rounder with varied interests from sports, music, arts, painting, poetry reading, literature, technology, social issues and world political

systems and so on.Team Campus reached to students from the Students Council who represented their institutions as Presidents, Sec-retaries and Council members from - Gulf College, College of Banking and Financial Studies (CBFS), Calledonium College of Engineering, Middle East College of Information Technol-ogy (MECIT), Waljat College of

Applied Science, Gutech, Inter-national College of Engineer-ing and Management, Indian School Al Ghubra and Indian School Muscat to find out their interests on various subjects.While the academic year comes to an end, here are some of the student leaders with their vision and their accomplished work as Council members from their respective institutions during the

past academic year.Scores of young leaders aimed for further studies and some wanted to go abroad to pursue their Masters or even research work in their respective fields viz. law, construction manage-ment, aviations and business management.

Sultan Talib Al Farsi, President, Middle East College of Information Technology (MECIT), third year Hardware Networking student, was a busy young man arranging the recently held Open Day session at the college premises at Rusayl.Sultan is not only good in his studies but also regular at stage shows with local drama troupe.Soft spoken Sultan, was bitten by the acting bug after he joined MECT college and since then he has been regularly at the centre stage of acting and drama not only at the college events but has joined a local group were he regularly performs and earns some money for his books and study materials.The lanky Sultan is popular amongst the student fraternity, for every small reason he is in demand and takes care to see that he performs his duty as a leader.His aim is to complete take a job in a good firm, were he can explore his talents in acting on stage.

Marwa Mohammed Jaffar Al Ajmi, Student Council member from College of Banking and Financial Studies (CBFS), and studying Stage I in Accounts and Finance, is an outstanding student and aims to become a successful business entrepreneur.Being the eldest amongst four siblings, Marwa fulfils her responsibility both at the home front and also handles the College activities ably. She likes to travel and explore various parts of the globe. “I was fortunate and we used to travel along with my father (retired Air Force officer) at various destinations during his service period. I have traveled exten-sively in the entire Gulf region and also enjoyed the life and style in USA,” Marwa says. She also updates herself with the day to day happenings in and around Oman and enjoys reading news-papers, novels and fictions. She also tries her hand on writing and maintains the habit of writing her personal diary jotting down even minute things on a daily basis.Marwa sees that she spends at least thrice a week at the swimming pool, which keeps her fit and energetic.

Samer Anbar Jan Mohammed Al Balushi, President Students Council, Caledonian College of Engi-neering. Terms himself as friendly, trustworthy and likeable person, who enjoys new working methods and willing to help others and work as a team leader.Samer recently took over as the President of the Council, is studying third year Construction Engi-neering aims to pursue a doctorate in Construction Management from United Kingdom for expand-ing his knowledge.As a President he gives a patient hearing to his colleagues (most of them have academic demands) and tries to implement by bringing to the notice of the management.Samer has roped in students in the college Clubs – Writing, Drama and Debate clubs. Most of the youngsters enjoy the Students Exchange programme.

19cover story

JUNE 2011

Nasra Abdullah Ali Al Hajri, final year Mechatronics Engineering student from the Caledonian College of Engineering is the Treasurer in the Students Council Is aiming for her Masters Degree in Aviation engineering. As a shrewd treasurer she manages the finance affairs of the Council, and balances her act very well be-tween studies and the extra-curricular activities. Holding meetings and listening grievances of students is strictly done after her class in the afternoon.A popular face and an able communicator, she has lots of friends in the college. She is not a movie buff, but enjoys watching good movies and also loves listening traditional Arabic music and English classic songs. Nasra is not crazy of any actors, but enjoys watching good movies and loves reading most of the newspaper which is a regular habit at her house, as her father and her siblings are all well educated and enjoys the home atmosphere of discussing various topics at home.She is not keen of going abroad for her higher studies, as she recalls her elder sister’s apathy while studying in India. Whenever she feels tired of studying and desires to take a break, her favourite place is the kitchen, where she enjoys cooking for the entire family. She also enjoys watching soccer, aerobic and reads everything which is handy to her. Nasra is a net savvy and sleeping is her favourite pastime.

Akash Agarwal, President, Students Council, Waljat Applied Science College, an outstanding third year student doing the Engineering Course is an avid book reader and has been an outstanding sportsman in the college.Akash, who was elected with highest votes during the Students Council elections, besides his studies plays Badminton and also bagged the mixed doubles titles at the Intra-College tournament. He also plays cricket.Inspite of his father a former dean of the Waljat College from 2006 to 2010, he is simple and down to earth and is down to earth without any hangover that his father was the college boss.His gentle nature has won the hearts of his colleagues and bagged highest votes.He has already made his mind of going for further studies in the field of engineering.Besides, his studies he is fond of music and films and also spends his time reading books and also updates himself with news and events on TV channels and is also well aware with the on going in his home country India.According to him corruption in India is the major problem and feels that youths want to do things in good governance, but will not be allowed to take part in major decision making body.

Prachiti Venkatraman, Head Girl from the Indian School Al Ghubra, who stood second in the Higher Secondary Commerce stream in the CBSE Board examinations securing 94.4 percent, has set her eyes to become an international lawyer and has plans to study Law either in UK or in Singapore.Prachiti wants to study Human Rights and International law, where she can serve people who are deprived of human rights and can also understand how the society functions in a better way.What made her think of studying in UK or Singapore, Prachiti says, no doubt there are very good colleges back home in India, but “I am attracted more towards the extra curricular activities like literary, debate, elo-cution competitions, students exchange programmes in UK and in Singapore where I can get good exposure besides my studies”.Prachiti cherishes as the Head Girl in ISG, where she was the leader of over 100 Higher Secondary students and was instrumental in organizing along with her team members Carnival, Inter-School Film Festival, Rock Festival, literary activities and conferences amongst others.The students exchange programme gave Prachiti and others to stay and study in Germany for over 7 weeks, which according to her was the best time of her student days.Her parents are doctors and settled in Oman for the last over two decades is the lone daughter. “Yes I am pampered as I am the only child, but I am not a spoiled child,” says a blunt Prachiti.

Krushika Uday Patankar, Head Girl, Indian School Muscat Who successfully passed out her 12th grade with 92.2 percent, has planned to go for her further studies in Humanities stream and intent to do major in Industrial Psychology and Economics, at New York University-Abu Dhabi. Besides, being a studious student, she also pursued her hobbies – athletics, tennis, drama and painting. “Holding the responsibility of representing a large student body and being able to execute duties that my teachers expected, was not an easy feat but it’s a process that teaches life lessons, helps to forge relationships with people and ultimately lead to a better understanding of your strengths and undiscovered abilities,” Krushita believes.“Let’s Rock, a student based rock concert organized by the students council has been the biggest highlight of my life as the Head Girl,” a proud Krushita says.Recalling the hectic schedule for preparing the event, she says “we were unable to attend class for weeks at a stretch, doing every little thing from scratch like painting the stage, preparing duty lists, drawing drafts of the stage setup, roping in sponsors, revising our plans according to the pace at which the event’s organization was progressing and still keeping school work up to date has resulted in numerous sleepless nights, arguments and mutual decisions that made the experience special,” Krushita says. “Being a Head Girl, has helped me grow as an individual, aided me in making decisions and taught me how to take responsibility for myself and I will truly cherish it,” a confident Krushita feels.

JUNE 2011

20 cover story

JUNE 2011

Muntadhar Ahmed Al Moosawi, President, International College of Engineering & Management (IECM)Third year Diploma student in Facilities Management, Faculty of Engineering and Management, Faculty of fire and safety likes to take challenges in life.Under his president ship he has lead college students for preparing in various programmes like organizing events, student’s participation in exhibitions, raising students’ issues with the college authorities.As a team leader he formed various student groups and himself worked as a link between college administra-tion and students and one of his biggest achievements is the success of Open Day in the college.He successfully lead team ICEM students at the 3-day GHEDEX fair and the MHE EXH fair at the Oman Exhi-bition Centre, were the students got exposure with the public and also they earned pocket money.Muntadhar is a hard-working young man, who also worked in population, housing and establishment census 2010 in quality assurance department. He also made a valuable contribution to the cultural and Art society by participating in Theatre and fine Art exhibition at the student gathering in the college. Besides, his activities he has successfully completed IOSH Management Safely in Construction (5 day IOSH course).Muntadhar, is a fast learner and speaks besides his mother tongue Arabic, fluent English, Farsi and also Hindi.

Ruqaya Khamis Muneer Al Yousufi, President, Students of the Gulf College, is doing her Accountancy Level 2, has set her eyes to do Masters in Accountancy and if God permits she would like to fly to London for her higher studies.Ruqaya an outstanding student throughout her academic career doesn’t waste her time on watching mov-ies and TV programmes, but enjoys religious songs, which she also sings at family gathering.She is an avid reader and likes to read story books, technology, newspapers and magazines including CAMPUS. She also loves bird watching and writes short stories from her experiences by keenly watching people, birds and animals. Ruqaya is an art lover and also enjoys participating in college dramas, debates and capture natures beauty through the lens of her camera. She is also member of Photography Club affiliated with the Omani Society for Fine Arts. She has a vast collection of coins and flags of different countries, which has taken pains to collect from her neighbours and friends who often travel abroad.She is also fond of tennis and swimming.

Lovelyn N Aranha, President of Student CouncilIs a student of Final year B.Sc. Sustainable Tourism & Regional Development student from German University of Technology (GUTECH).Lovelyn, who has been staying with her parents in Oman for nearly last two decades, has done her schooling from the Indian School Muscat and passed out the junior college level from India’s commercial capital Mum-bai. Soon after joining GUTECH Lovelyn was a popular face at the college campus and with the overwhelm-ing support of her local friends she got elected for the President’s post with ease.Recalling her campaign, she says “it was really an hard work by my local friends who put up posters and I delivered speeches like a politician promising to do my best to give maximum satisfaction to the student members by solving their issues,”Lovelyn, who wants to pursue her Masters in Germany, is satisfied that she has fulfilled her election prom-ises (not like politicians who only promises) and feels that her achievement as President is of successfully organizing the charity event for the visually impaired students of Al Noor Association for Blind.Lovelyn is an ardent fan of Bollywood’s heartthrob Shahrukh Khan and loves watching the beautiful Katrina Kaif on the big screen. She also enjoys light-hearted comedy movies and romantic English movies.

Joshua Michael, Head Boy, Indian School MuscatSecured 95.2 percent in the Science Engineering stream and plans to study Mechanical Engineering.As a Head Boy he was a team leader and besides, his studies he also pursued his passion of music and has been performing from a tender age and has bagged several awards. A fan of music maestro A R Rahman, Joshua, enjoys Indian songs and cherishes the award for sing-ing and playing instruments at the American British Academy.Krushika Uday Patankar, Head Girl, Indian School Muscat Who successfully passed out her 12th grade with 92.2 percent, has planned to go for her further studies in Humanities stream and intent to do major in Industrial Psychology and Economics, at New York University-Abu Dhabi. Besides, being a studious student, she also pursued her hobbies – athletics, tennis, drama and painting. “Holding the responsibility of representing a large student body and being able to execute duties that my teachers expected, was not an easy feat but it’s a process that teaches life lessons, helps to forge relationships with people and ultimately lead to a better under-standing of your strengths and undiscovered abilities,” Krushita believes.“Let’s Rock, a student based rock concert organized by the students council has been the biggest high-light of my life as the Head Girl,” a proud Krushita says.Recalling the hectic schedule for preparing the event, she says “we were unable to attend class for weeks at a stretch, doing every little thing from scratch like painting the stage, preparing duty lists, drawing drafts of the stage setup, roping in sponsors, revising our plans according to the pace at which the event’s organization was progressing and still keeping school work up to date has resulted in numerous sleepless nights, arguments and mutual decisions that made the experience special,” Krushita says. “Being a Head Girl, has helped me grow as an individual, aided me in making decisions and taught me how to take responsibility for myself and I will truly cherish it,” a confident Krushita feels.

21Study in britain

Newcastle University offers a high-quality academic experi-ence in the heart of Britain’s best

university city*. Regarded as the capital of the North East of England, Newcastle is a lively, modern city located beside one of the North’s major rivers, the Tyne. Newcastle is famous for its world-class culture, fascinating history, beautiful architecture and passion for sport. Whether your preference is for the attrac-tions and convenience of city liv-ing or for exploring castles, coast-lines and countryside, the region has something to offer you. The friendliness and hospitality of the local ‘Geordie’ people is legend-ary, so you can be assured of a warm welcome wherever you go.

Newcastle is one of those rare places where you feel instantly at home. Picture yourself walking through our University’s historic Quadrangle, through archways that have stood for 100 years. In front of you is the Union Lawn and groups of friends studying together in the sunshine. In just two minutes’ walk, you can be in one of the city’s busiest shopping streets, home to many famous names. Only at Newcastle...

From its origins as a School of Medicine and Surgery in 1834, Newcastle University today is counted amongst the best universities in the world. It has been ranked as a top 20 UK university in The Sunday Times 2011 University Guide and as a top 200 global institution by both the QS and Times Higher Education (THE) world rankings. The Newcastle name is globally recognised and this is reflected in the cosmopolitan population of our campus. Around 3,000 of our 19,500 undergraduates and postgraduates are international students, representing more than 100 different countries. Mix in a low cost of living, a consistently strong graduate employment record and a commitment to pro-viding an ‘education for life’ and it’s little wonder that Newcastle was one of just five universities shortlisted for University of the Year 2010 in the Times Higher Education Awards.

The University offers a wide range of study options, from Foundation, English Language and preparatory courses at our on-campus INTO centre to Bachelors, Masters, PhD and professional short courses. Our reputation for world-leading research has helped us to attract some of the leading academics and researchers from around the globe, opening up your study programme to a wealth of global experience and expertise. Our

research includes such recent discoveries as a screening process to help prevent diabetes blindness and an early warning system for volcanic eruptions.

The quality of our work has been recognised through prestigious awards such as the Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Higher and Further Education, most

recently for our work on ageing and health.

We have a long tradition of welcoming overseas students and are delighted that this includes many from Oman. Newcastle International Airport is easily reached from Oman, with regular direct flights via Dubai. Popular subject areas amongst students from the region include Engi-neering, Education, Business, Computing and Medical Sciences. As a Newcastle student, you will be welcomed into a supportive study environment in one of Brit-ain’s safest cities. We provide a complete package of care from the first point of contact through to graduation and beyond. The University is committed to sup-porting students from a wide range of backgrounds and, for example, has a prayer facility on campus and a thriving Islamic Society. Our ongoing programme of investment ensures our facili-ties are regularly upgraded. To ensure you have everything you need to succeed, we also provide campus-wide Wi-Fi, a lecture-recording system, an award-win-ning Library Service and access to 24-hour computer clusters.

STUDY IN THE HEART OF BRITAIN’S NUMBER ONE STUDENT CITY

If you would like to find out more about study opportunities at Newcastle, we would be delighted to hear from you. Visit our website: www.ncl.ac.ukOur local contact is Al Ahlam High-er Education Services in Qurum, phone: 24562623 / 99473709Email: kate@ahlameducation.com.

amusingfacts: Being unmarried can shorten a man’s life by ten years.

JUNE 2011

JUNE 2011JUNE 2011

22 muscat-ear

AABRA KA DABRA!

There is nothing called “Magic”, its all tricks and experience that counts in the trade, reveals Oman’s famous magician Wakil Khan in an exclusive with Qazi Faraz Ahmad

of India before finally coming to Mumbai, from where he got the idea of coming to the Sultanate of Oman.“It was a one lucky day when I met PC Sorkar and showed him my skills. He was so impressed with me that he wanted to take me along with him on his tour to London. But my father didn’t allow me then. But somehow it was more than enough for me to get a pat on my back from such a great magician,” narrates Wakil.But his passion didn’t go low even after that and he continued to sharpen his skills before finally moving to Mumbai. In the city of Mumbai Wakil nearly spend five years and even became a local hero. He was well known by the name of ‘Jadugar’ which in Hindi means magician. People use to call him, see his tricks, and clap for him. Nobody ever took a penny from him be it the local tea stall or some other shop. Wakil was enjoying this phase of his life before he seriously decided to make some name for him and flew down to the Sultanate of Oman.

10 YEARS IN OMANIt has been more than 10 long years for Wakil Khan in Oman since the day he landed as a magician and worked for a local theme park then. But after having some ups and downs Wakil thought of taking his own way and started performing at various places which in turn bought him a lot of name and fame. “I came here as a magician and worked for a theme park for many years but things didn’t went quite right for me and I have to look for other avenues. Now I mostly do private and even corporate shows. I have performed nearly in every corner of the Sultanate. Especially kids of Oman love me for the tricks I show them at my magic shows. “Omani people just love the way I perform my tricks, with time I am well versed with Arabic and English language as well, so I communicate with the local people very well. The unique thing that people here like

in me is that I mix my tricks with the songs. I even spend a lot of time thinking about which song will fit which trick,” says Wakil.“I have got so much of love and appreciation from the people here that now Oman is my second home after India and I wish to entertain people here as long as I able to perform tricks,” adds Wakil who is now husband and a father of two children based in India.

THERE IS NOTHING CALLED ‘MAGIC’Magician Wakil Khan is tired of telling people that there is nothing in this world called ‘Magic’. He even encountered troubles some-times just as many people came to him to get rid of their problems by his magic. “Once I was perform-ing at a distant place and this old man came to me with loads of money and promised to give me more. All he wanted was that his camel should win the race and I should apply some magic so that his camel ensures win in the race. I was so shocked that I couldn’t sleep, I even tried to make that man understand that it was all trick and nothing such as magic. But he kept on visitng me again and again to please me,” chuckles Wakil.“But I never took anything from him and returned the man finally and somehow made him under-stand that there was nothing called as ‘Magic’,’ he adds.With a great smile on his face this magician says, “I just want to thank all the people of Oman who have given me so much love and ap-preciation. I wish I could entertain them all my life.

Want to learn few Magic tricks? Here is the link of Wakil Khan’s magic tricks. He demonstrates and unveils few of his most sought after magic tricks just for Campus readers.www.Facebook.com/campus.oman

He was in class 7th when he saw a magi-cian performing at his school back in India. The curiosity of Wakil

led him to try different things which he thought was somehow related to magic. He once even nearly cut his brothers throat in an attempt to do stuff like the magicians do on the stage. Today Wakil is one of the most sought after names in Oman when it comes to Magic. He was also appreciated by one of the greatest Magicians ever in the history of the world PC Sorkar. Wakil tells his topsy turvy story from a little kid of a village called “Shekupura” in Patna state of India to being a magician in the Sultanate.

JOURNEY AS A KIDAfter seeing that he wondered how

did the magician performed the tricks, Wakil was so curious that he made several unsuccessful attempts to perform the tricks and even hurt his brother in the process. After his childhood in Bihar, Wakil shifted to the city of Kolkatta and started working at this father’s shop of making wooden boxes. “I left studies after class seventh and came to Kolkata to help my fa-ther in his business. We use to have a business of making wooden boxes and I use to make them religiously,” says Wakil.While working with his father Wakil started learning magic tricks from the local magicians. While all these years Wakil once met the great magician PC Sarkar and got a pat on his back for some of his outstanding tricks. Wakil wandered for some more years in other states

23muscat-ear

Colleges in the Sultanate organise football competitions as part of their curricular

activities and keeping with the country’s tradition, liking for the game. Intra-college and also inter-college matches are played amongst the students at such events. The month long Gulf College Foot-ball League competitions played at Oman Sports Club will go on till June 14 and also the International College of Engineering & Manage-ment (IECM) played its Al Habsi Cup (dedicated to Oman’s goal-keeper) intra-college tournament recently. The Gulf College has 16 teams which is divided into four groups. Each group comprising of 4 teams and play amongst them and the top two teams are qualified to play against the winners from other groups. The first round from each group - Al-Itihad team won by

beating Al-Geel Al Zahaby team by 10 / 4 goals. The second match saw a draw of 4 / 4 in a great game played between the Latino team and Al-Jazeer team. In the second group, the holder of Khaliji 74 title won by 5 / 3 versus Al-Shu’a Al-Azraq.

Meanwhile, the team of Hamas Al- Seeb was even by a score of 2 / 2, versus the Al-Suqur team. In the third group, Shomokh Al-Khaleej team had a draw with Al Rayyan team by 5 / 5. In the second match and final for the

first week of the championship, Al-Najam Al-Ahmar team won by a score 7 / 1 versus Nisur Al-Khaleej team. In the fourth group, Nojoom Al-Sahil team won by a score 7 / 0 versus Al-Mohasibin team. “The tournament is aimed to create an entertaining and competitive atmosphere filled with understand-ing to strengthen relations between Gulf College students and other col-leges,” Mohamed Fouad, Incharge of Students Affairs said. Around 20 intra-college teams played the AL Habsi Cup final of ICEM. The third year students of Well Engineering won the trophy beating Health, Safety and Environ-ment team. The best goalkeeper award was bagged by Khalfan Al Habsi and the best player award went to Maaz Al Balushi, Saif Sulaiman Al Hadhrami, Assistant Student Affairs & Activi-ties said.

FOOTBALL LEAGUE COMPETITIONS TO CONTINUE

Thinking IT” on the Informa-tion Technology (IT) Day was organized by the Foundation

Year IT staff and the BSc Applied IT Students (AIT) of the German University of Technology in Oman (GUtech) on May 25 and presented their ideas of iPod applications and other IT programmes. “We are all using IT in our work, but studying IT is completely different. Thinking IT is thinking differently and understanding the structures underlying the problem you face. IT is about solving not a single problem but a complete set of similar problems in a single go. When you have achieved that, you think IT,” said Prof. Dr. Lucia Cloth, Assistant Professor at GUtech. During a recent study-trip to GUtech’s German parent-univer-sity RWTH Aachen University, a group of IT students developed the idea of archiving the location of shops where food items or clothes were bought. “We developed a programme called iReceipts. It helps archiving different products that have been bought abroad, for example in

Aachen. You just take a picture of the item and mention some of the details and the shop where you bought the product. The iPod will then even show you the location of the shop,” said Mohibullah Kamaluddin, 2nd year AIT student at GUtech who developed the pro-gramme during the three weeks course. “Initially we wanted to pro-gramme a project that reads automatically the receipt, but that would have required much more time, and we only had three weeks,” said Mohibullah. Another AIT group developed a social networking website called “snoozer”. “You can register, send messages to friends and add more friends,” said Azmat Arif, 3rd year AIT student. Other pro-grammes invented were “Maths for 2nd grade” – a multiplica-tion application for children and “Battle Attack”, which is a game similar to star wars that was developed in a software engineer-ing block-course at GUtech. Students - Al Harith Al Jamali, Mohamed Al Touqi and Anas Sulaimi created an interactive

map, which shows information about each region of the Sultan-ate. “We wanted to combine Java and HTML language. With a click on the region, the map shows the region with a picture and some basic information. “Due to the time restrictions, we could not ad more information. The map could be developed with more information on tourist sites,” for example, said Mohammed Al Touqi.A number of AIT Foundation year students were very im-pressed about the outcome of the programming courses. “Studying IT is really fascinating. I am very passionate about IT. I actu-

ally do not have the impression that I am studying. Each day I enjoy learning more about IT,” said Nusaiba Al Sulaimani, AIT student in the Foundation Year at GUtech. Nusaiba received a scholarship of the DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service).The future of IT students in Oman is promising. “There are huge plans for setting-up an informa-tion technology based government in Oman. IT students will have a number of future employment possibilities,” said Professor Dr. Barbara Stauble, Deputy-Rector for Academic Affairs at GUtech.

GUTECH CELEBRATES IT DAY

amusingfacts: Smelling cinnamon boosts cognitive function and memory.

JUNE 2011

JUNE 2011

24 muscat-ear

As part of the ongoing personality and soft skills development initiatives for staff members of Khimji

Ramdas, Khimji Training Institute organized a day long seminar in Arabic on “The Road to Excel-lence” addressed by Dr Ibrahim Elfiky, one of the leading experts in Human Development, on May 23.Even officials from the Ministry of Commerce and Directorate General of Immigration (ROP) addressed the seminar. Based on the latest science of human development, Dr Ibrahim Elfiky, an household name in many countries with the American and Canadian media dubbing him as one of the best Arabic speakers of the world, guided the audience to identify and master their skills at the day long seminar. Dr. Elfiky, who lives in Montreal, Canada with his wife Amal and their twin daughters, Nancy & Nermine and their grandchildren Malik, Ziad, Kayla and Jennah, has trained millions of people in his certification programmes, work-shops, seminars and power hours around the world. Earlier Col. Abdul Wahib, a Retired Colonel from Royal Oman Police

who has worked in various capaci-ties like Director Research at Sul-tan Qaboos Academy of Police Sci-ence, Director of Training at Royal Oman Police- Head Quarters and the prestigious assignment of Di-rector of ROP Officers Institute, which was his last assignment before retirement, introduced Dr Elfiky to the audience. Col. Abdul Wahib, a post graduate in International Security Studies from UK and a Bachelors in Politi-cal Science from Arizona Univer-sity USA is currently Pursuing his Doctorate, has over 32 years of expertise in the areas of Human Resource Development, with a

strong focus on Training and Consultancy. He thanked KR for having accord-ed him the privilege of introducing an internationally reputed and great speaker like Dr Ibrahim Elf-iky; and also remarked that it was very thoughtful of the company to have arranged for the training programme, which would benefit the Omani employees in attaining global skills and improving their productivity and efficiency.Pankaj Khimji, Director, Khimji Ramdas said “Dr Ibrahim Elfiky is one of the most successful influencers of the Arabic world capturing attention of participants

from diverse nationalities and professions. He has captured the imagination of the most influential business leaders worldwide. We are witnessing a high level of in-terest in this training, and we wish every individual were to experi-ence the difference and achieve excellence.”Dr. Elfiky has obtained 23 diplo-mas and the three highest designa-tions in psychology, marketing and sales management and human development. He is the author of many bestselling books, audio and video tapes, DVDs translated into English, French, Arabic, Bahasa Indonesian, Malay and Kurdish sold millions of copies worldwide.Nadeem Ahmed, Head Khimji Training Institute (KTI) said that “Over the last 15 years, Khimji Training Institute has been instru-mental in setting new benchmarks for education and training in Oman. Dr. Elfiky is considered as one of the most influential international speaker in improv-ing human behavior and quality of life as well as in helping people to achieve their goals. Corporates and Ministries have also shown high interest in his visit, we look forward to having a large audience taking advantage of his presence in Oman.”

DR ELFIKY ADDRESSES KR STAFF

JUNE 2011

25muscat-ear

Learning a foreign language has become a passion for many people. Some want to enhance their careers while

for some it’s just a drive to gain knowledge of a new language.In the Sultanate, the trend of learning the French language has been growing not only amongst Omanis but also amongst expatri-ates, mostly from Asian countries.The Centre Franco-Omanais (CFO) founded in 1979, through a bilateral cooperation agreement between France and the Sultanate, has been teaching the beautiful language in the Sultanate for the last three decades.The French language learning centre has more than 500 students per session in Muscat and at its Sohar branch. The course has three stages – Basic, Intermediate and Advance, says Aurelie Ram-baud, Director of Muscat CFO.“There is no age bar and anyone interested in learning the French language can join,” says Rambaud, adding that from 5 years of age to 70 year-old grand parents also attend classes. “Learners are Omani nationals, Indian, Filipino, Canadian and Eu-ropean expats. They learn French with different aims and purposes,” says Arshad, CFO Secretary.Arshad, an Omani who speaks Arabic, French, English and Hindi, was a former student at CFO, and had enrolled in 1999 for the Basic course. But, with his outstand-ing performance at this level, he bagged a scholarship award in 2000 and went to France on a month’s deputation along with nine others to study the lan-guage accurately and fast, and to acquaint himself practically with French culture and lifestyle.“There are four courses each at the Basic, Intermediate and Advance levels. Each course is of a 10-week has a duration,” Arshad says.Clotilde Rigobt, a French teacher who has been deputed by the French Embassy, says that Oma-nis are good learners. They want to explore the advantage of the French language, particularly dur-ing travels abroad, and many of them vie for jobs related to foreign assignments.Rigobt, who has done teaching stints in Russia, China, Romania and Jordan, rates Omanis and Asians as good learners. “They learn fast because they have joined the course in their own interests,” he says.Zina Al Harthi, who speaks fluent French, recalling her association

with CFO, says: “I passed out from the CFO five years back. I had joined to learn French out of pas-sion. During my bachelor’s degree in Sultan Qaboos University I had taken French as a subject and I liked it very much, thus I made up my mind to learn the language.”Zina who also spent nearly six months in France on a scholar-ship, says “It helps me in my professional research work, and also to interact with my friends in France and from other parts of the globe.”Deepa Shankar, a housemaker from Al Khuwair who hails from Delhi, also learned French from the CFO. She has made her two school-going children also well-versed in the French language. She not only teaches French to her kids but also imparts the knowl-edge to her neighbours and others interested in learning.Local resident Aliya Al Kiyumi, a medical nurse working with the Royal Armed Forces and who has been learning French language, never misses her weekly classes and manages to attend lectures. She has successfully passed the Basic level and is now studying the Intermediate course.Aliya was awarded a scholarship and had spent a month in France.Narrating her experience she says: “Initially I was lost and I didn’t understand a bit, but I took it as a challenge as I am used to taking up challenges in life, and today I can converse in the language very well.”Aliya, who speaks fluent English, successfully manages her work, house-hold and takes care of her seven-year-old kid. She says: “Whatever you learn, it never goes waste.” She also thinks that what-ever one learns has to be shared with the world.Janaki Venkatesh, who has been residing with her family in the

Sultanate for over a decade, is pursuing her Masters Degree in FLE-French as a foreign language and gives all credit for learning the language to CFO.“I have been associated with CFO for the past 8 years with the intention of improving my French. But over the years, this centre has given me lots of opportunities to develop my French language. I completed various levels of exams through this centre,” Janaki said.

“Four years back, I went to Uni-versity of Tours in France to do a one month teacher’s training pro-gramme with a batch of students from CFO. Based on this founda-tion, I taught French in Indian School Muscat and Indian School Al Ghubra. Currently I am pursu-ing my Master’s Degree in FLE-French as a foreign language.”She is proud to be associated with CFO and hopes that the centre will continue to support her in her endeavours. “I can proudly say that CFO has been my window to the world of French,” Janaki said.

Vinod Raghavan

OMANIS ARE GOOD LEARNERSMore people want to explore French language

Aaliya

Janaki

Deepa

Arshad

JUNE 2011

26 muscat-ear

Meet Gaurav Shankar, a Class 7 student of Indian School Muscat who is all set to bring

out his own coffee-table book on cricket at such a tender age. CAMPUS explores the passion for cricket in this kid.Over the years the gentleman’s game of cricket has changed, it is now played in various formats - five-day Test matches, one-day game of 50 overs-a-side and the Twenty20 type, like the IPL in India.IPL 4, which was held recently, provided a lot of action, colour and glamour on-and-off the field, with local and international players rubbing shoulders with Bollywood stars and business magnates like Vijay Mallya and Mukesh Ambani. There were some sterling perfor-mances in IPL 4, which ended in early May, and Muscat’s own little lad Gaurav Shankar has come up with a novel idea of producing a coffee-table book on the tourna-ment. Gaurav, a Class 7 student of Indian School Muscat and an avid follower of the game, has put in a lot of effort to compile minute details in his little book - the

bidding scene at a five-star hotel in Bangalore, India, who are the bidders, international players roped in by business biggies like Vijay Mallya and Mukesh Ambani, and Bollywood stars like Shah Rukh Khan and Preity Zinta. Why former Indian captain Saurav (Dada) Ganguly was given a cold shoulder, inclusion of West Indies batting sensation Chris Gayle and other interesting facts and figures. Gaurav, who is a right-handed batsman, got hooked on to the game at a very tender age when he used to accompany his father on weekends to the cricket ground while playing for Suhail Bahwan.He got the idea of compiling the book from his father. One day both were returning from a match when his father casually suggested: why not make it in a book format? The lad took the suggestion seriously and started noting down details of IPL matches and collecting infor-mation from all available sources – newspapers, internet and of course the father-son duo conversations on the game.“He used to wait for me, and as soon as I entered the house he was ready with some or other ques-tions related to cricket. He would talk in detail of players’ origin,

their track record and monetary involvement. I was really amused to hear from him and I myself was getting updated with details on cricket from Gaurav,” Mr Shankar said.Seeing Gaurav go crazy about the game, his mother, who was never interested in cricket and busy with her teaching career, also started to watch cricket matches on TV at the cost of her favourite tele-seri-als. She also browses sports pages from daily newspapers and notes down news related to cricket, which helps Gaurav in his project.Gaurav, hailing from the Indian capital, was upset as his favou-rite team Delhi Dare Devils did not do well in IPL 4 and also his favourite player Virendar Sehwag ended up on the losing side. He has shifted his loyalty to another Delhiite, Gautam Gambhir, who captained Shah Rukh Khan’s Kolkata Knight Riders’ team.Gaurav is also a good chess player and has bagged the Markaz Al Bahja compe-tition chess award held recently. Since he was busy with exams, his pet project got temporarily slowed down but very soon Gaurav will come out with the book.

Summer is back and once again everyone is wondering what to do during the hot, three month break. If

you are thinking about summer school, here are some great reasons for you to sign up and get one step ahead:Don’t get out of the habit of learning! The brain is a muscle and it needs exercise. The more you practice learning, the easier it will get.According to research-ers, you can forget up to 30% of what you have been taught during the academic year, if you don’t engage in any mental activ-ity during the summer. Taking the time over summer to focus on a particular subject,

gives you the opportunity to learn key aspects of that subject.Should you decide to concentrate on English this summer, you will

be amazed at how positively it impacts on other school subjects, mainly because of the self confi-dence it generates. Going to an institute will show you that learning is an enjoy-able experience. Most institutes

have smaller class sizes so you get more chance to interact with your teacher and classmates, and practice

skills taught.You will make a whole new set of friends. Institutes attract people from all over the country, so in addition to your usual family and friends, you will meet loads

of interesting and exciting new people.

When you return to school, college or university, you will be amazed at how much you have advanced in one or two short

courses. Life is too precious to waste. Let summer be a time that you reward yourself for the hard work you put in all year, by making sure that you stay ahead of the game. Remember “A child edu-cated only at school is an unedu-cated child” (George Santayana).

SUMMER SCHOOL GIVES YOU THE EDGE

Deidre Harvey

BITTEN BY THECRICKET BUG…

27muscat-ear

Everybody in this world is having some or the other kind of stress in their day to day life and we keep ignoring it till it

takes the shape of a deadly disease like cardiac problems, blood pres-sure or diabetes to name a few.Stress Control and Mind Developer Asif Kaskar says, “People from all walks of the life encounter stress in their day to day life. It can be of different types depending on person to person. Stress can be emotional, financial and many other types. But ignoring stress can be really harmful and hamper your health as well as your performance at workplace or college.Kaskar is a Diploma holder in stress control and mind manage-ment, and has been helping people to control their stress for more than 10 years. He has been taking workshops and classes at hospi-tals, colleges and banks etc, and helping people out to improve their day to day life.Kaskar believes that stress is very common and any one can suffer from it, rather he says everyone is dealing with stress everyday. “Stress cannot be limited to a particular section of society. Stress is same everywhere, be it India or Oman, as it is related to human emotions and mind. And to control this stress one should learn how to control the mind,” he said.“If the stress is related to work then it can result in poor perfor-

mance and if it’s related to studies then students can suffer in their academics,” he added.So does Kaskar know techniques to fight stress? He answers affirma-tive and says, “We make people learn how to control the stress with the help of lot of techniques and commands. For example if you are getting some negative thoughts in your mind, you should immedi-ately say cancel cancel. This will shift your minds focus from the negative thought and you will be able to concentrate on what you were doing.”But how does he do it? “We do this mind programming in theta pro-cess. In this your brain frequency goes to 7 per cycle second. This is normally 20 cycles per second before the age of 14. Just like your heart, your brain also has a pulse rate. By practice and stress buster sessions the brain will be automati-cally programmed,” he explains.“Suppose if you are having prob-lems in sleeping and not getting adequate sleep then you should try taking deep breaths and start

counting from 100 to one. When you reach the mid point your mind becomes completely relaxed and you go to sleep. But doing it once or twice may not be that useful, so one should practice this for better results,” he added.Any useful tips for students to manage stress? “The most common problem with students is that they are not able to focus on their stud-ies as they carry a lot of thoughts in their mind which makes it dif-ficult for them to focus. Suppose if students want to score 80% marks in their exams, then they should write on a piece of paper 80% and paste it on the wall of their room. Every morning they will wake up and see that they have to score 80% in their exams. Slowly their mind will be focused and programmed in such a way that they will surely score better in their exams,” says Kaskar while on his second trip to Muscat.If you have any stress related query or you want to ask any questions, you can mail Asif Kaskar at asif.kaskar@gmail.com

STRESSED!

Stress Control and Mind Developer Asif Kaskar highlights the basic cause of stress and ways to deal with it in our day to day life, reports Qazi Faraz Ahmad

READERS’ CORNER

Campus invites readers to send short stories and poems that they may want to publish in its pages. They can also send paintings, sketches and works of photography. Campus reserves the right to decide which of these can be published and edit material before publication.

We are keenly awaiting your response.The Editor.

campus@happening-media.com

JUNE 2011

muscat-ear

How was your journey of study and before assuming your current position as dean of the Higher Col-lege of Technology? After I obtained my Bachelor of Civ-il Engineering from Sultan Qaboos University in 1993, I worked as an intern in an engineering consul-tancy office in Dhofar, for one year. Then, I worked in the Dhofar Mu-nicipality as an engineer of quanti-ties and a supervisory engineer and head of projects accounting. During my work in Dhofar Munici-pality, I have also been involved in the committees of projects evalu-ation for three consecutive years and participated in organizing the Salalah Autumn Festival since its beginning. In September 1997, I moved to the Industrial Technical College in Salalah, where I worked as a lecturer at the Department of Construction for a year and then I got scholarship from the United Kingdom to complete master’s degree in construction. Few months after my return from the United Kingdom, I got another scholarship from the British “Research Council of Engineering and Physics, “to complete my doctorate degree and I got the PhD degree in 2003. After-wards, I worked as a lecturer at the Technical Colleges in Salalah and

Muscat, and then assistant to the Dean for Academic Affairs at the technical college in Mosan’a, and then a Dean of Nizwa College of Technology for nearly five years. In March 2010, I was appointed dean of the Higher College of Technology in Al- Khuwair.

How did you manage to connect between your academic, scientific and research, projects? I spend most of my time in per-forming the functions of admin-istrative nature, especially that the Higher College of Technology has about eight thousand students in nearly thirty majors in seven academic departments, something which is accompanied by a lot of administrative daily works . Meanwhile, my membership in several committees deducts from the remaining time, thus resulting in a non-branching of the scientific and research projects. So, these researches are rare now but I try every now and then to do some research that is related to my work

How do you see trends among the Omani youth towards the techni-cal training and the private sector compared with the public sector?Over the past ten years, many

changes happened in the culture of the Omani society. The techni-cal colleges sometimes did not get their full share of students in spite of its acceptance of the small num-bers due to the lack of keenness towards the technical education at the time. Now, the number of applicants far exceeds the number of students admitted in spite of doubling the number of students admitted, which confirms the high turnout by the students for techni-cal education.

How do you assess academic poli-cies pursued by the Sultanate in the field of higher education? The policies pursued by the Sultanate in the field of higher education are logical and balanced. For example, the government encouraged the establishment of private colleges and universities, and required them to provide the academic connection with the institutions of higher education. Moreover, the government has even encouraged the establishment of private universities and provided land and financial support. It has also funded the study of large num-bers of students in private colleges and universities in the Sultanate. The Government has also support-

ed the setting up of more technical colleges and colleges of applied sci-ences throughout the Sultanate.What about the needs of private higher education institutions in the Sultanate in the areas of education, academic and scientific research? The institutions of higher educa-tion in the Sultanate have gone quite a bit in the areas of academic education in the fields of scientific research. The support provided by the Scientific Research Council is a good start. However, there is a need of more support for the scientific research and the higher education institutions in the Sultanate.

What role does the Higher College of Technology plan to play in the coming years?

The Higher College of Technol-ogy attaches great importance to the needs of the labour market as it seeks to enlarge the college to be the «college of choice» for the students, either by wanting to com-plete their studies or by the needs of labour market. We are working to play a leading role in the overall provision of education and training opportunities for students.

Sultanate needs more private INSTITUTIONS

Campus profiles Dr. Ahmad Bin Mohammad Bin Mohsin Al- Ghassani, Dean of Higher College of Technology, in an exclusive, as he talks about his life’s journey and different roles he has been play-ing for the development of the Sultanate and also about growing needs of more private higher edu-cation institutions in the Sultanate.

Who care for us and guide us,You can feel their love and gentleness,As they walk beside us.

They do great things for us everyday, They whisper in our ears,They hold us near when we are filled with tears.

God blessed me with an angel,I am proud to call her my own,She has been with me through

my life,Been with me as I have grown.

She has guided me the best she can,She has taught me like no other.And I am thankful I am the lucky one who gets to call her….My Dear Mother.

By Murtaza Zamani

28

JUNE 2011

29muscat-ear

Do you know that antidisestablishmen-tarianism is a genuine English word? The Oxford English Diction-

ary defines it as “opposition to the disestablishment of the Church of England”. It is rarely used, but is most often cited as an example of very long words. The longest word in the dictionary, however, is said to be floccinaucinihilipilifica-tion, another rare word meaning “the action or habit of estimating something as worthless”. The same dictionary lists an artificial long word pneumonoultramicroscop-icsilicovulcanoconiosis, which is supposed to mean “a lung disease caused by inhaling very fine ash and sand dust”. All of these long words illustrate a special feature of English by which you can build longer words from basic words by adding prefixes and suffixes. For example, the first long word mentioned in this article is formed as follows: anti+dis+establish+ment+arian+ism, ‘establish’ being the base. The parts added before it (‘anti’ and ‘dis’) are known as prefixes and those that are add-ed after (‘ment’, ‘arian’ and ‘ism’) are suffixes. Prefixes and suffixes are thus beginnings and endings respectively, attached to words. Nearly half of the words in English are derived from Latin and Greek roots. If you know these roots you can easily grasp the meaning of many words. It will also help you to form new words and build your vocabulary easily. If you know, for example, that the Greek root ‘phil’ means ‘love’ and that ‘sopho’ (Greek) means ‘knowledge’, you can make out the meaning of philosophy (‘love of knowledge’), philanthropy (‘love of humankind’ from ‘anthropos’). If ‘logy’ means ‘study of’, what does anthropol-ogy mean? What is biology (‘bio’

means ‘life’), zoology, astrology (‘astr’/’aster’ means ‘star’), or numerology (‘numero’ means ‘number’)? English is a very flexible language and you can make new words and build your vocabulary. One of the ways of making new words is by adding prefixes (like ‘pre’ or ‘post’) before the word. Here are some common prefixes with their mean-ings and some examples.Anti (=against): antibodies, anti-socialAuto (=self): automobile, autobiog-raphy, autosuggestionBi (=two): bicycle, bimonthly, binary, bipolarCo (=with): cooperate, coordinate, coexistContra (=against): contradict, con-travene, contraindicationDe (=remove): devalue, deselect, deregulateDis (=not): disappear, disincentive, disproportionateFore (=before): foretell, foresee, forecastInter (=between): international, interpersonal, intercontinentalMono (=one): monologue, monorail, monotonyMulti (=many): multinational, multilingual, multipurposeOut (=more than): outdo, outper-formPost (=after): postgraduate, post-mortem, postnatalPre (=before): prefix, pre-indepen-dent, pre-university Sub (=under): submarine, subter-ranean, subordinate, subzero Trans (=across): transnational, transatlanticLikewise, you can use these suf-fixes (i.e., word endings) to build words:Noun suffixes: -ence (existence), -ency (clemency), -ance (perfor-mance), -ment (establishment), -ism (tourism), -ship (chairman-ship), -ness (fullness), -sion (confu-

sion), -tion (examination), -dom (kingdom), -hood (bachelorhood).Verb suffixes: -ate (elongate), -en (strengthen), -ify (solidify), -ise (fantasise).Adjective suffixes: -able (jus-tifiable), -ible (convertible), -al (economical), -ful (mouthful), -ous (bulbous), -ish (amateurish), -less (pointless), -tive (substantive).There are some very long words in specialised fields, especially chemistry. I believe that the full name of the tryptophan synthatase A protein, an enzyme with 267 amino acids, contains 1,913 letters. In the 1964 Walt Disney produc-tion of the film of the same name, the main character Mary Poppins, played by Julie Andrews, uses the word supercalifragilisticexpialido-cious in a song. She uses this word to suggest how you can impress others or exclaim when you don’t know what to say.Remember that developing a rich vocabulary is not a short-term project. Use every resource that you can lay your hands on to build a more powerful vocabulary. De-veloping the habit of reading is the surest way to improve your vocabu-lary. As you read widely, you will come across words that were once quite unfamiliar to you, in different contexts, and the meaning will be-come clearer from the context. You may check your understanding by looking up the word in a dictionary. You must also consult a thesaurus often for the right word before you complete your assignment or re-port. It is useful in finding the right word you need to express what you want to say. A few years ago a joke was circulated on the Internet and I noted it down somewhere. While I was planning this article, luckily I managed to find it. This was the joke:“Two trucks loaded with thousands of copies of Roget’s Thesaurus collided as they left a New York publishing house last Thursday, ac-cording to the Associated Press. Witnesses were aghast, amazed, astonished, astounded, bemused, benumbed, bewildered, con-founded, confused, dazed, dazzled, disconcerted, disoriented, dumb-struck, electrified, flabbergasted, horrified, immobilised, incredulous, nonplussed, overwhelmed, para-lysed, perplexed, scared, shocked, startled, stunned, stupefied, sur-prised, taken aback, traumatised, upset . . . ”I was indeed overwhelmed by the abundance of words to express the reaction of the onlookers. Aren’t you, too? I’m sure you will look up many of these words in a diction-ary, and possibly try to add to the list, until we meet again through this column.ramanipn@gmail.com

MIND YOUR LANGUAGE

Dr P N Ramani

BUILD YOUR VOCABULARY

JUNE 2011

leisureARIES

A tricky month for you. Your personal friends may land both themselves and you in trouble, so be careful in

choosing your company in the beginning of the month. Do not do anything that could possibly put you on the wrong side of the law. In the mid-month, there will be fewer distraction or external pres-sures to take you away from domestic chores.

SAGITTARIUSThis is a happy month for you. The sports fans among

you will have an enjoyable month. In the early days of the month you are prob-ably looking for ways to take your

mind off recent problems. Education academic activities are focused throughout the month. Minor problems will be sorted out with the advice of the elders at home.

GEMINIThis month will keep you quite engaged and oc-cupied. The first half of the month is changeable for most of you. The

search of a bit of excitement could lead you to mix with the wrong company. You should better stick to your work. It would be wise to relate to friends. The second week of the month presents opportu-nity to satisfy your need to get things done.

AQUARIUSA commingled month for many of you. First half of the month will be complacent and congenial

as you will get some offers initially to supplement your income. Your superiors have high hopes from you. Domes-tic front will remain cool and the family member will back you up as usual. Education ac-ademic activities are focused throughout the month.

CANCERThe first half of the month is promising. Much as you would like to connect with colleagues treat it as such. During

the first and second week of this month, focus on the needs of family members in-stead of your own. Loved ones have not been included in many of your social activities, so downplay your profes-sional ambitions.

PISCESThis is demand-ing month for you. This month is favorable for enrolling in higher education and

special training project. In the early days of the month, it is important time to have more than one string to your bow. During mid-month some good news will be shared by you with your brothers/sisters or friends.

TAURUSThis is an interest-ing and creative month. You will enjoy yourself in the first half of the month. Some

of you are going to be at your most flirty mood. The second week is the busiest part of the month and you will certainly be making a good deal of fresh contacts with the people you meet. New propos-als should be considered in detail.

CAPRICORNThis will be a happy month in its entirety. During the first

half of the month you are certainly going to have a great respect for money although your light-hearted approach

generally denies this. Your tendency to spend seems to be temporarily curtailed. You will have plenty of energy at your disposal in the third and fourth week of the month.

VIRGOA good month for you. If you work in the money profes-

sions, your com-pany will be doing well and this will have benefits for yourself, perhaps in the second half of the week. It is

a particularly lucky time for those of you who have the ability or the need to gather possessions. In the mid-month you will feel rather hectic and be on the move.

SCORPIOThis is a satisfactory and pleasing month. The first

two weeks of the month are a bit careful and it is important that it does not go to waste. If you are self-employed or

your own boss, the first half of the month is favorable. You have the charm, determina-tion and right attitude when it comes to generating interest in your talents or company.

LEOThis month is variable. The first week will emphasize

your earning power and your ability to gather possessions. It is also favorable for those of you who work in

the money professions. The second week is sensitive, so be careful while signing important papers. You may meet someone special in this period. The second half is somewhat similar.

LIBRAThis is mixed month. The first half of the month is better

from the second half. You will have the confidence of your convic-tions. You will be striking out in a definite direction

with the best intentions of finishing anything that you start early this month. The second week may also open a world of possibilities for you. All you have to do is choose correctly.

3130 amusingfacts: Airports that are at higher altitudes require a longer airstrip due to lower air density.

031lifestyle

JUNE 2011

31 entertainment

Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan, who has been busy with the shoot-

ing of his super hero film “Ra. One” and action thriller “Don: The Chase Continues”, hurt his leg after it got stuck in a puddle recently. The actor who attended the music launch of his forthcoming home produc-tion “Always Kabhi Kabhi” here Wednesday looked chic in a black shirt and formal trousers, and he even walked straight. But a slight discomfort on his face couldn’t be missed. Asked about his condition, Shah Rukh told reporters: “I have hurt my leg. I wish I could say it happened

during the shoot of ‘Ra.One’ or ‘Don’. But it happened when my leg got stuck into a puddle recently. I turned my leg to take out my foot and the meniscus (cartilage) got ruptured.” Since Shah Rukh was a sports enthu-siast since his school days, inju-ries have been a part of his life. While working in films, he first suffered a hairline fracture on his knee cap that he sustained while shooting for “Koyla” in 1990s. In the past five years, he tore a shoulder muscle, suffered a back injury and has undergone surgery too. He is also busy with his Indian Premier League (IPL) team Kolkata Knight Riders.

Singer Peter Andre says he is losing his looks as he is ageing.

“I don’t think I ever look really horrible, but I am noticing a few lines here and there. I’m Mediterranean, tanned and not as good as I was,” he told Heat magazine. But Andre is not afraid to show off his body, reports contactmusic.com. “Have I ever been skinny dipping? Yes, many times. The last time was at home in Cyprus. I’ve done it jumping off cliffs.”

Filmmaker Woody Allen is set to make his acting comeback in his new film

which will be shot in Rome, Italy. “I’m one of the tales in the film. All the parts are quite signifi-cant and there just happened to be a part that I could play. You know I can’t play the love interest anymore and of course this is tremendously frustrat-ing because that’s really what I want to play,” said Allen. “I wanted to play all the parts that I’ve always played but they’re not as believable any-more, so I have to play Pops, the backstage doorman at the theatre!,” he added.

IANS

PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: ON STRANGER TIDES

Johnny Depp’s faux-foppish Capt. Jack Sparrow has kept the highly profitable “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise afloat for what is now four

episodes going on five, and he’s still the only arguable reason to get onboard.In its furious attempt to suck viewers down a 3-D whirlpool of indiscriminate action, the new edition, subtitled “On Stranger Tides,” exemplifies the chocolate-chip theory of American culture: Everything good will ultimately be “improved” until it acquires choco-late chips. And then it will taste like everything else with chocolate chips.Overkill, in other words, which is something of a specialty for Rob Marshall, the director who once turned “Chicago” into a sleight-of-hand hallucination and takes over from Gore Verbinski for a movie that subscribes to the philosophy that too much is never enough, un-less it involves an actual story line.Here, the ne’er-do-well Capt. Jack becomes embroiled with the pirate Blackbeard (Ian McShane), his daughter/old flame Angelica

(Penelope Cruz) and the returning Hector Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) in a race to find the Fountain of Youth (or “Yoof,” as it is occasion-ally called here). Fair enough. A fountain would be great. A Red Bull might have helped.The new “Pirates” achieves something novel: It is hysterical and dull at the same time. Part of the reason is chemical imbalance. The first “Pirates” movie, based on the theme-park ride, was a fairly straightforward period romance

_ with the outrageous addition of Capt. Jack, whom we later learned was modeled by Depp on Rolling Stone Keith Richards (who returns here as Jack’s barnacle-encrusted father). Jack was used as ornamen-tation rather than centerpiece, and less was definitely more. Depp is certainly fun to watch, which is why he’s a movie star despite his allergy to star roles, but you just wish that screenwriters Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio (working off the Tim Powers novel “On Stranger

Tides”) had given him more to do.The “romance” hinted at between Jack and Angelica is DOA; the su-pernatural elements are pure di-gression (the extended mermaid subplot allows for the inclusion of beautiful and chastely breast-less female sea creatures, but serves no point, save for those beautiful, chastely breastless fe-male sea creatures). Nothing said here, of course, will deter anyone from seeing “On Stranger Tides,” and people will walk away convincing themselves, magi-cally, that they got their money’s worth. But if there’s such a thing as memorably inconsequential, this movie is it.

MCT News Service

PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: ON STRANGER TIDES2 starsCast: Johnny Depp, Penelope Cruz, Ian McShane, Geoffrey RushDirected by: Rob MarshallLength: 2:18Rated PG-13: action/adventure violence, some frightening images, sensuality, and innuendo

SRK suffers leg injury

Peter Andre losing his looks

Woody to make comeback

amusingfacts: The Mexican Hat Dance is the official dance of Mexico. 31