Jackie - we are proud of you! People do talk about achieving and i think this is one of the best one can think of - representing your country at teh age of 16! Wow! Jacqueline - my appa's friend - Mr. Thomas Kunnath's daughter has achieved this and hats off to her and to her family for the support they have given. We wish her all the very best for the tournament and beyond for greater achievements India call for Jacqueline

The 16-year-old earned her first international call for the Badminton Asia Youth U19 championships next month in Kuala Lumpur

Dev S Sukumar. Bangalore

Bangalore girl Jacqueline Kunnath, a trainee at the Tata Padukone Badminton Academy, has made it to the Indian team for the Badminton Asia Youth U19 championships. The tournament will be held in Malaysia from July 12 to 19. Although Jacqueline – 'Jackie' to everybody – is primarily a singles player, she was selected for the doubles based on her performance at the three All India junior tournaments in Chennai, Kochi and Bangalore this month. Jackie and Prajakta Sawant made the (U-19) semifinal at Chennai and the final at Kochi and Bangalore. "I'm not too happy, because I got selected for the doubles," said the 16-year-old. "But I plan to try and play the singles at the ABC. I can get to know how the others play. I didn't do well in the singles at Kochi and Bangalore because I'd stubbed my toe and it was hurting." Jackie is a product of East Cultural Association's badminton programme. Her early lessons were under senior coaches ND Murali, Biju Prasad and Suresh Kumar. It was with the arrival of former doubles international Vinod Kumar at ECA in 2002 that the programme took on a different level – two of his trainees from those days, Prakash Jolly and Jackie – are junior internationals. Jackie's primary assets are her speed and power, but there are some creases that need to be ironed out. "She needs to improve in many technical aspects," says Vimal Kumar, coach at the Padukone Academy. "She's very quick, but skill-wise, she needs to improve. She has a problem with the grip – she's unable to change grip quickly from the forehand to the backhand." That's something Jackie is aware of. "I need to work on my patience and precision," she says. "I need to play an opponent twice to get used to her style. My game is a more attacking style. I like it when I'm up against rally players, because they push me and there's a lot more going in their game." Her natural athleticism is derived from her parents, Thomas and Sarah. While Thomas was a university badminton player, Sarah was a sprinter at the school level. Senior athletics coach VR Beedu was impressed with Jackie's athletic ability and persuaded her to focus on athletics, but Jackie was keener on badminton. "She had the qualities to become a good athlete," Beedu said. "Jackie could've made a mark in national athletics. She has primarily done well in badminton because of her speed. Some of our sprinters would even find it difficult to beat badminton players like Jackie and (senior international) Ashwini Ponnappa in the 800m."

Publish Post

Article courtesy DNA, Bangalore and click on page 17 on the web link: http://epaper.dnaindia.com/dnabangalore/epapermain.aspx?queryed=9&username=&useremailid=&parenteditioncode=9&eddate=6%2f26%2f2009

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Reporting from Toronto airport

Hi all,

The two months long tour of USA Canada is now completed and i am on the verge of taking a flight to Chennai by Lufthansa. It has been great time and thanks to everyone who made it a grand success.

I am excited to write as i just saw a huge Emirates aircraft with 700 person capacity airbus 380-800 series, probably first of it kind in the world! I had the privelage to just see this aircraft on its maiden visit to Toronto. What a way to sign off from Toronto! Here is a video clipping of this flights arrival into Toronto airport parking bay!

Ellam iraiva Seyal. Avan indri oru anuvm asaiyadhu!

Will report details later.

Memorable trip into Toronto & Niagara, 31 May, 2009



What a way to complete my 1st concert tour of USA & Canada with a presentation applauded by the learned audience of Toronto and visiting Niagara by Night, thanks to NewYork Raja uncle for having driven us to Niagara and back, apart from having a greal aerial view of the same when coming from Washington to Toronto from the aircraft!

I shall detail all news later but could not resist sharing the photos!. Thanks to New York RAja uncle who took us to this great drive to Niagara and back for making this a lifetime unforgettable tour!.

Trip to the capital of USA Washington DC 29-30 May, 2009

It was indeed a great experience in Washington which i shall detail tmrw. Enjoy the photo taken here on way and during the cocnert.

In Tampa from 26 - 28 May'09

It was a great new experience at Chicago in term of concert reception and also experienced heavy rain for the first time in USA. I am sure if it was same in Chennai, the city would have paralysed for at least 4 days. Well this was just for a shower of rain for just few hour! Mr & Mrs Usha Ravi were so nice and so was their children Hariharan and Akshy. I had good time and also made some shopping here for my family, thanks to Usha Ravi anty to have taken us to Best By store.  The milk shakes bought by Ravi uncle on both the days of our stay was indeed great. We had a great get together dinner at Mr Raghavan uncle's hose were almost all the artist who performed at CTU were there and i had the opportunity to mingle with all of them very freely. 

Coming to Tampa, the photos displayed - its a city with climate as good or bad as Chennai and on arrival we were met by Mr Latha Kumar and her son & Smt Geetha Saharsanam. The hoe of Lathakumar aunty where we are staying i huge and Target store is just rght behind! We went ot to look for more shopping but the price i bit higher than Best Buy (it has to be!) store and so had a long walk inside this huge store. All rehearsed ith mr Patrick Hernly, who perform steel drum (in the photo) and Ms Katerine Ocampo who plays Saxophone. We are jamming in on the concert stage today evening and hope it come out good!

Our Trip to Chicago from New Jersey



It was a new experience of traveling by Surface to Philadelphia to take a flight to Chicago and i was really blessed as i could be in the presence of Great Maha Vidwan Sri VV Subramaniam mama & family during the van drive from New Jersey. Also it was a great blessings to meet Sri Thiruvarur Bakthavatchalam uncle, Sri Thiruvarur Vaidhyanathan uncle, Gurucharan anna and Nagai Sriram anna at the Philadelphia airport as we were all taking same flt to Chicago. On reaching Chicago we were again splitting as respective groups as we were to stay in different houses.

We were picked up by Sri Rangam uncle and we had lunch in their house. The greatest thing was we could watch the 2nd part of IPL finals in a big TV with our web link given by Seattle Vishwa uncle and enjoyed the same. Then we came to Usha Ravi aunty's house and saw group of talented children - Shashank playing Flute (student of Smt. Sunitha Granthi), Sanjay on Mrudhangam (presently nder the tutelage of Sri Gruvayur Durai), Hariharan (student of sri B.. GaneshPrasad)  on Vocal and Akshay (still to dance so no photo of his action - learning from Smt. Sowmya Kumaran) a good dancer. Hari and Akshay are children o Mr & Mrs Ravi. I am on to playing Wi games now and will report later. bye for now.

This trip to New Jersey has been different in all ways alike we had to spilt ourselves into 2 groups with appa and self in Mr/s Venkatraman, VP CIMANA's house and Poongi uncle and Kannan mama in Mr/s Sankaran's house (President, CIMANA). While i thought this would affect our smooth flowing trip both our groups were kept busy by both families. We here enjoyed our stay with natural sorrundings with bird's sound always and fish tank at home. I also enjoyed playing / experiencing GOLF for the first time in my life.

Mr Venkat was so nice to take us to a Golf Pro coaching zone and we enjoyed it very much. I was so happy when he said i was playing Golf very ell and also told him hthat i wold like to call myself as Squirrelwood - (like TIGER WOODS!). I also had the greatest opportunity to meet Dr Ravi Dattatreya uncle at his residence, thanks to Prakash anna - Mr Venkat's son, who took us there. We experienced the Train rides all through and spent good time there. Dr Ravi uncle's family were so nice to us and we tasted Pasta for lunch apart from good chappathi's. Ravi uncle plans to make some album project and hope it comes through. Mr Mahendra - his brother was nice too and so was Srivatsa anna - Ravi uncle's son who plays Piano in a great way.

The concert here went well and we sincerely hope the good run continues. The only sad thing is that appa got sick with soar throat and hope he becomes alright soon witht eh kashayam given by Smt. Venkat mamai. The stay here has been very good and have been enjoying it with Golf, UNO and also playing Trade game for the first time in this tour. I also had good time with RIA & Rishi children of Mr Govind uncle (appa's friend for last 25 years!) when we went to their house. I played wi games and tried new games too and it was great fun. Tomorrow we are all going to Philadelphia by surface and then to Chicago for a concert on 25th May'09.

Our trip to Charlotte

Every city / venue is indeed a great experience in this tour for me and this kind of twin cities as far as music organisers are concerned namely Raleigh and Charlotte has been very special for me. It was after the great stay at Raleigh we moved by surface to Charlotte and if not for the team thinking of all of us including Mr/s Akila Arun and Mr Ravi , ho drove us, we would have had great trouble driving the distance of about 170 miles. It was raining and Mr Ravi uncle was indeed great and self, Kannan uncle and Poongi uncle played UNO cards throughout our travel.

In Charlotte it was in my god's brother's home we were staying i.e. Dr Ravi Dattatreya's (who had presented me with a Korg Trinity workstation in Nov'09 and we in our family really think of him as god) brother's house. I enjoyed the concert on May 17th 2009 after having good lunch and has been enjoying the stay here. e have been playing Tennis, went to IMAX theatre and had the experience of being to Grand Canyon - Colorado River film and playing UNO. I also recorded few krithis for Ravi uncle. Pooja and Rupa akka (one in the photos dancing) were also nice and so was the dinner hosted by committee members with Mr&Mrs Krishna family, Mr & Mrs Vijay family and Mr & Mrs Muthukrishnan & family. Thanks to Jayashree Pandurangan aunty and Pandu uncle for having given us great time in their house with great homely food. They also took us to Cizi's Pizza and e enjoyed the buffet spread! Hope our good run on and off the stage continues!!