I had the honour of being invited to attend the Inaugural/Launch event of IXL-2014 at the Emperor Hall of the National Sports club of India at Worli, Mumbai.
The dais before it was populated
The trophy awaiting the IXL-2014 champion
Shachii Manik one of the top ten at last years IXL (due to family commitments she could not participate in the final) was also present.
At the end of the event the special guests and those who correctly solved the 7 x 7 were presented with IXL T-shirts.
I was surprised when a lady walked up to me immediately after the launch and asked me if I recognised her, when I gave her a blank look, she introduced herself as Nitaa Jaggi!! Obviously the photo of hers which is there on the interview at Shuchi's site must have been taken much earlier as I could not put two and two together.
Nita Jaggi's husband, Nitaa Jaggi, Self, Shachii Manik
Another surprise meeting was with Mangesh Sakharam Ghogre my acquaintance from the blog on the LA Times Crossword Corner blog, the blog which inspired me to set up THCC and this blog. He sets crosswords occasionally for the LA Times. Unfortunately I could not take a photograph with him.
Shall add the link to the IXL site after they add more photographs there.
On the whole had a hectic and enjoyable one day outing to Mumbai, kind courtesy Mr Vivek Singh, IXL and Extra-C
News articles about the launch available at the undermentioned links
Nice. Good luck if you are also contesting.
ReplyDeleteGood shots, Col ! Did you squirm after seeing NJ? She looks to be a gentle soul, not worthy of all the barbs in the THCC !! She can always claim that she had outwitted all the solvers put together? Was she referring to her stint at the THC and the comments in THCC ? I'm not amazed to see the fairer sex in the crossword world as they have that extra intuitive faculty to compile and solve !! More women power to this field !!
ReplyDeleteAny video of the events?
Nice snaps.Participating for the 1st time.Good luck to all
ReplyDeleteIt was an honour to finally meet you, Colonel. Hope to interact more henceforth. Thank you of this post, and hope to see the videos soon. I'm eager to see how my extempore was delivered! Good luck to all those participating in the IXL 2014!
ReplyDeleteBest regards,
Shachii
(note the double i at the end! - it is a puzzling coincidence that NJ spells her name with a double a at the end. But I would like to believe that the similarity ends there!)
I noted and amended
Delete