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Himachal’s first ever video game tournament puts up a great show, young gamers awarded

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Game-out-finals-at-shimla

Himachal’s first video gaming tournament, ‘Game-Out’, received a warm welcome from young and talented gamers. Himachal Watcher had the honor of being official media partners of ‘Game-Out.’ After an entertaining two days of competition among over a hundred contestants from various schools and institutes of Shimla, the best gamers were awarded for the hard-work they have been doing in front of their personal computers and PlayStation consoles. They proved it that video-gaming isn’t just hitting the controller with all five. One needs to have the skills and reflexes required to play complex games like FIFA 2013, and it was for the first time that such skilled gamers were awarded in the small Himalayan city, Shimla.

Contestants competed in two categories namely, FIFA 2013 and DIRT 3. ‘Game-Out’ received a good number of registrations for the event, which turned out to be a great gathering of young participants, especially school kids from almost every school of Shimla. Sadly, there was only one student from a government school amongst hundreds of other participants. That speaks a lot about the level awareness and the fate of majority of students studying at Himachal’s government schools.

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The event was organized by Shimla based organization ‘DamnGeeky’ – a venture of Flexinet Solutions in association with Arena Animation. , Himanshu Sood, being an avid gamer and owner of Wake-n-Bake which is one of the finest restaurants at Shimla Mall showed his presence in the event as the Judge. He has represented India at International level as a gaming champ. Mrs. Nandini Mital, the news editor at Shimla Doordarshan, was also present as the game fest as chief guest of the event. Surprisingly, Nandini herself is a diehard fan of video games and she even had a round of DRT 3 with Himanshu at the event.

Judges-at-game-out

Defeating Aksaht Walia of Stokes Memorial School, Sameer Sood came out as the winner of FiFA 2013. Sameer is a student at Arean Animation at Sanjuali. Karan Mashta of UIIT HPU stood third. Sanyam Chauhan of Stokes Memorial School grabbed the winner’s trophy in Dirt 3 after defeating Nitin Bhardwaj. Jatin Kumar, a student at Kendriya Vidyalaya, Jatog claimed the third position.

However, the prize for the ‘best player’ of the event went to Chetanya Bhardwaj, a student of D.A.V. Lakkar Bazaar. He impressed the judges and viewers with a wonderful display of his gaming skills.

Amazingly, the beautiful trophies were not some expensive mementos bought from a fancy store, but were handmade and prepared from old automotive parts, which is an awesome demonstration of recycling junk material into something creative.

recyled-trophy

Three geeks from DamnGeeky and organizers of the event, Guarav Sood, Bharat Bushan, and Yash Sharma, are skilled bloggers. They are on the web for the last 10 years. These guys have similar plans for future. They’ll be organizing another gaming tournament soon. And have planned a special gaming tournament for girl gamers of the state too. While talking to the three organizers, they told us that motive behind organizing this first-of-its-kind game fest is to promote a platform to gamers of the region and promote their Do It Yourself (DIY) project. The aim is to highlight Himachal’s school talent on an International platform, to promote reuse and recycling, and to provide an apt platform and an international exposure to the science projects prepared by school students, which are otherwise dumped in dark storerooms. That adds to a motivation beyond gaining good grades in exams and encouraging students to take interest in the practical aspect of education.

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About DamnGeeky

DamnGeeky is your one stop portal for all the latest gadgets, automobiles that turn eyeballs, DIY, robotics and innovative technologies that will shape the future. The web portal has huge reader-base in US, UK, India and other locations spread across the world making it amongst the best technology magazines in the region.

Madan has studied English Literature and Journalism from HP University and lives in Shimla. He is an amateur photographer and has been writing on topics ranging from environmental, socio-economic, development programs, education, eco-tourism, eco-friendly lifestyle and to green technologies for over 9 years now. He has an inclination for all things green, wonderful and loves to live in solitude. When not writing, he can be seen wandering, trying to capture the world around him in his DSLR lens.

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HPTDC’s Online Service for Ordering Food for Takeaway and Home Delivery Launched

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HPTDC Online Food Order Service

Shimla-An online facility to place orders of food was launched by the Himachal Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation on July 21, 2020. It was informed by the HPTDC, Managing Director Kumud Singh. She said the Corporation has introduced a facility to place an online order of food for takeaway and home delivery at its selected properties.

“The public can place orders for a variety of tasty, hygienic and healthy cuisines at their homes by placing online orders,”

she said.

Consumers can place online food orders at these properties by visiting its website (www.hptdconwheels.in). Currently, the orders can be placed from 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM. The HPTDC staff has been imparted special training to take all necessary steps for prevention of COVID-19, she said. The food is prepared by trained Chefs of the Corporation in safe and hygiene environment, she added.

She informed that this service has initially been started at Hotel Peterhof Shimla, Goofa Ashiana Restaurant Shimla, Hotel Kunzam Manali, Cafe Monal Kullu, Cafe Raviview Chamba and Cafe Satluj Rampur. She said that this service will be extended to other properties in a phased manner.

Photo: Himachal Watcher

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Fursat Se- Shimla Based Cultural Community to Plant 550 Trees on 550th Birth Anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev ji

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Shimla-On the occasion of 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Devji, Fursat Se, a cultural community based in Shimla plans to plant 550 trees. The founder of Fursat Se, Amrita Bhasin, is working towards creating safe spaces for promotion of art, literature and open dialogue through the medium of events.

“We invite 550 people (&more) to pledge and plant one tree each and help us initiate a Green Movement by the people and for the people,”

She said.

Anyone interested in this, can pick a local tree sapling and plant it in allowed areas of the neighborhood and pledge to take care of it, and send the information on the same with a picture and hashtag #TreeTalesIndia to Fursat Se. For pledging, volunteering and becoming a part of this initiative you can contact them, and Fursat Se will share the pictures from their social media handles.

The initiative is organized by Fursat Se- A Cultural Community in association with- Swach Himalayas, a Himachal based NGO started by Savitoj Singh, that works towards spreading awareness about various environmental issues, undertakes initiatives like regular visits to old-age homes, orphanages through numerous community driven events and Unbox Himachal valley- a Himachal based start-up by Shivee Sirmauri, working towards empowerment of rural women by providing employment opportunities and reviving old cultural handicrafts.

Fursat Se- 550 trees plantation

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Himachal’s fitness enthusiast shines at Indian TV Reality Show

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Himachal's Fitness enthusiast sachin sharma of Shimla

Shimla: Sachin Sharma, a handsome man of 26, is currently a person who stands in contrast to Himachal Pradesh’s ill-famed youth struggling with drug and substance abuse – a crucial issue that has sounded an alarm in the State. Sachin is the one who joined a gym at the age of 19 – an age at which teenagers are struggling to escape from the jaws of drug/substance abuse, especially Heroin (Chitta).

Sachin, born in a middle-class family of Deha village, Theog, Shimla district, recently appeared in what could be called India’s first fitness reality show “Indian Fitness League.” It wasn’t a bodybuilding show, but the challenge was to undertake tasks designed to check who is the fittest. Sachin was the only one from Himachal to have made through the auditions. He was selected as one of the 40 fittest people of India. He earned the special attention of the hosts of the show as well as among other competitors.

The next episode of the TV show would be telecasted on October 6 on Discovery Sports at 4 PM.

To know more about him, Himachal Watcher interviewed him (Watch Video). We found that his story is inspirational in its own way:


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Far from ill and unhealthy habits, he doesn’t smoke, doesn’t drink or take anything that would toy with his physical and mental fitness. He definitely doesn’t take steroids. Since last seven years, he has followed a strict discipline in diet and habits. He didn’t compromise with his studies either. He completed his schooling from Dayanand Public School in Shimla.

In 2018 he completed his post graduation in Masters of Business (MBA) from Himachal Pradesh University and had procured a placement for himself too.

He wasn’t born with a silver spoon in his mouth so placement did matter for him. His father Mohan Lal Sharma and mother Subhadra Sharma are both serving with the Crime Investigation Department (CID), HP, as Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) and Head Constable respectively. It wasn’t easy to manage an additional expenditure of Rs. 15,000 – 20, 000 on his protein diet for seven years.

At this point, his decision-making ability was put to test. He had to choose one of the two: job placement and passion for fitness. He listened to himself and decided to seek a career in the fitness industry.

Though Sachin’s body is in good shape, he isn’t actually a bodybuilder. He is a fitness enthusiast, who has trained without a professional trainer or a mentor. He made ample use of YouTube to learn. He didn’t take up fitness as his passion because he was inspired by someone. He was his own inspiration.

He first received an opportunity to get on a stage at annual Mr. Himachal competition. Later he won the Maruti Suzuki Devils Circuit held in Chandigarh.

Now, after his tremendous performance at the IFL, Sachin has received sponsorships and was inducted in the TG Athlete group. Opportunities in the fitness industry have begun to appear before him. He believes that someday, he would extend support and guidance to other fitness enthusiasts of the state, which he could hardly receive for himself.

He is an idol for the youth of Himachal, especially because fitness is an antonym to drug/substance abuse and indiscipline. In the majority of cases filed under the Narcotics, Drugs & Psychoactive Substances (ND&PS) Act, the accused are reported to be between 20-25 years. A couple of days back Shimla Police arrested a 22-years-old local boy with a packet of Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) stamps. 

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