Olympic silver medallist PV Sindhu advanced to the semi-finals, while Ajay Jayaram exited in the last eight stage of the China Superseries Premier badminton tournament here on Friday.

Seventh seed Sindhu moved past Chinese He Bingjiao 22-20, 21-10 in 39 minutes. The Indian will meet the winner between Japan's Akane Yamaguchi and Sung ji Hyun of South Korea.

Jayaram, meanwhile, found it tough against Olympic champion Chen Long of China, who won 21-15, 21-14 in 40 minutes.

Long will meet Olympic bronze medallist Viktor Axelsen, who smashed past Japanese Takuma Ueda 21-11, 21-6 in just 30 minutes.

Slowly and smoothly she sways and slips into the forests, rattles on the bridges and glides next to the roads, rivers and lakes. On those never-ending tracks, the train takes us to places faraway. She takes you through tunnels and over the bridges.

The transitions are magnificent and touch your heart. From lush green meadows to shiny golden deserts, from a calm lake to flowing rivers, from the setting of sun to the rising of moon you can witness all of this and more.

Train travel is a big way of life for people in urban India. Indians, hence, have a special connection with trains. Every vacation can be associated with a train journey long or short and a vacation to some hill station has always been in our lists.

With the largest rail network in the world, India surely has a lot of routes to offer. Have you ever thought of taking a train ride to the hills? This time ditch the road and board a train to Shimla from Kalka. The English-style unusual toy train to Shimla is smaller than the usual. It comes under the world heritage list of UNESCO and occupies fourth rank in it. This tiny train takes five to six hours to reach Shimla and passes by beautiful towns and villages of Himachal like Dharampur, Solan, Kandaghat, Taradevi, Barog, Salogra, Totu and Summer Hill.

The beautiful slow-paced train takes you on curvaceous routes to the queen of hills and lets you relish the scenic beauty all around. It passes through 102 tunnels with Barog being the longest. It is the straightest tunnel in the world.

There is an interesting story about Barog which is told by the locals and surely gives goosebumps to the listeners. During the British Raj, an engineer named Colonel Barog was assigned the task to construct a tunnel. He personally dug from both the ends of the tunnel but failed to align them with each other. He was fined with One Rupee by the then British Government. He could not handle this humiliation and killed himself inside the tunnel. The place got its name from him and it is said that his spirit haunts the tunnel. He is known to be the happy ghost and some locals have shared their experiences of having a light hearted small talk with him. He is known to greet those who pass through the tunnel walking.

The cool fresh wind gives the ‘pahaadi’ (hilly) feels as you gaze at the tall mountains in shades of green and blue. Moving through the pine trees and forests you can feel the temperature transition as you reach higher altitudes slowly and gradually. Cool breeze and sun shining bright at the same time is rare and gives one of the best stimuli to your senses.

Every railway station that falls on the route has a unique essence of that place which is portrayed by their architecture. You will find kids with their school bags walking next to the track smiling and waving at you as the train passes by. The warmth with which the locals greet and welcome you makes you fall in love with the place a little more, each time.

Priyanka Gandhi will campaign
for Congress and play a “major role” in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly
election to be held early next year, party leaders said on Friday.

“She (Priyanka) is going to play a major role. Let everything be
finalised,” UP Congress campaign committee chairman Sanjay Singh said.

“It has been decided that she will campaign for the party in the state
elections. She has accepted our request to campaign. Whenever we will get her
schedule, we will use her time accordingly,” Uttar Pradesh Congress
Committee chief Raj Babbar said.

He added that once the elections schedule will be announced, it will bring more
clarity on her plans for campaign in the state.

Earlier, Babbar had said Priyanka’s presence will give confidence and energy
not only to the party men but also to the people across the state.

He had also mentioned that if she gives enough time then Priyanka could
campaign in all the 403 constituencies in Uttar Pradesh.

In the past, Priyanka has not campaigned in elections outside Amethi and
Raebareli Lok Sabha constituencies, represented by her brother Rahul Gandhi and
mother Sonia Gandhi respectively.

A large section of Congress leaders believes that the party will gain immensely
if she campaigns across the state.

League football returns to Spain
following the international break with what could possibly be a season defining
game for both Real and Atletico Madrid on Saturday night.

The first Madrid derby of the season sees league leaders Real visit the Vicente
Calderon Stadium for the first time since their dramatic win over Atletico
Madrid on penalties in the Champions League final, media reported.

Despite criticism of their performance, Real Madrid have a six point lead over
their neighbours, who know defeat would virtually mean the end of this season’s
title challenge.

Diego Simeone’s side will be at virtually full strength as forward Antoine
Griezmann has recovered from the foot injury he suffered on international duty.
But Real Madrid have lost Alvaro Morata with a hamstring injury and although
Sergio Ramos and Luka Modric should be able to start, Tony Kroos is also
sidelined.

Real Madrid players Pepe, Karim Benzema and Casemiro are also doubtful due to
injuries.

If the game needed any further emotion, it will be the last league derby between
the two sides in the Calderon as Atletico prepare to move to their new ground
at the start of next season.

FC Barcelona have a magnificent chance to put the pressure on both their title
rivals when they take on Malaga earlier on Saturday afternoon. Andres Iniesta
is still sidelined for the Catalans and Samuel Umtiti has a muscle problem, but
Gerard Pique and Jordi Alba should be able to return following their injury
lay-offs to give a timely boost to Luis Enrique’s men.

A win for Barca against an improving Malaga would momentarily take them top of
the table and mean Real Madrid would need to win in the Calderon in order to
maintain the leadership.

However, Deportivo la Coruna, who will face high-flying Sevilla in Saturday’s
early kick off, are in trouble.

Deportivo are struggling for goals, while Sevilla, despite having the same
number of points as Atletico Madrid, have only one league win away from home in
the last 16 months.

A loss on Saturday could cost Deportivo coach Gaizka Garitano his job.

Eibar and Celta also play on Saturday, before Sunday kicks off with Espanyol’s
visit to play Alaves. Alaves took three vital points from Osasuna before the
international break, but have only one home win all season, while Espanyol’s
two wins have both come on the road.

Valencia will hope to get back to winning ways at home to rock bottom of the
table Granada,, while third from bottom Sporting Gijon have a tough game at
home to in-form Real Sociedad before Sunday’s best game sees Athletic Club
Bilbao entertain Villarreal.

Third placed Villarreal have lost just once all season and are unbeaten in
seven of their last 10 visits to Bilbao, while the home side, who recover Mikel
San Jose, Aymeric Laporte and Benat after injury, will look to veteran striker
Aritz Aduriz, who has scored 10 goals against Sunday’s rivals, to lead them to
victory.