Speed Breakers



When you are racing on the highway called career, you encounter a lot of speed breakers which slowdown your speed and makes it difficult to maintain the same levels of enthusiasm, which needs to be restarted, just as you look to gain speed after passing a speed breaker. Speed breakers are shocks that occur around the workplace that seemingly gives you jitters about the manner in which certain official issues are handled. Yesterday was one such incident, when I encountered a “speed breaker” at work. I was appalled by the chinks in the functioning of a certain person, who apparently misuses office resources for personal things. I was shocked at the gall and impunity with which, dishonest things were being committed. There was no penitent feeling at all from the person, who does the act coldly without even thinking twice.

Generally at work, in say any company most employees, misuse office property for personal gains and the more they start doing it, the more empowered they feel, and surprisingly when a person is questioned at an advanced stage of looting, they behave as though they never knew this was illegal. Its perfectly acceptable in making the odd mistake, which many people have done, but to do it with a heartless and insincere way is just not acceptable. It is this dishonesty at work, that seems a “speed breaker” apart from the fact that people, resort to other distractions, that only makes the official work at office go behind schedule.

Some instances are

1) Taking huge personal copies of print outs, advocating the reason that “they can save some money”, as if this was done in a proper store, it would cost them “huge” money. The odd print out here and there is pretty much acceptable, but when you do it en masse without any pangs of guilt is when the chinks in one’s character seems visible, behind the cloak of joi-de-vivre that one exudes in corporate life.

2) Making the office STD line for personal use and using it abusively for talking long hours(again to save money).

3) Taking time off from office, and doing personal work and later saying that they went off to meet “ a potential client”.My classmate is a fine example of this,who lives his life farting to hell,about his work :-)


4) Using community sites like Orkut and messengers in office beyond a certain minium level.The odd scrap in orkut, is not a problem,but given the addictive nature of an orkut or a Gtalk, most folks seem to be logged on to both, thereby affecting productivity.

5) Speaking on the mobiles for a long time, being away from work, and constant messaging at work, is another huge factor that distracts employees from completing their work properly.

6) The biggest culprit of all, are the forwarded mails that come along. Not a crime seeing a few and forwarding the, but folks must know when to draw a line.

7) Coffee and tea time- Given the fact that most IT jobs are said to be stressful, most employees take that piece of data , only to invest half their time drinking “free” coffee and tea from the vending machine.

All of these reasons are happening simply because the job market is booming in India.If one place asks you to go, after you have put a reasonable amount of work experience, the other companies are more than willing to hire you, and your shenaningans for a higher price.It is the openness in the markets, that allow people the gall to work the way they do,the way they want, often in disagreement with the said rules of the company.Given the fact that most Indian companies have proper HR departments, the erring employees are never given the sack, but persisted with in the hope that things would be better.

Though it is the mistake of the employee, of falling prey to any of the 6 criminal factors at work,it is also in a small way the responsibility of the management or the immideate managers,who have not weaved a dream or a vision on which the employees work.There is a very thin line between working with a vision and working just to meet deadlines,and it is the company’s strict supervision couple with freedom of speaking one;s mind that determines the relations between the employee and the employer, which I turn decides how committed the employee is to his work.

All of the 7 reasons might seem familar most employees of any company, but gross misuse of the company resources for personal gain, certainly reeks a lot about the character of the person commiting it.It may seem a small thing, for a company to keep tabs on such activity, but if it does, it can automatically realize the honesty levels of employees.

If any of you have been able to tackle such a menace at the workplace in terms of curbing the attitudes of such people and transforming them, please do add in your thoughts and experiences of the same, in the comments box below.

CAT- QUANT BLUES ?

One of my friends,Srikanth is conducting CAT Quant classes in a short 2 week period, beginning on October 2nd.He is a good friend of mine,and is god when it comes to solving maths.He has a penchant for teaching and is surely a great friend to have.He is pretty well on his way to get his seat in IIM-A this year.

here is his pitch
-------------------------------------
The Market is Bullish and so am I.

1. Are you a serious aspirant of CAT-06 ?

2. Are you willing to spend Rs. 500/- to boost your chances of cracking QA by manifolds?

3. Do you wanna be absolutely confident about Numbers and Geometry?

Then you just got lucky .... coz herez a course that gives you all that u can dream about in just 2 weeks time .

What i offer ?

1. 14 classes ,each of 2 hours duration, on high profile topics like Numbers, Geometry , Permutations- Combinations and Probability , Time and Distance .

2. Each topic will be covered in 3 classes . The first class will be down to earth fundamentals on that topic and the 2nd and 3rd classes will be on problems and concepts which have missed the radar so far .

3. A maximum of only 15 students would be accommodated in a batch .

Highlights

1 . A thorough fundamentals + different types of questions selected would keep you armed to tackle QA on the D-DAY .

2. The problems selected are to be found no-where and have evolved out of in-depth research in the above topics and hence could be in the radar of CAT 06.

3. As an introductory offer, 2 classes of DI are conducted , absolutely free of cost, where in the best of the best sets are handled and some mind boggling methods are taught in a simple manner .

For further details - contact: Srikanth: + 91 9840362645 mail:srikabala@yahoo.co.in

Fees : Rs.2500/. only.
Note : If for some reason , you feel the course is sub - standard and you didnt benefit from it much , Rs. 2000 will be returned back immediately . The above is applicable only if you choose to quit in the first 3 classes of the course . Scheduled to start from October 2nd,2006

Note: If for some reason there is a mismatch between what is offered and your expectation at the end of the third class, you have the option to quit and Rs.2000/- will be refunded.

Pleasant Weather





The past 2-3 days have been pleasant in Chennai with a rather sedate and gloomy morning which then gives way to the normal hot and humid afternoons,before the weather gods slowly descend to spend the evening with the chennaites with ominous signs of rain about to pour. Sadly the rain, does not last all that long, preferring to show its might in the wee hours of the night and early morning. Its an advantage allright, so that the morning office goer is spared of commuting helter skelter in the rain,but at Madipakkam, in suburban Chennai, an hours rain is all it takes to make the roads as spongy as a heated Dairy milk chocolate.I had a terrible time trying to plough my bike out of the muck,with 2 huge lorries, a few cars and a score of 2 wheelers honking behind me, so as to move further to get out of the morning traffic rut.Those few seconds of honking,seemed like eternity, if the bike gets stuck and all that kicking doesnt start the bike,and you finally end up splashing your newly polished shoe in the mucky browny paste that the road has become. You tend to feel as if the whole world is against you for that split second,and try fervently to get the damn bike started.It takes a couple of kicks more than a half a dozen for the bike to realize the gravity of the alarming situation behind to stop throwing tantrums and get started.

After all that anger and frustrations moments back, once the traffic congestion easens and vehicles are back at a level playing field in commuting, the pleasure of driving the bike with a smile returns rather a few minutes too late.


You tend to laugh all the more, when you realize that this happens 3 days in a row and this is not the first time, it has happened.Sometimes we start the day with viewing it as a watertight compartment,unoblivious of the foibles of the day just gone by.When such a thing happens, you are without doubt having a fast life :-)

Manathodu Mazhaikalam-A Review

September 22nd, was a day that was marked in our family calendar as it happens to be the release of a much awaited movie "Manathodu Mazhaikalam", which happens to be directed by my cousin.I happened to see the preview of the movie, a couple of weeks back at AVM,with my family.Incidentally this is my cousin's(aunt's son) third movie,after Arpudham and a gult movie .By the way, he is called Arpudhan in the tinsel world, after being called Babu at home.The movie showcases a lovely concept of whether Guys and girls can stay friends,even though being close.Mind you this isnt the friendship which is like "Rakhi Bhaiyaa" or a "turned down-lover-so-best-buddy" friendship, that I am talking about. Hum TuM debated the same thing and came to the conclusion that "beech mey pyaar a hi jaathi hain". Whether loves comes or not, I guess its the Indian socviety mentality that would prevent such a relationship from even being known.

MM starts off with life in college, which nicidentally was shot near Chrompet Jain college and partially in a college called St.Johns college in Chalakudi,as my cousin brother puts it.The narration of college life was a little far fetched from reality, and the way charecyers have been showed are too shoddy and certainly this is where a Minnale differs from a MM. MM really maks the viewer watch the movie with glued interest only after the interval.The movie is extremely thought provoking in the second half,as to why things happen the way it does in the second half, but its certainly worth the moolah spent on the movie.

Story goes like this

Boy 1 is a reckless guy in college, girl 1 liks him, tries to flirt, he ignores girl 1, and falls for girl 2,when girl 2 makes an impact on his charecter,as her dad's pretty influential.They start going around and all of a sudden discover that they more so like to be friends than being married.Girl 2 marries the " morey mappilay" while, Guy 1 marries girl 1. How Guy 1's life is spent after that, and his memories form the part of the story.

BTW...Girl 1 is wasted in the movie and the relationship between girl-2 and guy-1 looks so much like they are in love, but they arent.Even an act of guy 1 presenting a ring to girl 2, makes the audience a little queasy and the act is hard to belive, that they are still freinds.I'd leave that to the movie going audeince to discern whatever they can from the movie.

I see a lot Malayalam heroines making a dent in Kollywood and they have ensured healthy competition in tinsel town. Nithya Das is the latest and welcome addition. I hear from chennaionline that she was part of the success team of Kunjukoolan and Ee Parakkum Thalika. She plays her role with conviction and brings off a lovely performance essaying her role with a certain surety, that is remiscent of a seasoned actor.

Shaam plays the male lead pitted with Nithya. Director Arpudan(a.k.a Babu), who got his first big break in the Super Good Films banner Arpudam, says that the story is confined to the happenings in a college and narrated in a poetic form and is extremely enthusiastic about his movie.I asked him about the lack of a comedy element in the movie, and he quickly retorted with a smile saying "its a serious subject between 2 people" and I guess somewhere down the line, in making this movie he has got too involved with the concept, that he has lost out in marketing the movie via other frills that are neccesary to position itself as a product.

'The supporting characters are kind of ok, and do not really express themselevs so well.Even though this is a college subject with a view to giving the freshness and realism in a world so different from what one envisages., it somehow does make the moviegoer feel at the end of the movie that "this could have been made better".

The other credits are: Karthik Raja (music); Muthukumar (lyrics); Raju Sundaram, Kalyan and Brindha (dance masters); Guna (stunt) and Umesh K Rupesh (art). The music in the mobvie is a turn off, but for a very well picturised song caled "butterfly", while the others were run-of-the mill stuff.



In a happy frame of mind,after the movie preview, Arputhan, the director said he has the ideal script to present it in a poetic form with much of the happenings confined in a college. In that prevalent mood, he hastened to add that the artistes were chosen to meet the demand of the script and not the other way round. Well, I differ from him , as I felt the prescence of a noted comedian could have given the movie a better branding.

He also adds in n interviwe to a tamil website 'The script did not require any big names. The screenplay has been fashioned in such a way to leave the viewers in a trance. Once that is achieved, more than half a battle is won. It is then a question of ensuring that the viewers' interest is retained till the end.'

Samiksha 's character could have been made better,as I feel's she's not been used properly.Her role here is similar to Rani Mukherjee's in KKHH, but the quality of a director totally comes to the fore here, in terms of reaching out ton audience.I dont intend comparing Karan Johar and Arputhn, but as a movie reviewer, I feel Arputhan , needs to boslter his support cast to really make the story meaningful.Hopefully, this campus caper will prove a turning point in his career. I wish him all the best with his latest release.

My verdict - *** out of 5, but its worth watching, especially in the second half.

Student Help

If you know any high school student who is a very high scorer but from a poor family, here is a great opportunity to help him/her get a nice scholarship to enter college.Applications can be obtained by writing to:Mr.S.Ramanathan,#17, North St, Kalai NagarMadurai - 625014Ph: 0452-2640678E-Mail: ramrajam2002@yahoo.com

Scholarships are given by "NORTH SOUTH FOUNDATION" of USA, based on exam grades and family situation. The annual family income should be less than Rs 38000 in urban areas and Rs 26000 in rural areas. The scholarship amount mostly covers 100% of tuition fees and ranges from Rs 5000 to Rs 10000 per year.If called for an interview, 50% of the travel cost will be reimbursed.

Please do pass it on to needy people

VCL(Verandah Cricket League)




This picture is of my verandah in my adayar apartment.We moved in here in 1990 and stayed for 10 years, which was almost more than 50% of my childhood.I had taken this photo sometime back when I went there to collect rent from my tenant.This had been my cricket pitch since I was in class 3 and seeing this photo a flood of emotions stall my senses. The door on the left was my house and the the wall seperating both the doors was the stump.I used to get behind the door grill of my house and used to keep my face at the grill door,resting on the vertical bars.....all for my own simple version of stump vision,which was a huge hit those days when Prime sports used to show action replays using stump vision.


When the third umpire was introduced could 2nd floor be left behind? We used to have three lights to the right of the corridor of which one was a permanent fuse, while the other 2 lights were used by the person who was not batting/bowling to give decesions by switching on the respective lights(vetti scene).Gosh we tried and imitated whatever we could to get a sense of reality into the game we played.

There were days when my mothers fair and lovely creamed also doubled up as the zinc cream players to wear around their noses,especially the likes of Terry alderman and Craig Mcdermott,and I hardly hesitated to blatantly copy them

To celebrate my 10th birthday uniquely I asked my mother to buy a plain white T shirt and asked her to paint the India colours on it, typically resembling the 1992 Indian World cup T shirt,with India in front and Kartik at the back,and it was with this shirt I used to play cricket aping a tendulkar,prabhakar,azharuddin whenever the game demanded it. Over the years I had perfected the art of the square cut in the narrow alley to the left, as one had to play carefully to not let the ball fall out of the corridor(failing which you were out), and not to hit any glass pane,which also automatically disqualified you if you hit the pane thrice.

To come to think of it, I was a really mad cricket freak,wanting everything the players did out there and when I reflect back to those days, I see total innocence those days, in the way life used to be.Another of my famous antics were to play cricket with coloured pads in the corridor,which were subjected to my mothers fabric paint but why on earth would you need pads,when you are playing with the tennis ball? well, rationale and logic was not the in-thing those days.

Those were the days when Waquar and Wasim used the reverse swing to good effect and could we be far behind? We guys too started applying reverse swing tactics to a plastic ball :-) , by wetting one side of the ball and making the other side dry and we hoped to create reverse swing out of the Ice cream plastic ball.The ball would even otherwise swing, but we enjoyed farting that the effect was because our efforts on the ball and luckily there was no Darrel Hair to reprimand us, though our parents would scoff at our seriousness in the claim of ball tampering.The tennis ball just needed to be drenched in water and incase it was raining outside and the ball fell down to the ground floor due to a mishit, this was a welcome move as a wetter ball would bounce like a demon and come faster of the verandah, flummoxxing most folks,who were batting.I still cant belive in the small verandah that was there, we were running runs with 2 fielders posted in that verandah...

Much before the CEAT ratings had come out,we had our own ratings system,which was not exactly cued into our game, but the souvenirs and points we had collected by way of buying Big Fun Bugglegum,which gave a players photo and a certain number of points and the obne having maximum points, obviously was held in high esteem.Gosh talk about status tools, Big Fun was a huge status symbol those days :-)

Day Night cricket also made its impact when we decided that the power of six 60 watts bulbs was enough to create the environment on the verandah that we were playing night cricket.I remember, pleading with aunties to switch on their outside door bulbs to get some light,some aunties would oblige with a smile,some would curtly give weird reasons saying that "current units have increased,so we cant switch the light on".We learned the art of coaxing aunties whose bulb positionw as powerful by complimenting any aunty or her child with some sugar coated words for our benefit at night.

There were times the surrounding environment would dictate terms like an old uncle shouting that our game was disturbing him, or an aunty saying her son/daughetr had to study and we were distracting them,and people complaining it was siesta time and blah blah blah.Our game used to then go into a mode when we hardly shouted in delight as we scored a boundary or took a wicket.It was like watching a match with the same intensity of a muted India Pakistan game.

Incase we couldnt minimize the noise that was coming from our fervent appealling and raucous celebrations during the game, we quietly sat together on the verandah putting the bruised tennis ball and the bat to rest and sat down playing trump cards of cricket players.All of us honed our strategy lessons while playing trump cards, either in Cricket or the numerous avatars they came in like classic cars,futuristic cars or wwf cards.The trump card phase of 19993-96 was a highly addictive phase and it still has its withdrwal effects on me, when a players name strikes my mind, his records and history automatically fall in place.


The steps adjacent to the right door were our dressing room,and no body messed with our dressing room,when the game was on.Though we didnt have this in writing, no one wanted to take the risk of asking a bunch of noisy kids to move and stop the game for a second,while they passed by, they preffered the alternate step on the other side or to take the lift. If I have lived the life of a Wasim,Waquar,Sachin,Azhar or Mcdermott, I havent told you the life of a Courier,Becker,Sampras,Romario,Roberto baggio or a Lance armstrong, that I also lived.When the football world cup was on, we played football all season and aped the footballers for their style of kicks and so was it when the grand slams were played.Those days we had so much time to watch each match and discuss it on the verandah and even execute some of the lessons we learnt.

I used to serve like a Becker,wag my tounge out like a Sampras, feel like Ivanisevic and shout like Monica seles after each shot, and lose like a Lendl :-).My house those days was the hub of activity with all my friends assembling there to take the arms and ammunition.(stumps/bat/ball).One of the other reasons was that I had cable connection in my house (the 94/95 times) when having STAR in your house was a huge status symbol as most parents had not woken to the realisation of te new media,they preferred the good old doordarshan with Mahabharat,Junoon and Byomkesh Bakshi serials being more than a handful and ofcourse had the famous notion that STAR Tv spoils children.I remember having a lunatic uncle who gave all parents handouts on the ill effetcs of MTV and lead the tirade againsts STAR connection and some other aunty who said all these foreign channels come only in the night and they show adult stuff only, and this lead to postponement of STAR Tv in my house,before I won the battle by havin the connection on the 8th of April, 1994, much to the chagrin of my neighbour aunty.

Those were simply the days to live in :-)

Trip to College

Last Saturday was a small visit down memory lane,when I went to my alma mater, Vel Tech engineering College for getting a recommendation letter from my Head of the department , regarding my higher studies. I took Anand along, to accompany me.Anand seemed to drive the bike pretty cautiously after his mild accident with Joshy 2 years back.



There were quite a few changes in our college and the most visible ones are the following.

1) The College symposium is being conducted regularly

2)It has a sponsor logo on the poster,which was a raity in our times, as we never were able to find a prospective sponsor.Those were the days when all my efforts were annulled by a rather crazy and carping management and staff.When we did the symposium in 202, we managed dishnet as a sponsor, but the current batch has managed to get Infosys a a sponsor which is quite commendable.



The backside of the college near the Mens Toilet is free from all the workshop metal heap that previously used to lie there and now the whole area looks good.It was tough to address the Toilet as a "toilet" as we are used to calling it "restrooms" and "washrooms" :-) .Suprisingly after washing my face I was lookig for the face tissues, after which I embarrsingly remembered I was back in College and not at work. The college toilets were a strict "no no" for a friend of mine called M.S.Arvind, who in his 4 year tenure at the college never managed to go near the toilet citing hygene factors.Anyways after that, Toilet going became a hobby for most of us, after having got used to the luxurius jaquar bath fittings and kimberley's washing tissues at work.


This was the place most of ourmates would remember working on bland C/C++ sessions in the lab,which was devoid of internet connection most of the time, as all the systems had only DOS Preloaded and were machines on which only programs could be executed.Though things have changed now, with a lot of machines having internet access in the Block 8 Labs.For internet we used to walk half a mile to reach the interner lab, which was above the auditorium block.


These are the narrow bylanes, next to the computer lab where we used to remove our footwear and once this was done, with soiled socks all around,this was one place folks didnt want to be for too long.

I spent sometime in the placement department, meeting students who had been placed in various IT Companies.2 years back, we had all sec technologies and Sutherland coming to our college,but things have changed remarkably with Infy,TCS,Caritor,Polaris,Satyam and a few other IT coompanies having regular placement programs with our college.The lpacement department definetely needs a pat on the back to help turn around the image of our college from the students perspective in terms of providing job assistance. It's good to see the college shed its indifferent rustic image to a more professional image.

Oh ya the gates of hell, have just grown a touch bigger and a little more grand, than when we were around.


Though every trip makes me slightly emotional, at the end of it all, I just want to get out of the place simply because of the commuting distance.It did have my spirits up for some time , but I still remained in a pensive mood, and the Indian batting collpase later in the day did my mood no favour.


Trip Video..From College to Avadi

Rat Race Blues

Some times, as I sit near the window on the Chennai Suburban trains and gaze outside and click a picture, I get the feeling that my life is quite similar to the photo above.Life is going too fast and still I wake up to the feeling of "Oh ! I still havent done this " and find that even as I can accomadate different things in a day, there are still certain thinngs that are left out.Life is slowly becoming judged on ROI. I seem to miss the days of yore...12-13 years back.I feel life was more simple those days, I had met lesser hypocrites in life then and ya, whatever I did, was at my own pace.These days, I see stress, in the small things that I do.Life for sure has changed a lot...and it requires a lot of soul searching to find that inner peace of contentment. There is more to it...than what I say here, but its just that amidst life's happiness that is present, the hapiness seems to be punctured by the gamutof things that are required for day to day existence and the plate seems to be always full.There's no time for everything...

or is it a problem of perception and execution? Well I need to go back to my room and ask what is it that one expects from life and why? this may sound like "reinventing the wheeel", but somewhere down, I feel I may have missed the lovely conversations the heart has with the brain,in this maddening rat race called life.I know whatever is happening, is because directly or indirectly I have made a choice to expect these results, but it probably needs some reading "between the lines". Lets see what the weekend can do to lessen the instincts arising out of ROI fever.

More on this later. I have decided to visit my college and go there for a few hours just to meet up a few folks...and a friend of mine,who lives near college(3 years since I went to his house).Lets see whether a trip down memory lane applies the brakes affectively on this fast mode of life.  

Malaysian Tri Series-DLF Cup 2006

As , I write about this, the India WI match has started with India getting a decent start at 8 runs an over.What saddens me is the fact that whole of Chennai must be ruing about. Yes, it is the non availability of cricket coverage for the DLF cup.I have a set top box at home, but I hear that Zee Sports is given only to Dish TV subscribers, thereby depriving the SCV community of set top box subscribers lurching on to catch the odd 30 second news clip to see the action.Alternatively there is Youtube, but nothing like the pleasure of watching a match live.

Looks like I have to depend on these 2 sites Cricinfo and Sulekha .

Picture Courtesy: Cricinfo and AFP

Images from day 2 of Blogcamp



Jammy Gloating over a Top-less jean clad babe on Ash's Laptop which went Kaput after Jammy's big smile.That was Jammy's best session at Blogcamp...oops before Blogcamp started. Click on the image to get a better view

That is Sharad Haksar at Blogcamp, who showed some of his pictures.Sharad is an ad professional who makes brand campaigns via photography.His adcampaigns have some lovely pictures.Remember the kid,who takes a leak at a wall,which has the Nike byline"JUST DO IT".
The Ad for the Chennai water problem, was an awesome ad,which shows that coke flows freely in Chennai, than drinking water.That is the ad shown in the background,which was at the centre of a controversy a few years back.He uses a camera that consumes 350 mb, for a picture...Now thats Clarity,and here I am gleaming at my 3.1 Megapixel digicam.

Sunil, for one didnt want to lose his "free Yahoo Blogcamp bag" so he made sure that even if it was lost, it would come back to him.

This was one of Sharad Haksar's pictures that had the audience in Splits.


This was when Sunil Gavaskar spoke on his experiences in podcasting.I never knew he was called a "Colour Commentator", as his job role demands.It means that he is expected to add colour to the proceedings, in a podcast, to talk about things that were not so easily discernible on the game.I also happened to get a small 5 minte interview with Sunil Gavaskar,which is relayed below via Youtube.






That was in the morning,when I spoke on" How people use blogs as a branding tool".It went on for about 15 minutes,as there were far too many people queing up to speak.I did enjoy the experience of researching on the topic.I also did manage to speak with the Hindu senior reporter Geetha Padmanabhan, on my experiences with Blogging, apart from interacting with a host of other blogger folks today.I also gave a 2minute gnyaan on Blogging to Aaj Tak.Given my luck with the media, I dont expect to be covered:-).

Had a great weekend at Tidel. See you at Blogcamp 07.

Interview#2 at Blogcamp 2006

I happened to meet the Yahoo Director, Mr George Zacharias,who was with Sunil Gavaskar, as part of the Yahoo Team.I have heard quite a bit about Mr George Zacharias,from my mother who sometime back was working for Sify. Mr George came across to me as an extremely affable and a patient person.I have limited my interviews to last 5-6 minutes,more so a small chit-chat.

George Zacharias had been President and Chief Operating Officer of Sify Limited since March 2000 and had quit Sify 7 months back. He has played a key part in formulating and executing the strategies that turned around the company, and in leading the management team through the Company’s rapid revenue growth (to a US$100 million run rate) over the past five years.He joined Sify from Madura Coats, Bangalore, India where he had worked for 16 years in a variety of sales, marketing and export assignments.

He was the Marketing Director, Coats Tootal Lanka, Colombo prior to becoming, in 1997, President of Madura Garments, the leading garment and retail company in India, then a division of Madura Coats.As President, Madura Garments, he held profit centre responsibility for the then US$23 million business that he grew to US$50 million annual revenues in the next two and a half years. He oversaw the launch of several national brands like Peter England, Byford, San Frisco as well as the launch of new retail formats like Trouser Town and Planet Fashion.George has a degree in Chemical Engineering from Nagpur University, 1980 and an MBA from XLRI, Jamshedpur, 1982. From campus he joined Grindwell Norton and was with them till December 1983, when he joined Madura Coats.

My First Interview at Blogcamp 2006

I managed to catch up with Sunil Gavaskar,at Blogcamp after his session got over.It was a lovely experience to speak to Gavaskar,albeit though only for 15 minutes.Sunil, apparently was invited over by Yahoo! as Sunil Gavaskar podcasts for Yahoo.The director and the corporate communications person were pretty supportive of me taking the interview.Here goes the interview...

It was a lovely sensation interviewing him.Gosh 10 years since my first one happened at the M.A.Chidambaram stadium since I interviewed God (Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar).

More Updates from Blogcamp Chennai 2006







This was taken at the Nokia N series outlet at Tidel Park.Nokia's M blog application seems interesting in the fact that, one gets a blogging application to post via the mobile,but what seems a loser and gives Nokia no USP on the blogging front is that the "blog posted via M blog" is live on a Nokia server and it doesnt go live on the Blogger/wordpress interface,which still means that there is an intermediary to the blogging process.Either I have got it wrong or the guys at the Nokia stall are crazy,as the kids didnt seem to have a clue on how exactly the Mblog application adds value.


Well, the phone is marketed as cool, fundu and all that,but when it fails to fulfill its basic USP functionality of Mobile Blogging, its easy to give the Nokia stall a miss.At least if they followed the Hutch policy of having cute girls at the counter,they would have still found favour with me,but it was'nt to be.



That's Veer Bothra,of Blogstreet,with whom I had a personal session on his views on the Blogging front , his revenue model of Blogstreet and his plans for the future.He is the perfect example of management meets technology,where his technical products match the user needs on the blogging front.I was suprised to find that his site, has not ye arrived at a revenue model.


That's Peter of ziglyzackly.blogspot.com who is cued in on a discussion between Neha and Osama on the collaborative Blogging initiative.The collaborative blogging session seemed to lack enthusiasm and was the perfect case "of too many cooks spoiling the broth", as the good intentions of these bloggers during the Mumbai Blasts,rains and the Chennai tsunami was not quite brought to the fore.I was personally expecting a lot from the session, given the quality of bloggers,but somehow they really could not elicit much of an aprroval from the audience.


This was the live video streaming session where Kingley Jegan joined us from San Fransisco, at what was an uneartly 2 45 am, for him.But I felt this session on Social bookmarking did not get to going as good as it could have gone.I learnt that there are 7 social bookmarking sites, the more recent one being Put Vote.com which seems to have me regularly featured.


Updating Blogs using WI FI on the move seems really interesting,and I lapped up the oppurtunity by doing some live reporting.

More Pictures from BLOGCAMP.



This is Atul Chitnis speaking on his experiences on Blogging in the 90's.He was a writer for PC Quest from 1992.His talk was more about his experiences with writing and how he recieved many comments over the years.His views on , him not responding to comments, as it comes in huge numbers, represents a problem of plenty.Here are some folks who just wait for comments on their articles and on the other hand there are folks,who are not able to respond to the comments,as the volume is high.I totally ensconse with Atul's views,as I know how bad one feels when one is not able to use the interactive platform of Blogging,when for some articles I recieved a huge volume of comments.


SIFY WANTS TO BE HEARD AS A WI-FI SERVICE PROVIDER





Just stole my thoughts !!! :-)



Thats Veer Bothra, the man behind Blogstreet India.




More Pictures Coming soon

Veer Bothra just finished speaking,and so has Ganesh APP.Kiran Jonnalagada is speaking right now.

Katchucrap LIVE from BlogCamp

Blogcamp just kicked off,in the perfect unconference mode.Kiruba started the proceedings at 9 15 by just giving a brief talk as to how the concept of Blogcamp started.Satya Prabhakar, the CEO of Sulekha , gave a session on human attention,whic more so talked about the fact that, nobody has a right to an audience,but only a right to write,which is more so true,as an audience is generated by the blogger working hard to generate an audience.I have personally heard more of his views at work,so it was nothing new for me,but I must say, he has an awesome way to captivate an audience,and he sure did with the audience here at Blogcamp.Satya also elucidated the fact that human attention is critical in cultivating a brand around a Blog.

After Satya's session, We had a small session on people speaking about their personal experiences with Blogging and how its changed their life.Dina Mehta spoke about how addictive blogging has been to her,sometimes connecting to people on the web,much closer than her 16 year bonded husband,which she honestly said could be looked upon as a minor strain.There was a dose of humour in what she said,but honestly Blogging does seem to connect people as much as it estranges people in real life. Geeta Padmanabhan, from THE HINDU,also happened to opine that her son-in-law too blogs, and a rather famous one at that (Basab Pradhan from Infy).

On a personal front Blogging using Wi-fi seems cool.This is the first time, I am doing this and it sure is entertaining.

I have posted a few pictures from the event

Go Granny Go


Venue: My small bedroom at my Adayar flat at 3 am.I woke up after a rather tortuos dream of me having to complete my homework during the prayer time and submit the homework late..and in fear as I got up from my dreamI got up to the rather immortal voice of Richie Beanuad and Tony Grieg during the 1992 World Cup. This was probably my granny at her best, when it came to watching cricket at 62.She fervently got up at 3 am and followed the scores and kept giving her version of her analysis which usually differed from mine.She would say The Indian Team should drop Shastri and Manjerekar, as they used to slowdown the innings,and as usual be more superstitious than umpire Shephard,when it came to nelson scores. She didnt have much knowledge about the game, but many years of TV watching and newspaper reading had made her more knowledgeable atleast to a bare minimum of being a viewer able to discern match predictions.

Thw World cup in 1992 with the Indian team in the Australasian continenet was my first experience getting up with her and watching cricket matches.My parents never exuded so much interest unless and untill an India Pakistan match was in the offing.My parents preffered to watch cricket as long it didnt interefere with their household chores and sleep. They never minded me getting up or sitting up late, watching cricket on DD(BTW parents had nothing to fear those days, MTV Grind was unheard of :-) ), but the only grouse till date they have with me is the fact that they dont like me sleeping after switching on the TV.



My grandmother's company in watching the matches atleast ensured that the TV is spent usefully in watching Cricket and not some silly Mahabharat,Byomkesh Bakshi or Junoon.Not that I didnt like the former serials, but when it came to cricket, every thing came second for my granny and me, much to the consternation of my grandfather who despised watching cricket,as it raised his blood pressure.The advantage of a grandmother sittingup with you to watch matches, at uneartly hours was the fact that the parents wouldn't mind as a senior person was with me,and would switch off the TV and secondly also would keep me ona tight leash when it came to finishing the remnants of my previous days homework before the first innings of the match ends(usually around 6 30 am).The other advantage was that, if you had somebody else also watching the match, there would be some feeling of importance attached to the match.


My grandmother was hooked on till 1997 , when the evil world of Raj Tv,Vijay Tv and Sun Tv invaded her "Cricket watching time".The advent of STAR TV at home had its repercussions slowly in form of distractions of Balachander serials ate into my granny's time.Granny who usually watched even a Bangaladesh vs Kenya game, slowly grew out of the habit of watching Cricket,and had her USP as "watching India matches only". With time her eyesight, also became worse and her glaucoma flared up again.My grandmother could now only make out that a ball was being bowled and hardly had any idea as to how the match would go on..and this reduced her interest levels and she would hit the sack by a predefined 10 pm bedtime,which made me wonder..how her interest levels in watching cricket has ceased over time.

A couple of years back she could see only 10% from her eyes and last year when my grandfather passed away, she couldnt even see his dead body properly.That pained me a lot and she became a little isolated in her thoughts.Cricket was hardly in her minds.My mother was still trying to see if something could be done to rectify and restore partial vision.Some doctor who said , that she would never see, in years to come , was proved wrong when a doctor in the Egmore eye hospital suggested an operation,as my granny frankly had nothing to lose.We went ahead and in two months we saw that her vision improved dramatically and she was able to see with both the eyes and perfectly.It must have been a feeling of rebirth for her,getting her eyesight back.

She's got started with the Tamil serial fest and I found some time to speak to her last morning, when I played her some old cricket videos and the Live England Pakistan onedayer which seemingly had her viewing cricket after what seemed like eons for me. I am planning to get her back to form and waiting to listen to some of those old views of hers,despite the fact that a lot of water has flowed under the bridge , in terms of she missing a lot of cricket.

Come September 12th ,with the Malaysia Tri seriesI am going to make my Granny the Granny of the Old, the granny I had known 14 years back.

Ever seen Chennai in such a golden shade?



I happened to shoot this from my office terrace a few days back.It was lovely to see Chennai in a lovely golden hue minutes before the Sunset.It looked as if some golden spaceship had invaded Chennai and beaming golden light all over, but it was just the magic of nature in the evening.One of the best Sunset pictures I have shot, apart from the sunset photos on the western coast.

Winged Dreams

The story of Nandini, Anne, Wahid and Aryan, through the sunny halls of love, hope and friendship into the darkest alleys of betrayal and nightmares - says the blurb




My Friend Deepak is all set to launch his first book "Winged Dreams".I havent got a copy of it yet,but knowing him to be a part of the Infosys Chennai INK writers club, and a very famous one at that, I bet this must be pretty good. My assosiation with Deepak goes down to the summer of 2002, when Deepak along with his friend Nikhila had sent their paper for a technical paper presentation at our college symposium.My benchmate Achut, who was one of the co -organizers of the symposium, saw the oppurtunity in inbviting a girl over and immideately selected their paper.Incidentally Deepak and Nikhila went on to the win the presentation and cash of 3000 bucks. Since then I have met Deepak many times at college festivals and finally got to know him better when we used to meet up for a 4 o clock snack at Infy Chennai's foodcourt.

Deepak has quite a decent reader following in Infosys and his book launch is schheduled to take place at the Mahindra City campus.Though the official launch got delayed due to some unavoidable reasons, the book, I hear is available at major bookstores.

Deepak other than cringing his face while coding, also dabbles in film/documetary's one of which got acclaim and the third prize in an intra -Infy film making contest.


In case you are not able to find the book You can mail deepak at yeshudeep at gmail dot com.Incase you find the book and read it, please do pass on a review of the book to Deepak.I would be trying to get my hands on the book soon.

It actually feels good to see some one release a book of his own.I was inspired a year and a half earlier when my friend Sudharsan did it and now Deepak with Winged Dreams has only made me be belive that publishing a book of one's own may just be possible.I started writing a short story, but it never found the light of the day, as I was pre occupied with work and other priorities.Lets see, incase my writing has takers, i too should be inspired to complete my book in time to come.

Way to go deepak...

QWERTY Kaapi



My friend Kishore has already done this feat of spilling coffee twice on the keyboard, and the latest is my colleague meenakshi. I guess when fatigue sets in, people refresh themselves with the ubiquitous coffee machine and when fatigue seems just greater than the energy given by the calories of coffee, then its time the non human form gets some coffee, than the human form.How does that happen ? Well, You are trying hard to maintain concentration with a coffee cup at work , and just when siesta blues hit you, your coffee cup spills over with a tilt and the keyboard receives some of that coffee.Invariably in all three instances spread across each quarter, the coffee spills right between the interstices of the Letters Q W E R T Y.

Though I have dozed several times infront of the monitor, I have so far not had the distinction of spilling any liquid on the keyboard.Going by the amount of workpressure in IT companies, It seems a funny thought to imagine Coffee Insurance on the Keyboard, but given the nature of accidents happening, you never know it may already be there..

 

Response to Love me-Love me not

This is assuming a very HUM TUM feel to the discussion



Read on

Gayathri, a Blogger from Hyderabad reacts to my article with aplomb as she sees it.

Here are some of the observations that I've made and have received inputs from my friends too.
The ONES IN RED are her views, while the one's in black italic's are my responses to her comments

1)) Majority of the guys in Chennai behave as if they are the stud of the city, and they need to stand for the election of the "enjoyable and eligible bachelor" even though their mind must be harbouring a thousand "sick"(as they call it) thoughts.

Agreed that some folks do exhibit that kind of a behaviour,this is true to an extent,and the guys who actually go on to feel proud of their bachelor hood are the one's who have failed to hit on somebody or some one who gets turned on by code than just women. Just as I have pointed out hypocrisy in a certain section of females, certain section of men too are hypocrites as Gayathri puts it.But the problem lies in the fact that girls/Ladies approach hypocrisy with a vengeance and adrenaline of being illtreated a few generations ago and some of that anger instead of boiling the milk, leads to spillage which is of no great help to either of the sexes.

2) Basically most of them pretend to be the "oh-I'm-so-understanding-and caring-and-loving" types. And roughly 90% of the guys just have sex on their minds whenever they are with a girl whom they are attracted to. If girls behaved as if hormones never existed in them, guys have raging hormones.

Do you know why we do the "oh-I'm-so-understanding-and-caring-and-loving", its because you girls expect it and cant fend for yourself. Just as guys feel having a girlfriend by their side adds brand value, so is the feeling for a girl.By the way, Guys havving 90% of the time sexual thoughts, is in keeping with trend that mankind has treaded all along. You Ladies have the neccesary physical endowments that attract the men and they will naturally be attracted.If you expect some guy not to be attracted, then either the guy is blind not to see below your neck,or you seriously lack the oomph factor.Belive me ..even if you call a guy a rakhi bhayya, he at some point doesnt notice you for your physical well being, then gosh, mankind is set to vanish from planet earth. This is like having a Rasgolla on your table and being asked to admire the cup, when hunger strikes.You being the Rasagolla would not know the feeling of the person outside who is persuaded not to eat it.

Secondly when girls behave as if no hormones were there, I meant to say that a degree of hypocrism and the effect of the so called Indian norms makes women like that, when they can very well use their new found "independence" to assert themselves, the way they actuallya re.In India since double standards exist, some of the women, dont want to get the tag of a slut or an antisocial element as the marriage market is decided by lots of non linear factors, so they decide to play safe.It is at this point that I am saying, that women should be the way tey are, and not all of a sudden shift gears to the "Bharatiya Naari" Image.

They should exude the original exterior and not mask themsleves under the cloak of a woman, who says "Virginity is Dignity", when its the case of "lack of oppurtunity"

The problem with some vested minds of men in the Indian society is that these shameless men, who look out for Aishwarya Rai's with virginal qualities and well endowed "family ladies" , should actually not be encouraged by women, who at the time of marriage lose all that vigour and vitality of femisnm and equal talk. If certain women are the way they are in terms of frank talk or dating guys,How many men want to marry a woman who is honest, tells a man openly if she's interested in him, and talks intelligently and assertively on various topics? Many may want to bed her but will hesitate to introduce her to mom, or think of a life with her. There are umpteen of these typical Rajnikant movies against this type of woman - demonizing her and idealizing the hero-and-snakepit-worshipping-semi-educated-subservient-woman. An assertive no-nonsense woman is dubbed an "aggressive" woman in India. So such women either leave or learn to act like virtuous holier-than-thou characters, manipulate, give the appropriate sweet talk leading people on till the next better guy arrives. All I am saying , is that these women should assert themselves better rather than blaming the society to get under the cloak and then start complaining.If you have a problem stand up for it, dear ladies.

On your statement that guys have raging hormones, yes its true..we do have raging hormones and its better to show it than hide these emotions.


3) Unlike guys, girls like to go around with Rakhi Bhaiyas. It is the guys who are scared of rakhis and run a mile at the sight of a girl with a Rakhi. About spending money, if you feel that a girl will stay with you only if you spend money, who is a fool? You? Or, the girl?

Wow we just re-invented the wheel.Girls go around with Rakhi Bhayyas just to make sure that they can flirt round endlessly and the rakhi Bhayya wont do anything since his failure and inability to elicit interest has been labelled as a Bhaiyya.Now the girl can use the Rakhi Bhayya to ward off other guys.Which sane guy would want other guys to succeed at getting a girl he didnt get. Ever since the british left India, no body has perfected the art of Divide and Rule as perfect as the women-folk.

Regarding being a fool, oh ya..when the guy loses the girl, his inabilityto choose the right girl makes him a fool, but the dumping act of the girl doesn't make her a genius either.She remains a fool for equal measure too, my dear as a rolling stone gathers no moss.

Guys look for the following things in stage 1(while in college)

1)Beautiful and fair girl
2) Somebody who can go on listening to them.
3) Somebody who can talk dirty via SMS to them.
4) Somebody who can do their record work.


That's it. I got to give credit to the guys. They don't expect anything big from girls except "that" thing.Regarding marriage, it was complete bullshit and I don't want to waste my energy for talking against something that isn't concrete.

Stage -1 Yes, guys also look for sensible girls and girls who can feel that they have hormones, so if that requirement is met, thats more than enough.Beatiful and fair may just make you noticed among guys.

Yes- Point 2 , no opposition..Guys talk a lot and want to be heard.Women are said to be better emotionally and to give advice.Thats pretty much why you see "Malalika Arora Khan" rocking on MTV Loveline when it comes giving advice and to listen.

Point -3 - We'd love girls who talk "dirty(as you folks call it).But we'd gave that position to someone we know well rather than start messaging all of a sudden to a lady armed with a mobile.

Point 4- "That thing" is one of the loveliest things that a man and a woman aspire for to consummate the relationship.It is not that girls dont enjoy the "that thing", but given their biological compolexities, they'd play safe. Any sane girl/Lady would love to have "That thing" if a man can give her 2 assurances

1) No Pregnancy
2) No disclosure about the act to fellow guys.

and if you think you are giving me the reason that Girls still dont enjoy the "that thing", try this for a change. Go to the nearest Medical store and get a pack of Johnson's ear buds and try softly putting it in your ear and removing the wax by finely rotating the bud to clean the depths of the ear.If possible play some romantic music to go by that and I bet more than using the hand inside the ear, the sensation inside the ear would be more sensual, than the effort the hands make to hold the bud.I hope you get the drift in the same of light of your "That thing".

MY FINAL WORD

Gone are the days when guys were satisfied with a mediocre looking girl who was a typical servant for them. These days, they want a beautiful girl with great knockers, intelligent, working, and minting money, and also take care of the home, the kids and the MAN OF THE HOUSE.

This is what I would call an overdose of KANK, not every family can be like the Saran's , and these days JAVA guys choose DOT NET girls in the marriage market, just because both of them feel that they can understand each others project pressures and live together rather than have a woman who would be out of Sync. But if ask me why JAVA and DOT NET, well thats another rule of the marriage market where both the sexes are to blame, that they feel will work.

Life in today's fast moving world just needs pro active people in marriage, thats why both guys and girls choose partners from a certain economic background and work related background.Its not about guys outsourcing functions to the married woman.That was ages ago when the Man of the house had this rather yucky and commanding tone conveyed to his better half.Agreed Men have behaved like idiots in the past, but things are changing with the modern day marriages having responsibilities equally shared.If you havennt seen this happen,I suggest you change the "Mughal-e-Azam" DVD which is still rusting in your DVD player, that seems to give you this archaic image.



And for heaven's sake, it's not called innocence when a man is 24 years old. It's ignorance.Sudha Murthy saw the intelligence the guy had!! If a girl sees the same in a guy, I'm sure she will stick by.

PS: IF YOU ARE A MAN WHO'S NOT INFURIATED READING THE ABOVE POST, THEN YOU ARE NOT MAN ENOUGH AND THE WORLD DOES NOT NEED MORE MEN LIKE YOU...


We have discussed enough on the inanities of both Men and Women and there are more factors tahn mere intelligence that decide who's in and who's not.So at this point I see no end to this debate as Men as well as Women tend to have their inexplicable reasons to be the way they are at a higher level. All I can do is laugh at the variety tha Human kind has to offer in forms of men and women.


It was quite a joyous experience writing both the pieces, in knowing and ascertaining views and comments from both the sexes.I can take great pride from the fact that I have been extremely honest frm my side and have not displayed any levels of hypocracy while making this post.Wherever it is due, in both the posts I have brought out the faults of the men too, but the article was not to put a point by point comparison , but to squarely put what I saw, a burgeoning trend where modern day Girls sometime rely on factors other than rationality to make decesions.

My article has recieved a lot comments for being frank at the same time a lot of flak for being chauvinistic without which there would have been no sense in writing the article.

Hey , This post and the reactions stemming from it have not made me angry in anyway, but a lot more wiser than I started writing this article and to be really honest, THE WORLD NEEDS MORE MEN LIKE ME, to make it a better place.Most of my friends from the opposite sex at either workplace or college friends would also vouch for that, as they know how much of a difference I make when I talk to them.