Through Putvote, I read this very good critique on Metroblogging. Though, I presume, this writer is talking about someother city, I think all his points are relevant for Chennai’s metroblog as well.
Isn’t he the best actor in Tamil cinema today?
This post is exactly a year late. As I performed the ceremonies associated with Avani Avittam, an annual occasion for brahmins to replace their sacred threads, I (and as I found out later, my friends’ circle) was reminded of last year’s Avani Avittam that we had arranged at the ISB.
Girish has written about the whole episode in his blog and I am sure I cannot write it as hilariously as he has done, but I’ll try to recall what happened sametime last year.
The vaathiyaar (purohit) was expected to arrive at 5:30am, so we guys got ready very early. As we guys started trickling into the venue (a friend’s place) with the characteristic veshti (dhoti) and pattai/namam (marks on the forehead), we couldn’t miss a guy who arrived with a different attire - just shorts!
He went to the vaathiyaar and asked for a poonal to which the vaathiyaar replied that just then kamokarishad japam was going to commence and he’d require the new poonal only in the next phase little knowing that this guy hadn’t asked for the new poonal but something that could be replaced, i.e. he didn’t have one to begin with! Another guy who noticed this funnily remarked, “Hey vaathiyar puthu poonal thaan da tharuvar, pazhaiya poonal laam tharamataar (the purohit issues only fresh threads)”
It was more comical to see the guy in shorts perform the actual rituals. To the people who are not aware, during these rituals, the vaathiyaar chants the manthras and directs the crowd and we all follow whatever he says or asks us to do. There is a specific one called the achamanam where the person has to use specific fingers to touch specific parts in the body; this guy just went beserk and the vaathiyaar didn’t leave him till he got it correctly.
The best was yet to come, though. Somewhere in the ceremony there comes a time when all the gods and goddesses are invoked (
Moments later as the vaathiyaar was giving instructions in Tamil, he wondered how many amongst us will not understand what he was saying. Another over-zealous guy tried to help the vaathiyaar and shouted to the rest of us in Tamil, “hey, yaaru yaaru kku laam Tamil theriyatho sollunga pa, naa repeat panren (whoever doesn’t understand Tamil, let me know, I’ll translate)“!!! Clearly, the strain of getting up by 4:30 am, a time which is a trifle too early to even hit the bed for a normal ISBian on an average day, was showing.
On the whole, it turned out to be the most eventful Avani Avittam that I had attended!
The problem with parking car in Chennai nowadays is that the business establishments and residential complexes treat the area in front of their shops/apartments as “their” parking area. They engage a security who regulates parking and disallows anybody else from parking there. The conversation below took place last week in some street in Adyar/Indira Nagar when I chose a place to park my car which incidentally happened to be beside an apartment.
Security: Sir, where do you want to go?
Me: Domino’s pizza.
Security: Why are you parking your car here for that. You can park it in the same road.
Me: I find this comfortable as it is away from traffic.
Security: Sir, this is a big apartment complex, a lot of people live here.
Me: Ok, but the apartment doesn’t own this place. Anybody can park here.
Security: I’ve warned you enough (naa solratha sollitten). Please don’t park here. I’m not an SC. I’m a BC, so you can listen to me.
Me: !!?!!
I decided not to respond anymore.
Security: I’m an SSLC pass, scored 79%. You must be in software, my son also works in TIDEL park. That is the reason I’m telling you. Listen to me.
By now I knew this guy was totally drunk and out of his mind.
Security: Mudaliar guys are God fearing. They listen to other people. Chettiars are very bold. You must be a brahmin. But you can listen to a BC.
And this guy went on and on this way…
I just returned from a concert of Sanjay “Dhoni” Subramaniam at IITM. I’ve seen Sanjay perform some 4 years ago at a Margazhi concert and was kind of expecting a similar figure to enter the stage. I was surprised to see a man with long brownish hair and french beard appearing before us. He looked more like a percussionist than a singer.
But that was before the actual concert began. Sanjay’s voice was something that I was not impressed with in the beginning. But as the concert proceeded, he voice just grew on me and it was just bliss to listen to him. What I liked most were the sudden twists and turns he gives while singing the sangathis and his innovative kalpanaswaras. The audience was just spell bound and continuously showed its appreciation for his alapanas and kalapanaswaras. I wish I had a better knowledge of the raagas to appreciate his alapanas.
This concert was organized as a part of CLASFEST-2006 by Music Club of IIT Madras. Other concerts scheduled this week as a part of this festival can be viewed here.
Business Today August 13, 2006 Edition
NRN, chairman and chief mentor of Infosys Technologies, will turn 60 on August 21 this year; that day he will assume a new role - a non-executive chairman of the company he founded 25 years ago. Murthy is stepping back, not to retire, but to indulge in a passion - following the footsteps of his schoolmaster father - and teach Infoscians at the company’s leadership institute in Mysore….
Reuters August 2,2006
…(Cognizant’s) Current CEO Lakshmi Narayanan will become vice chairman of the board. …Narayanan, 53, said he will focus on recruitment and training of employees in his new role…
Comments: Both of them have become legendary leaders of their times (okay one more famous than the other, thanks to the media). They have taken their respective organizations to the pinnacle of glory.
NRN used his charisma to popularize his company. The fact that it was a public company in India helped him. On the other hand, LN maintained a low profile in India. When Infosys’ popularity began to soar in the early 2000’s, Cognizant didn’t have a great brand value in India even though the CTSH stock prices soared even after multiple splits in NASDAQ. It didn’t even have a presence in Bangalore, the Silicon Valley, then. But where the performance of the company itself failed to make it famous, things such as work locations in multiple cities, campus recruitment in premier institutes and staff bus services (though they were more of a hindrance to the general public) helped in establishing the brand.
After a year or two, I see the two companies moving to a different league altogether, leaving behind the rest of the Indian firms and competing severely. Infosys is wary of Cognizant’s rise and its strength in some verticals (I think healthcare and insurance). The way Cognizant is growing right now, it seems to have everything figured out and playing according to a grand script.
Infosys, on the other hand, has a better portfolio of services. It seems to have a strategy where the consulting arm forms the first interface and figures out which services from its basket can be useful for the customer. Its strength is in its presence in all the spheres, even where Cognizant is considered traditionally weak, like ERP consulting. Cognizant’s own consulting arm, the BTC (Business Technology Consulting), is still believed to be a non-starter (A Gartner report points out that though Cognizant is technically very strong, it is nowhere near Infosys as far as consulting in concerned).
Now, NRN and LN step down after making their companies the most famous IT company and the fastest growing IT company respectively in India. NRN first announced his change of role and LN has followed suit in Cognizant’s Q2 conference call. Looking at the gist of the reports, both plan to play somewhat similar roles after their semi-retirement.
I wish them all the success in their new roles.
Chenthil has caught the attention of the blogging world (atleast bloggers and readers of Chennai) through this post. I knew this post was long due by someone from the blogging fraternity. A lot of comments in Kiruba’s blog had already provided glimpses of what was coming. I don’t want to comment specifically on the post or on its subject but that post made me reflect on the blogs that I visit regularly or otherwise.
1. http://prabhukrish.net
I like his blogs for 3 reasons - (a) He roams around so much, (b) He updates his blogs very frequently and (c) His stories, “He-She” posts are very interesting to read. I visit his blog once every few hours. He doesn’t have such a good language or anything, but I guess he writes like he speaks. Reading his blog gives a feeling of a humourous conversation with a close pal.
2. http://sandhyakrish.blogspot.com
This girl writes amazingly. I think she has the best English among the blogs I read. The only blemish is that she writes very infrequently. I read her posts multiple times and find something interesting everytime I read it.
3. http://sathishr.blogspot.com
The husband and wife complement each other. The husband writes about what he reads (and what an avid reader he is!), watches (movies) etc. and the wife writes about what she experiences.
4. http://lazygeek.net
I read this blog because of the Tamil movie reviews and other Tamil content. I don’t visit his blog very frequently.
5. http://wundergal.blogspot.com
I visit this blog mainly to be aware of how my juniors are doing at the ISB. I like the way in which the content is presented.
6. http://ramsabode.wordpress.com
Among the blogs of my batchmates at ISB, his is the best, in my opinion. He updates the blog regularly and writes about things that I like to read.
Then there are blogs I read because I know their authors very well.
http://way2top.blogsome.com
http://kseeker.wordpress.com
http://lakshmir.blogspot.com
http://asymptotes.blogspot.com
http://reflections-of-life.blogspot.com
http://aramki.blogspot.com
http://ssrinivas.com
http://subramanians.blogspot.com
http://nsraman.blogspot.com
to list a few.
One morning at office
Security: Sir, please don’t park your car here today.
Me: Ok, but I park it here everyday.
Security: No sir, this is the fire exit. It will be difficult for people to come out if you park your car here.
Me: (I didn’t know I was parking exactly in front of the fire exit) Oh, I didn’t know that. In that case, I shouldn’t be parking my car here at all.
Security: No sir, only today we have a fire drill. From tomorrow you can park your car here itself.
Me: !!?!!
In my previous organization, there used to be a fire warden who used to conduct fire drills. From the 5th floor, our project guys used to take atleast 25 minutes to come to the fire assembly, but that guy used to boast that evacuation was completed in 9 minutes!!! Atrocious. As a country, even after facing so many natural and man-made disasters, we still don’t have the inclination to take such drills seriously.
