Author: anandnataraj

Entrepreneur, Blogger, Traveller, Pet Lover, Networker, Social Drinker, Party Animal, Movie Addict, Startup Enthusiast, Organic Gardner, Avid Reader....

Adventure Sports at Yelagiri


Tamilnadu Tourism Development Corporation & Yelagiri Adventure Sports Association jointly organize a three-day paragliding festival will be conducted in Yelagiri Hills from September 11 to 13, 2009. In spite of paragliding there is also trekking, rock climbing and biking.

Participants have to trek at least one km to reach the top. Each joyride will last for 15 to 20 minutes and the entry fee is Rs.1,000/- per person. There is no age-limit. However, they should not be weak or obese.

For details contact:

Yelagiri Adventure Sports Association
Regd. Off : Tamilnadu Tourism Information Centre,
Kottayur Road (Athanavur Main Road),
Yelagiri Hills – 635 853, Vellore, Taminadu.

Phone : 9840593194, 9442357711, 9444449591, 9444033307.
E-mail : info@yasa.co.in
Website : www.yasa.co.in

Kandasamy – an unreviewed review


200px-KanthaWatched Vikram starrer Kandasamy for second day and I personally think it is a well made movie. But I get mixed response from public. Vikram has done a fabulous job and special effects are superb. Kudos to Vikram, Susu Ganesan & Thota Dharani for the sets and Vikram’s costume designs. Since lots of websites and magazines have reviewed the movie I’m not going to write the review about the movie. Instead I’m going to argue about the concept which the movie emphasizes.

Movie talks about the familiar concept where Rich gets Richer & Poor gets Poorer and the hero robs the entire surplus from the rich and hands over the poor. The point I’m going to argue is the way hero distributes the money. He creates a belief on people to write their difficulty on a piece of paper and tie it on a tree near a temple.

As known most of the request from people would be on money asking for daughter’s marriage, son’s marriage, fathers operation etc. and our hero distributes the money to the needy. But I question this concept as problems are not one time and money related problems are constant.

Let us assume a case where hero offers Rs.60,000/- to a lady for her daughters marriage. Is that her final need? Then next time should would again write in a paper and tie it in a tree asking money for daughter’s delivery expense and then grandchild’s education and it continues. Also if we start helping people like this it is going to make them lazy.

I’ve many personal experience where in once I helped one of my gym master by giving him some money to participate in Mr.India tournament then in 2 weeks he asked for some money to repay some debts which he said he had got for his fathers treatment and it didn’t end there within a month he asked for some more money to settle another debtor. But 3rd time I realized I’m not helping him instead I was pampering him.

So lesson I learned is if someone is in need show them the way to earn that money instead of offering that money to them.

To signoff the movie covers the same concept of SuperStar RajiniKanth starrer Sivaji where hero gets all the black money and constructs hospitals, education institutes etc and helps needy by Kind instead of offering money to the needy like in the movie Kandasamy.

Indians are always smart


Three construction contractors died and went to heaven – a Pakistani, a Chinese, and an Indian. When they got there St. Peter welcomed them warmly and asked if they could do him a favor before they entered heaven.

It seems that the Pearly gates were in need of some repair, and he wanted some estimates.

The Pakistani contractor looked the job over carefully and estimated the job at $900. When asked how he came up with that figure, he said, “$300 materials, $300 labor, and $300 profit.”

St. Peter then asked the Chinese contractor for an estimate. After careful inspection he answered, “$3300 – $1100 materials, $1100 labor, and $1100 profit.”

When St. Peter ask the Indian for an estimate, he answered immediately without looking over the job at all – $2900.

Asked how he came up with that figure he answered, “Simple, $1000 for you, $1000 for me, and $900 to get the Pakistani contractor over there to do the work.”

Peak of exaggeration


Today was reading Cinema Plus a supplementary paper that accompanies The Hindu magazine on Fridays. One of the article is “He’s done it!” featuring Arun Vijay and he says;

He is just back from a whirlwind tour of the State, visiting cinema halls where his film has been screened. “The encouragement has been overwhelming. Though my visits weren’t announced, in places like Madurai, people had queued up on the street where the theatre showing the film was!”

arunvijayI’ve been in Madurai last week and I’ve never seen a houseful show and also when I went to the movie 2 days back there were hardly 10 – 15 people watching the movie. When I checked it with my friends asking if there was a houseful show they said they were able to get tickets across the counter on the first day and also during weekends. I don’t know how papers like The Hindu publish such exaggerated stories.

Over all I ended ROTFL (Rolled on the floor and laughed).

Deteriorating Service Levels


In India government organizations are known for their poor Service Standards.  Problem with Indians is acceptance of service offered. We must keep it in mind that Government staff’s are paid salary from our tax money and even for Government Sectors which generates revenue they have the luxury of getting a government bailout from our tax money when they fall sick.

Imagine if our Government servants improve their service standards how profitable they can become and even with profit making units profit margin can be improved. Yesterday I was discussing with my friend how BSNL was functioning under Dhayanidhi Maran when he was the IT & Communication minister. Service Levels shot up and new initiatives took shape quickly. I’m not sure about the controversies he pulled with Tata’s and with his granduncle M.Karunanidhi but to general public he showed great progress. I really saw how things progressed under him and how it is going back to dogs under the current minister.

Another sad part is the Service Standards getting down with Private Institutions too. I had really tough time with ICICI bank after getting their credit card. Finally I went to nodal officer and got things clarified. But even there I get annoyed as I keep getting an email from the nodal officer where he sends this particular line on each and every mail

Attempts were made to contact you on your mobile number 09841430004. However, there was no response.

I’ve informed him about the change in mobile number and we have even exchanged conversation. But I’m not sure why he keeps sending those lines along with the update he sends to me.

Other thing is the Service standards with Private Omni busses and I’ve written a blog about how their services were 15 years back. Today they are on par with government busses when it comes to service standards. Yesterday when i was returning to Chennai from Madurai a passenger fell down because of a big hole in the bus which was covered by carpet. When the passenger said they must have taken steps to cover it with some solid material or must have kept a sign board. That passenger & I got annoyed with drivers response, he said “Even many passengers are getting slipped because of that hole as asked if they are complaining? He asked the customer to sit without conveying an apology”.

When I wanted to sue ICICI bank for falsely adding my name in defaulters list even after making settlement. My advocate said I’ll get a max settlement of 30K – 50K if I go to consumer court. Considering the amount of legal work which I had to do along with my attorney and after paying attorneys service charges I end up getting nothing in my hand. So I backed off from filing a case against the bank. There are many people who would have stayed back for the same reason. If our legal system offers more stringent damages to the affected customers like in US or European countries we can end up getting better services.

I know there is no use in complaining rather than acting. This is the max I cat do at the moment and let me prey some nice hearted person taking up this issue and get us respite from poor service standards from public and private institutions.

Oy!! Wonderful Movie & Climax…


I’m not a great fan of Siddarth or Shamilee… But in this movie Oy!! Both have really sizzled in their acting… Big kudos to director Anand Ranga for this wonderful climax and getting the best performance from SID and Shamili… I really enjoyed watching the movie and would recommend everyone to watch this movie… I’m a Tamilian and I can’t understand a bit of Telegu but in the climax I understood what Shamili spoke and got carried away… For all of you here is climax scene and hope you all like it…

Captivity of Mangalorean Catholics by Tippu Sultan


I was Googleing about actress Genelia D’Souza and came to know that she belongs to Mangalorean Catholic and it kindled me to know more about the community. On looking about the community I came to know that Tippu Sultan took siege of Mangalore Fort and took 60000 Mangalorean Catholics as refugees and most of them were forced to convert to Islam or Killed for helping British in Second Anglo-Mysore War. When British defeated and killed Tippu Sultan only less than 9000 survived out of 60000. Where in 21000 women and 9000 men converted to Islam and remaining Killed.

After getting released from captivity the community became very much united and has become so wealthy. Lot of bad things has been removed from history it is good to see from a point. But it is interesting to look into our history. Visit “Captivity of MC’s by Tippu” to know more.

Event on startup challenges


Event focusing on operational challenges for running a startup. The upcoming event (August 22, 2009) deals with hiring challenges in startups.

Here are the details

Hiring in a startup is a challenge – right from finding the right match, figuring out salary structure to keeping the employees motivated (especially in tight situation). While there aren’t any ‘right ways’ to do so, the best way out is to share experiences.

pluGGd.in is conducting a ‘Hiring strategy for startups’ event (half-day) where we are inviting entrepreneurs to share their experiences; and a HR consulting firm to show the ‘other’ side of the world.

Topic: How to combat Hiring Blues in Startups

Date: August 22nd, 2009, Saturday [10AM – 1 PM]

Agenda

  • How do I structure employee salary? ESOP vs. Salary Distribution?
  • Employee Agreement – what are the points one need
  • I am not a funded startup and don’t have a lot of money to give away. How do I recruit smart people?
  • How do I judge the commitment of candidates when they are applying? [Share/learn from experiences…]

And related topics on hiring @ startups visit http://www.pluggd.in/unpluggd/august.html…

Vicky’s Birthday Celebration


It was overall a fun night… We decided to give a surprise visit to Vicky’s house and wish him Happy Birthday at 12 o clock. It all happened after a telecom with Kuruvi and we decided that we are going to make this… So, Kuruvi informed Vicky’s Mother and Sister-in-law and also got consent from his mom for a harsh Birthday Bum…

Telecom between me and Vicky happened when I was in Mayajaal and Balaji said returning to Downtown Chennai and buying cake would waste time and energy and we decided to order it in Taj Fisherman’s Cove and went to movie and collected the cake after the movie was over.

Lakshmi's Gift
Lakshmi's Gift
Entering Vicky's house
Entering Vicky's house

Then we rushed back home to pick the gift I got for Vicky and my camera. Then we picked Kuruvi from home and Sudhir reached Vicky’s house too… To our surprise folks sent by Lakshmi (Vicky’s fiancée) reached his house ahead of us with Rose and were waiting the clock to tick 12.

But we rushed inside the house before those folks wished Vicky and only then we allowed then to hand over Lakshmi’s gift. After all we know this is the last birthday we can disturb him at this time as we will be denied entry next year :d. 

DSC01435DSC01470This is the cake which we got it for Vicky. Also there were cakes sent by Lakshmi along with the Rose & his sister-in-law has already got one. So it was 3 cakes and after cake cutting it was time to decorate Vicky’s face with cake cream. Vicky wearing the birthday gift.

After this we had to leave his house quickly as his fiancée was waiting to talk to him and we knew we have to make a decent way out and we shook hands and signed off…

DSC01464Special Thanks: I’ve to thank Balaji for taking the mantle of cameraman and for driving me to buy cake and pick gift from my house. Regarding the camera work he is not seen in any of the snaps and his work is appreciated. Also I love this particular picture from Mr.Sudhir where the cake flies when Vicky tried to grab a cake from me :d.

Happy Independance Day


imagesIt is our 62nd Independence Day and I’m proud to be a citizen of this great country. Which country in the world has 31 States, 1618 Languages, 6400 Casts, 6 Religion and 29 Major Festivals but united as one country INDIA.

Literacy Rate during Independence was 12.2% and now it is 70% and this accomplishment has made the world to turn back and look at India.

I take this opportunity to salute all the Freedom Fighters, Freedom Martyrs, Martyrs of Wars, and Martyrs of Terrorism who struggled without any personal desire and has given us such a peaceful place to live.

Wish you all a happy Independence Day… Jai Hind… Vande Matharam…