Author: anandnataraj

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

Hurdles


Off late I’m challenged with lots of hurdles and I think it would be interesting to overcome them… 

  • Yesterday I wanted to blog about Palakkad experience from my uncle’s house and MS-Word really gave me tough time to make my previous post. I think system was affected by some work and when I type a work it will open a new document, file save option, save document, changing the alignment etc. at last with lot of difficulty I made the blog post.
  • Then setting up firewall in office has become a challenge right from the beginning and still we are working on it. Hope we will finish it by the end of next week.
  • Then wanted to make a blog post with the snaps I took from Sri Iyappan Tiffin center and there is some mess-up in the server and unable to upload photos. Now itz time to look into the issue.
  • Wanted to update WordPress to latest version 2.8.2, it asked me to take a backup of DB and files but my host was doing some maintenance and was unable to do that instantly.
  • Yesterday night suffered from insect bits and was unable to sleep well. So in the morning had to wash all the bed spreads and pillow mattress. When I wanted to start the washing work the washing place was full of mud and I had to clean that before starting the washing work. Thought I finished that work it irritates when we have some unexpected things before the work we want to do.
  • Then I asked for mobile charger from office admin and after an hour there was no response and again I had to call back to get it and that to from my BDE. Such small things affect the flow of our work thought they look simple and small.

For now let me sit and fix up things which can be finished by today.

My Palkad Visit!!!


I started my vagabond trips from Saturday and I decided to start it from Coimbatore. I boarded a local bus from Madurai by 6 PM on Saturday and reached Coimbatore by 11PM. I slept that night in my uncle’s house and woke up by 10 o clock. Then there as a discussion on which place to go and my aunty suggested Lingam temple in Isha Foundation at Velliangiri Hills. Instead I wanted to vit palakad for a long time and my aunty said we can goto MeenKulathi Amman temple. We freezed the spot and we started by 12 noon.

Kerala is just 20 KM from Coimbatore and immediately touching Kerala’s border we felt the difference. The place is pitch green and we non-stop South-West monsoon welcomed us. Then I drove enjoying the greenery, rain on the nicely laid highway roads.

On reaching Palakad my uncle called his colleague to know the rout to temple and while calling him we can to know temple opens only by 5.30 PM. Having no choice we had to accept the invitation of my uncle’s colleague to visit his house which is a village some 25 KM from Palakad and 7 KM from temple.

En route to his house from Palakad I got startled by seeing the nature’s gift this Gods Own Country has which was Full of greenery, water ways, ponds and beautiful houses.

Then reached my uncles colleagues house which has a pond right behind his house and a scenic view of multiple falls which flows from the hills of Nelliyampthi. It seems Nelliyampthi is a nice Hill Station which is still not famous and I’m planning for a visit there soon. Then spoke to Mr. Colleague’s father who was talking about their Tamil roots and how they migrated to Kerala.

Then it was 5.30 and we decided to goto temple and Mr. Colleague accompanied. He took us to a Big Vishnu temple in his village named Karchamkurrissi temple. It was a big Kerala style Vishnu temple in his village named Karchamkurrissi temple. It was a big Kerala style templeand I was not allowed because enter I had to wear a dhoti.

Then we went to MeenKulathi Amman temple which too had same rituals of wearing a Dothi and I brought a dothi and had a good darshan in a wonderful temple.Then I returned  back to coimbatore with a thirst to vsit the place again and with cherishing memories. I took somesnaps which I’ll update soon.

Cogzidel CFO gives a speech on Budget 09 – 10


Kizhakku Pathipagam, in association with Fundsindia.com, conducts a weekly workshop on Personal Finance. Topic for the last session was about impact of Union Budget on Personal Finance.

Last week our CFO Mr.Bala Murugan was invited to clarify the queries of invitees. There were around 30 people who attended the event. Unfortunately I didn’t make it to the workshop as I was in Madurai.

For me and for all who are unable to make it for the workshop organizers have uploaded the podcast of the whole session.

Last three days


Last three days have been really exciting. This is the first time I’m sitting without much work in Madurai. Thank to our new CTO Kannan who has taken the responsibility of streamlining things. I thought I can spend a week in my fitness for a week and then go back to Chennai and concentrate in raising capital for Cogzidel.

For last two days I’m living just by eating white portion of egg and working out for 2 hours. This prompted Kannan to compete with me unsuccessfully. He stared with a strict diet for a day and gave it up the very next day.

Yesterday night thought of giving up my diet and thought of eating Dosas which made Kannan excited that I’m breaking my diet. Fortunately for me (unfortunately for Kannan) that Dosa shop was closed and I had to continue with my diet.

To the envy of Kannan I’m following my diet till date and hope to continue the same atleast for a month.

Tips to remain slim!!!


  • First of all we must be determined to remain slim and work towards it. Develop a mind set towards it.
  • Set realistic goals.
  • Make lifestyle changes like giving up alcohol, smoking, avoiding fatty food, and refined food.
  • Include fresh foods as far as possible as processed foods tend to contain high level of salt and sugar.
  • Do not expect immediate results.
  • Never go for crash diets instead reduce weight gradually and slowly.
  • Never skip meals as you tend to eat more, the next meal. Do not skip breakfast in particular.
  • Include lot of fiber in your diet as it gives a feeling of fullness, thereby preventing you from gorging spicy and fatty food.
  • Nuts contain lot of fiber .They are satisfying and cause people to eat less at meal time.
  • Take warm lime juice mixed with honey the first thing in the morning.
  • Go for skimmed milk.
  • As far as possible avoid weight loss supplements.
  • When you have cravings for sweets, take a fruit instead.
  • When you have cravings for certain type of food like chocolates or ice cream, once in a while, you can take in small quantities.
  • Take fruits and vegetables which have lot of water content like watermelons, cucumbers and white pumpkin.
  • Keep yourself engaged as boredom leads to overeating.
  • Drink lot of water, at least 8 glasses per day.
  • Use the stairs instead of lift. Park the car a little far away and walk to your office. Use every opportunity to be physically active.
  • Walk Walk and Walk as much as possible .Even if you are busy; go for walk at least 5 days a week.
  • Aerobic exercise like jogging, swimming, cycling, running accelerates weight loss. Consult a physician before starting any weight loss program. Aerobic exercise combined with healthy eating will certainly help in weight reduction.
  • Make your exercise session enjoyable.
  • Keep yourself free of stress.
  • Finally, weight loss is a slow process, so do not get disappointed and give up.

Improve your mind by taking these simple steps


Go back to school: Continuing your education does not have to be a complicated endeavor. Take an online class, or just a weekend seminar.

Read classic books: Improve your mind by finally picking up all those books you were supposed to read in school.

Plan: Always have a plan for your life, so you’ll know what you’re working toward.

Quit procrastinating: Resolve to get moving, and you’ll find that you have much more time than you originally realized.

Get inspired by a book: Read a book that will help you spark positive changes in your life.

Learn from your mistakes: Don’t let mistakes get you down. Instead, consider what you did wrong, and how you can avoid doing so again in the future.

Stop worrying: Let go of worry, and know that the future will come no matter what you do about it.

Learn to play a musical instrument: Pick up a guitar, or even a harp, to improve your mental capacity and have something fun to do.

Work to your own advantage: Improve upon what you can, and let the rest fall away.

Think slowly: Instead of jumping to conclusions, carefully calculate what a situation means. Doing so can help you save relationships that might be damaged by rash thinking.

Participate in a debate: Have a rational discussion with someone of similar intellect to improve your knowledge.

Learn a new language: Broaden your horizons by learning how to speak a new language.

Visit Wikipedia: Spend some time on Wikipedia learning lots of interesting facts you’ve never realized before.

Trip to Tirumala


It is always fun to be tour with friends… My best outing was trip to ooty with my college mates during 1999 when I was in my final year in college… Next best things for someone who is search of peace, solutions for problems and soul searching is by visiting temples…

I’m great believer in Lord Venkatachapathi in Tirumala, Tirupathi. I’ve been visiting this temple for 9 years. Normally I leave Chennai early in the morning return the same day by night.

But this time I took my friends getting assurance from one of by MBA mates and things got messed up. We reached Tirumala on Sunday morning and we thought my friends would have made arrangement by 9 o clock in the morning. But he forgot to instruct his subordinates and we got a ticket for darshan only on Monday morning by 5.30 AM.

So we had ball of a time on Sunday. It was like tour de spirituality. So we eventually drove all spots in the hill and stayed in a Guest house. Pulling each other and we did some shopping as we didn’t bring any cloths.

Then as usual it was a challenge coordinating and making folks get ready on time and to my surprise we were on time and had good darshan and I was relieved as I missed 2 opportunities to visit Lerd Venky on two occasions.

These are the folks who made up for trip;

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 Left to Right : Anand, Muthi, Vicky, Subbu, Balaji, Sathish…

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This is Sudhir who took previous snap…

This is how we went to temple with dothi and angavastaram;

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Never leave undivided real property to joint beneficiaries


Was going through an article on financial planning where in most of the points were redundant and contained what every financial planner would say. But this one point caught my attention and I firmly believe in this point and wanted to share it with my readers. As I’ve seen many family feud happened because of the below said reason;

Lots of things are more important than money. Family is probably at the top of the list. If you want a vicious family feud on your hands, breaking this rule would be a great place to start.

Imagine a farm that gets left to four sons: One has farmed it for 20 years; one is an environmentalist and wants it to be a park; one is broke and needs money; and one could not care less about it. Who will get wealthy from this plan? The attorneys. And the kids and grandkids will probably hate each other forever.

Remember that ‘equal’, ‘equitable’, and ‘fair’ are three different words with three totally different meanings.

This is how business works


It is the month of June, on the shores of the Black Sea , it is raining, and the little town looks totally deserted. It is tough times, everybody is in debt, and everybody lives on credit.

Suddenly, a rich tourist comes to town. He enters the only hotel, lays a 100 Euro note on the reception counter, and goes to inspect the rooms upstairs in order to pick one.

The hotel proprietor takes the 100 Euro note and runs to pay his debt to the butcher.

The Butcher takes the 100 Euro note, and runs to pay his debt to the pig grower.

The pig grower takes the 100 Euro note, and runs to pay his debt to the supplier of his feed and fuel.

The supplier of feed and fuel takes the 100 Euro note and runs to pay his debt to the town’s prostitute that in these hard times, gave her services on credit.

The hooker runs to the hotel, and pays off her debt with the 100 Euro note to the hotel proprietor to pay for the rooms that she rented when she brought her clients there.

The hotel proprietor then lays the 100 Euro note back on the counter so that the rich tourist will not suspect anything.

At that moment, the rich tourist comes down after inspecting the rooms, and takes his 100 Euro note, after saying that he d id not like any of the rooms, and leaves town.

No one earned anything. However, the whole town is now without debt, and looks to the future with a lot of optimism.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how the business is today…..

Way to raise Kids!!!


Today I was having breakfast with my friend Kannan and I’m must say this was an enlightening breakfast. Kannan was sharing his childhood experience and the way his parents raised him in an Indian lower middle class style. Kannan shared a particular experience where in his mother taught him the value for money. So the story goes like this;

Kannan was a 9 year kid and he insisted his mom to buy him a scented rubber which costs 50 paisa where has his mom been willing to buy him a rubber which coats 10 paisa. Little Kannan got irated with his mom and he was curious to buy the rubber he desired. When he showed his piece of mind to his mom; his mom insisted him to earn that 50 paisa to buy his desired rubber. Our little Kannan who was highly egoistic decided to take up a job to earn for the rubber. He went and requested for petty job of breaking the bricks from the supervisor who was construction his house.

The supervisor after consulting with his mom offered to give him a job to break the bricks. Happy Kannan requested for a hammer to break the bricks from the supervisor. Supervisor said Kannan must posses the kits for the work and asked him to come with a hammer. When Kannan asked him mom for a hammer she said she doesn’t have one. Little Kannan started hunting for hammer from neighbors by 8.30 AM in the sourced a hammer from a hammer by 10.30 AM and he started the work by 10.30.

He worked till 12.30 in the noon and he went for lunch and after lunch he wanted to have a nap for 10 min. He requested his mom to wake him after 10 min and his mom denied the request telling if he is sincere in his job he must be on his own. Being a kid and working in hot sun made him tired and he slept till 4.30 PM. When his woke up he got angry again with his mom for not waking him up and by the time the day has come to an end.

Little Kannan went to the supervisor and asked a wage for the amount of work he did. The supervisor said Kannan that he doesn’t deserve anything for the half-baked work he did and he offered him 50 paisa for the work he did knowing he worked for that 50 paisa. Kannan got angrier on supervisor as he thought he deserved more for the work he did. But Kannan got the money to fulfill his desire and he instantly got the rubber.

When he returned back home his mom asked him to list the things he did from the morning to earn that 50 paisa.

Kannan says that was the day he understood the value of money and his way of seeing things changed. I might have learned this experience of Kannan at a later stage. But as a parent I came to know how I can raise my kids.

I must thank Kannan for sharing his experience and allowing me to post it in my blog.