I can’t forget the driving experience we had yesterday. It took almost 14 hours to reach Bangalore from Chennai and it is all because of me. Yes as usual I made a stupid mistake. I left my Bangalore house keys in Chennai and I only realized it when we reached Vaniambadi which is 200 KM from Chennai. Also out of 5 tolls to Bangalore we crossed 4 tolls and we had no choice other than to return to Chennai and collect the keys.

 

Here is some synopsis of the drive.

 

• Started by 6.30 PM after doing a small Pooja by my mother.
• Filled petrol near Poonnamallee.
• Had a shot bite in Motel Highway, but it eventually became a semi dinner.
• Then we were talking, cracking jokes, pulling down each other and we reached Ambur by 10.30 PM
• Near Vellur I made a blog post.
• Bala, Boopathi & Ramanan has Briyani for dinner and I had 2 omlets in a famous hotel called Khaja which is known for itz delicious briyani’s.
• Then we started from Ambur and crossed Vaniambadi only to realize that I missed my keys.
• Then we took a U-turn and we returned back to Chennai.
• Then I took over from Boopathi and drove till Chennai.
• Then again everything started back in Chennai.
• We filled petrol in same station where we filled couple of hours back.
• Then in Poonamallee in Shell petrol bunk we got some drinks and had some photo shoot.
• From there Boopathi took over and he drove till Krishnagiri.
• We all slept when we drove.
• Then from Krishnagiri I did the finishing touch.
• Reached home by 7.30 AM.
• Boopathi brought some breakfast and we all crashed to sleep and woke up by 4.30 PM.
• Now I’m composing this blog and heading to Silicon Startup city in 30 min.

Mr.Bala Murugan has created this wonderful brochure for Cogzidel Consultancy Services Pvt. Ltd. We appreciate feedbacks.

I don’t know how authenticated it is… But I feel proud if this had been true and wish you will get back to those days :)…

Courtesy : Bala Murugan

Yesterday I got latest issue of business gyan… What was special with this issue is it carries bala’s successful post on PF… Bala got an email from Business Gyan asking if they can publish the blog as an article… We felt it as an honored and we immediately accepted the offer… I take this opportunity to wish Mr.Bala Murugan for taking expra effort giving us such a great post and take Cogzidel’s glory to great heights…

You call visit this blog to read the original post… Also you can visit this link to see how it appeared in the magazine…

Also here is the scanned version of the post…

This is what my dietician advised me to follow for next two months… Let me let you know if I followed it…

Sample meal plan

Breakfast

Idli -2 + sambar (avoid coconut chutney)
+ Fruit -1 (apple / pear / guava / 1 cup papaya / orange)
Or
Wheat flakes -1/2 cup + skim milk -150ml + apple -1
Or
Bread (whole wheat) -2 slices + egg white omelette (2 whites) -1
Orange -1
Cornflakes (150 ml skim milk) – 2 cup + Pomegranate – 1 cup

Mid morning               

Buttermilk or fresh lime (sugarless) -1 glass

Lunch 1.00pm

Chapathi – 2 + Mixed vegetable curry – ½ cup 
Levy vegetable – ½ cup
Raw salad -1 cup
Buttermilk (avoid thick curds)
AVOID PICKLE, PAPAD, SWEETS, MIXED RICE

Snacks 5.00pm                                   

Tea -1 cup (½ tsp sugar only)
Marie biscuits -2 nos

Dinner 8.00pm ( EAT EARLY DINNER)

Chapati (without oil) -2 /Iddly-3 / ragi dosa- 2 +
Kootu or dhal or vegetable curry -1cup +
Sprout salad – ½ cup

Measurements/Quantity

1cup = 200ml              1glass = 250ml                                    
1tsp = 5gm                   1tbsp = 15gm

Guidelines

Cereals: Choose a variety   like whole wheat, wheat bread, multigrain bread, ragi, bajra, and jowar

Pulses: Include a wide variety like green gram, rajma,horse gram, soy beans, black eyed beans

Fruits: Eat 2-4 whole fruits everyday. Choose any seasonal fruit.

Vegetables: Include one cup each with lunch and dinner. Restrict using roots and tubers regularly

Green leafy vegetables: Eat thrice a week

Milk and milk products: Choose skim milk for preparing tea, coffee, curds .Include 300-400ml everyday

Oil: Change your cooking oil every month or use a combination from gingelly oil, sunflower, safflower, rice bran, groundnut or corn oil
Oil and sugar: 2-3 tsp per day

Water – drink 2-3 litres per day

Healthy beverage options:
Fresh lime juice                                   Black tea with lime                  Clear soups
Vegetable juices                                  Green tea                                Buttermilk

Avoid
Deep fried foods, Sweets, fruit juices, soft drinks
Pizza, burger, cheese sandwich, Chocolates,Indian sweets, ice creams
Excess salt – pickles, salty snacks – chips, mixture etc
Maida based foods – rumali roti, parota, kulcha,naan, cakes , biscuits

Include

1. Egg white, chicken (without skin). Fish only. Avoid fried dishes
2. 1 cup of subgi and 1 cup of raw salad each with lunch and dinner in day
3. Use green leafy vegetable 4-5 times a week.

General Guidelines

1. Change your cooking oil every month, chose from gingelly, rice bran, and safflower, sunflower, corn and groundnut oils.  Do not reuse cooling oil.
2. Chose high fiber fruits like pear, apple, pomegranate, papaya, pineapple sweet lime, orange and guava
3. Mix soy flour to atta in the ratio 1:5.  You may add ragi flour or jowar flour (kambu) instead of soy flour.
4. Use barley once a week instead of rice.
5. Use 1 tsp of ground flaxseed everyday. Add to chutneys, chapatti dough, salads or mix with fennel and eat it.  It is rich vegetarian source of Omega 3 fatty acid.
6. Garlic -5 flakes, 1 tsp fenugreek seeds everyday
7. Include a  Vit. C rich food in a day for anti oxidant properties
8. Gooseberry, fresh coriander leaves chutney, citrus fruits, papaya, pomegranate, fresh tomato salad, sprouts, broccoli, plum, cherries, strawberries, lemon are excellent sources of Vit. C.

Last weekend I was in Bangalore for attending “Startup Saturday” and “Heavy Metal Bloggers Meet”… I made a small post about Startup Saturday and didn’t do justice for Blogger meet… I thought I must write one because I’ve never seen such an energizing meet where getting along was soo informal and easy…

Before sharing the experience I want to tell you about IndiBlogger.in a social networking site for bloggers and the site is gaining momentum… I really like the concept behind the site and thrilled to know if is run by someone from Chennai…

Heavy Metal Bloggers Meet happened at Stone Pub in Indra Nagar 100 feet road, venue is stone throwing distance from my old office (I had short stint as employee might be less than 3 months)… The meet was sponsored by Kingfisher and beer’s were offered for free; am happy recession didn’t affect beverages industry… My Special thanks to Vijay Mallya & Kingfisher….

Networking in pub is not a new affair to me… Infact I’ve a lot of beer mates in my life… But this time it was different because everyone is a blogger and synergies are equal… Met couple of interesting folks… I remember couple of names Sourav, Amit, Swaminathan, Revin, Karthik, Naveen, Anwin(Organiser), Narayanan (We knew each other before)… We shared our experience and then there was some quiz conducted…

Then I sat along with Amit and were discussing about entrepreneurship… Yep I’m a Startup evangelist and when I see someone interested never give them room to leave :)…

Here are some on the snaps taken and you can fee how it would have been;

Thatz the Banner for the Meet…

Free beers and you can see what the consumption would have been… People took more than their limit and it then you can imagine… it was FUN FUN FUN everywhere…

Even there was glamour attached… And these were the people who organized the meet…

Itz me(Orange T-Shirt) & Sourav…

Quiz Time

Fundamental Techniques in Handling People

1. Don’t criticize, condemn or complain.
2. Give honest and sincere appreciation.
3. Arouse in the other person an eager want.

Six ways to make people like you

1. Become genuinely interested in other people.
2. Smile.
3. Remember that a person’s name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language.
4. Be a good listener. Encourage others to talk about themselves.
5. Talk in terms of the other person’s interests.
6. Make the other person feel important – and do it sincerely.

Win people to your way of thinking

1. The only way to get the best of an argument is to avoid it.
2. Show respect for the other person’s opinions. Never say, "You’re wrong."
3. If you are wrong, admit it quickly and emphatically.
4. Begin in a friendly way.
5. Get the other person saying "yes, yes" immediately.
6. Let the other person do a great deal of the talking.
7. Let the other person feel that the idea is his or hers.
8. Try honestly to see things from the other person’s point of view.
9. Be sympathetic with the other person’s ideas and desires.
10. Appeal to the nobler motives.
11. Dramatize your ideas.
12. Throw down a challenge.

Be a Leader: How to Change People without Giving Offense or Arousing Resentment

A leader’s job often includes changing your people’s attitudes and behavior. Some suggestions to accomplish this:

1. Begin with praise and honest appreciation.
2. Call attention to people’s mistakes indirectly.
3. Talk about your own mistakes before criticizing the other person.
4. Ask questions instead of giving direct orders.
5. Let the other person save face.
6. Praise the slightest improvement and praise every improvement. Be "hearty in your approbation and lavish in your praise."
7. Give the other person a fine reputation to live up to.
8. Use encouragement. Make the fault seem easy to correct.
9. Make the other person happy about doing the thing you suggest.

I wanted to share with you all a real case where in I got help from many brains in the world… Yesterday (02/17/2008) I was loaded with lots of work… In the back of my mind I wanted to create a FUN environment in my office… I was unable to think anything beyond Chess, Carom & Table Tennis… So I decided to get more ideas/thoughts from people and posted a tweet

“folks can you suggest some indoor office games which you loved to have it in office”

To my surprise there were tremendous response and still I keep getting suggestions… Here are some on the replies I got in twitter…

Also there are many cases where I used twitter and other social networks for my benefit… Since this is in parse of Twitter let me tell what all I gained from twitter till now… I won two business deals thru twitter… I wanted alpha testers to test a product developed by Cogzidel and when I posted tweet requesting help, there were lots of people who showed interest to help…

 Let me list some of the benefits I got from twitter…

• Sharing of knowledge
• Sharing of information
• Sharing of ideas
• Getting business
• Collaborating & Co-creating
• etc

Just understood the power of social media and community participation and wanted to share it with you…

Thanks a lot Twitter…