Get Ready Indigo Marina


Six years back I met with an accident with this car… The car was badly damaged and it saved me unhurt… From then I developed an emotional connect with this car… Even when people advised me to sell the car… I gently ignored their suggestions…

But I couldn’t use this car inside a city owning to its size and the mileage… I mostly use this car for long drives… Since I couldn’t travel a lot for last 20 months, this car was lying unused… Now I’m driving this car to Madurai…

After opening the cover;

  • Car deserved a cleaning and asked my maid to do that immediately…
  • Battery had to be changed and did that immediately
  • A/C pressure was less than 80… Filled gas and the A/C is working fine…
  • To my surprise tyres had enough Air… But checked it anyway…
  • There was some bad petrol smell… Went for a drive and things were normal

Now am super excited to drive to Madurai tomorrow…

Surround yourself with inspiring people and with inspiring quotes


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Yesterday my Friend & CTO Ksawme shared the above image on FaceBook… Also he sent this small note…

Hey Anand Nataraj, Do you remember this?!

“Alfred to Batman : “Things always get worse before they get better” – One of my favorite quote from the movie “The Dark Knight”

Here, who is Alfred & who is the batman?! 😉

#nostalgia #cogzidel

That was the quote Ksawme shared when things were looking very blink last year… Nothing was happening right and what made us run was such motivation quotes and the motivating personality Ksawme and me possessed…

Today when I was looking at FaceBook I got this tip and it sounded relevant… I wish all budding entrepreneurs to consider recommendation seriously…

It might be impractical or unrealistic to expect your entrepreneurial, corporate, political, or athletic heroes to hang out at your cloistered startup headquarters on a daily basis, but it is a surprisingly motivating strategy to surround yourself with their words, especially if your heroes happen to be individuals who have accomplished difficult or near-impossible tasks. When you’re tired and it’s late at night – and Sunday mornings seem far far away in the future – take the time to inspire yourself with a great quote or a quick motivational video, nothing too long or too serious, anything that will remind you of the reasons for which QUITTING IS NOT AN OPTION. Copy the quotes down on brightly coloured sticky-notes and paste them to your computer screen. Go to our website and post startup quotes to your Facebook page. Print them up and tack them up onto the bare white wall you keep staring at when your eyes begin to blur in the late afternoon. Whatever you do, put yourself in an environment where you are constantly reminded that YOU ARE NOT ALONE and that YOU…

Quote Courtesy: Susan Ahn, Co-Founder of The People Project and Editor-in-Chief of ThePeopleProject.com…

What a man you are Mr.Modi :)))


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Wives must be dumb ;)


After a meeting I was coming out of a hotel and I was looking for my car keys. They were not in my pockets. A quick search in the meeting room… it wasn’t there.

Suddenly I realised I must have left them in the car. My husband has shouted many times for leaving the keys in the ignition. My theory is, the ignition is the best place not to lose them. His theory is that the car will be stolen. Immediately I rushed to the parking lot, I came to a terrifying conclusion. His theory was right. The parking lot was empty.

I immediately called the police. I gave them my location, car number and description of the place where I parked etc. I equally confessed that I had left my keys in the car, and that it had been stolen.

Then I made the most difficult call of all, to my husband!!!

“Honey,” I stammered; I always call him “honey” in times like these.

“I left my keys in the car, and it has been stolen.

” There was a period of silence. I thought the call had been dropped, but then I heard his voice.

“Idiot”, he shouted, “I dropped you at the hotel !”

Now it was my time to be silent. Embarrassed, I said, “Well, come and get me.”

He shouted again, “I will, as soon as I manage to convince this policeman that I have not stolen your car.”

Coffee With Sawme


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Caught up with Sawme after months and that too at a place which was of significance… It was at Cafe Coffee Day, Iyappanthangal I proposed Sawme for the post of CTO & Director at Cogzidel Technologies Pvt Ltd…. After some time for nostalgia, it was business as always…

  • Discussed about Anniversary Celebration
  • Worked out solutions for recruitment challenge
  • Team Building Issues
  • Sales Strategies
  • Transforming Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) team to Digital Marketing team

Fight for your Right


Was driving back from Bangalore to Chennai and it was a midnight drive… Drive was soo please t from Bangalore till Ranipet toll… From Ranipet to SriPerambudur it was a pathetic road full of pits… Literally had to snail on this stretch and even if I accelerated I would have ended up on a pit…

I was very frustrated and angry for the quality of service we receive in spite of taxed in the name of TOLL… Upon reaching SriPrambudur toll I asked should I pay the toll for the quality of road and I was asked to talk to the Toll Manager… So, here goes the conversation;

Me: Who is responsible for the stretch between Ranipet and SriPerambudur?
Toll Manager: We are responsible..
Me: Do you know the condition of the stretch???
Toll Manager: We have taken photos and we will be fixing the patches soon…
Me: Ok… Does it make justice to pay toll for the service??
Toll Manager: No Sir!! Old contractor has been sacked and we just took charge fromYesterday…
Me: Why can’t you collect the toll after fixing the patches??
Toll Manager: Sir!!! You need not pay Toll… You can leave…

Thought the gentleman was gentle in allowing me…I was still not hot convinces because a lot of innocent people were taxed for using this bad stretch…

Looking for a Lawyer specialised on Insurance Claims


My dad’s insurance claim for a Heart Bypass was rejected stating that he was hypertensive… Not sure if my dad would have studied that before taking the policy and also not sure if the agent would have told this to my dad…

Our second claim for a Hemerage surgery which is related to Neuro also got rejected… The reason because the Hemerage was cause because of a anti-coagulant used for treating heart…

I’ve read that the insurance companies always try to reject a claim… But being a good customer who paid the premiums on time… Since we have spent 10 times more than the insured amount for hospitalisation, I’m not bothered for the small money we will be getting…

Second the communication process is very slow and for every query I post I get a reply after a month… In some cases I didn’t get a reply and it was a problem with the postal department…

I’m not happy at the working ethics of insurance companies and I think someone should take make these people work… I’m composing a letter to ombudsmen on our case, but am yet to receive a reply for some of the queries I made…

Also I’ve lots of doubts and thought it would be better to work with a professional… So, I’m looking for a Chennai based lawyer who is specialised on insurance claims… Will be more obliged if someone cane be of help or can refer a good lawyer specialised on insurance claims…

You can send me an email to anand@anandnataraj.com…

Rejuvenating Bangalore Drive


It was a challenging week to start and last three days have been disastrous when it comes to work…

Almost every professional and personal tasks got collapsed… Even started the day without much enthusiasms and excitement…

Got an appointment with doctor to check about dad’s health… To my surprise doctor reached early and there was no waiting time…

After three days of paralysis, there was a day which was happening… Immediately thought of driving to Bangalore to meet my wife…

Drove all alone to Bangalore and it was good 5 hours where I could come out of stress and think about strategies…

  • Drove against heavy rains
  • Had delicious variety rice for lunch… Unfortunately forgot the name of the Hotel
  • Took a coffee break at CCD
  • A 10 minute traffic halt by road workers… But got a call from office which didn’t make me frustrated
  • Finally reached Bangalore and surprised my wife

My First Entrepreneurship Venture


20130908-184814.jpgI always had flair for entrepreneurship from my childhood days… My first entrepreneurship ride started when I was 12… I use to breed fish during my school days and sell them during summer vacation…

I brought 3 big paint barrels and bread fish… Mostly I bread White Molly, Red Molly and Black Molly… Total investment came to less than Rs.30…

By the time my exams were over there were 100’s of fish on each breed… I sold a pair for Re.2 and fish plants for Re1 and ended up making around 1500 bucks which was a big money for a the investment…

The next year I started breeding Fighter(A breed known for fighting)which breeds by laying eggs Rs.10… I experimented by cross breeding fishes…

  • White Molly + Black Molly gave me Chocolate Molly & White Molly with black dots…
  • Red Molly + Black Molly gave me Red Molly with Black Tail…

This time with lot of variety and by starting the breeding process a bit early, my revenue increased to Rs.6000/- the next year…

Finally I had to abandon this venture owing to my mothers pressure… But this was the foundation to my entrepreneurship and this experience helped me to perceive as an entrepreneur at a later stage…

Too much of Technology is Injurious to MIND


Every month I’ve to take my father to hospital for review… Normally a review takes 8 – 10 hours where in I’ve to wait for doctors, get the list of scans to be taken, make payment, take him for scan, wait for the online scan results, again wait for doctor to get his opinion, mostly a reference would be given to other doctor, wait for them, get their opinion, then settle the final bills, get the discharge report, buy medicine and get back home…

So, in-between all those hectic schedule;

  • Paid mobile bill using Vodafone APP…
  • Transferred cash to a friend using ICICI Bank APP…
  • Checked Credit Card statement using CitiBank APP…
  • Approved & replied to comments in my blog usingWordPRESS APP…
  • Went to FB to share & like interesting articles, wished birthday buddies and commented on friends articles…
  • Went to Cafe Coffee Day opened CCD APP and used the discount code…
  • Read and Replied to emails…
  • Attended phone calls… Mostly with fellow directors…
  • Read tech news thru TechCrunch APP…
  • EverNote & GDrive APPS are other daily used utility APPS…

I was always thrilled that technology made life simple and it never made be sit bored… It always kept me engaged and enjoyed my life even during crisis… But all these days I didn’t realise that I’ve been addicted or obsessed with something…

Today was the day to realise when my iPhone ran out of charge and was in no position to charge it for almost 2 hours… All of a sudden my mood changed, got irritated for unnecessary things, got restless, felt like I lost or missed something… I drive back the car like crazy to reach home… When I was caught in signal the frustration increased as I immediately clean unnecessary email during that break…

Without exaggeration I had symptoms of depression… Only then I realised how bad it is to get bossed with technology and what all things I’m missing in life… I totally lost human touch in life… Though technology has made life easier I don’t want to get addicted to it…

Immediately i wanted to do something to break this addiction in me… As a decisive person i immediately thought of an idea where I get totally disconnected with all these technology for at least 2 days (any Saturday & Sunday) in a month…

I hate postponing good things and the experiment starts immediately… Next Monday you can expect a blog on the experience of living disconnected from technology…