Month: October 2009

From Koyembedu to Mattuthavani


Normally I travel to Madurai in private busses. I avoid government busses because their travelling hours is too long. But yesterday I had to choose SETC (State Express Transport Corporation) bus because I didn’t plan the trip and all the private buses were running full.

 

To my surprise the cost of SETC buses are 40% less than private bus operators and also I reached Madurai by 7 o clock in the morning.

 

Then for the first time I travelled in a public transport in Madurai. I got down at Mattuthavani which was the last stop & from there I boarded a bus to Periar Bus Stop in a public bus.


From then it is business as usual.

Autobiography or Confessionbiography?


I see lot of celebrities writing an autobiography where in they use it as a tool to make all their confessions. I know they do it for obvious reasons as to make cheap publicity to boost the sale of the book.

Latest on the list is Andre Agassi who has confessed using performance enhancing drug while is playing days.

There are other stories where cricketers confessing of tampering balls, fooling umpires of run outs. Politicians telling the malpractices did by others or the change in their ideology.

Over all what I can’t tolerate is why these people don’t have the back bone to confess it when they are doing it. We can accept their confession if there is not commercial benefit involved in the form of book publishing.

Already they have made fool of us and again they try to make us fools by making us to buy their books. To put an end to all this we must take stern action. In the case of Agassi if we ask him to pay back all the prize money he earned winning matches and return all the medals and honors he has received in his playing days. Is this is done to one person for sure others will stop doing such cheap things and even if they do they will hesitate to write auto biography.

If strict action is not taken now Autobiographies will become Confessionbiographies to make cheap publicity or monitory gains.

It would be nice if media or news makers stop publicizing such cheap things.

Simplified Bhagavad Gita


An old Farmer lived on a farm in the mountains with his young grandson. Each morning Grandpa was up early sitting at the kitchen table reading his Bhagavad Gita. His grandson wanted to be just like him and tried to imitate him in every way he could.

One day the grandson asked, “Grandpa!

Why do you read the Gita ?
What good does reading the Bhagavad Gita do?

I try to read the Bhagavad Gita just like you but I don’t understand it and what I do understand, I forget as soon as I close the book.”

The Grandfather quietly turned from putting coal in the stove and replied, “Take this coal basket down to the river and bring me back a basket of water.”

The boy did as he was told, but all the water leaked out before he got back to the house. The grandfather laughed and said, “You’ll have to move a little faster next time,” and sent him back to the river with the basket to try again.

This time the boy ran faster, but again the basket was empty before he returned home. Out of breath, he told his grandfather that it was impossible to carry water in a basket, and he went to get a bucket instead.

The old man said, “I don’t want a bucket of water; I want a basket of water. You’re just not trying hard enough,” and he went out the door to watch the boy try again. At this point, the boy knew it was impossible, but he wanted to show his grandfather that even if he ran as fast as he could, the water would leak out before he got back to the house.

The boy again dipped the basket into river and ran hard, but when he reached his grandfather the basket was again empty Out of breath, he said, “See Grandpa, it’s useless!”

“So you think it is useless?” The old man said, “Look at the basket.”

The boy looked at the basket and for the first time realized that the basket was different.

It was transformed from a dirty old coal basket, to a new clean basket, inside and out.

“Son, that’s what happens when you read the Bhagavad Gita. You might not understand or remember everything, but when you read it, you will be changed, inside and out. That is the work of Krishna in our lives. The cleansing process.”

Yet another dull day


Yesterday I woke up only to see myself trapped inside my house and I had to stay inside my house the whole for waking up late. Metro water pipe lying was happening and my street was dug and the entire street was not accessible. My mom woke me up asking me to get ready and get out if I had any work. My laziness played the spoil sport.

Then today again I got up late and again my father took the car which was parked in my uncle’s house couple of streets away and my sister took the two-wheeler. Since it rained the entire mud filled patches got wet and it became like quit sand. Most of the cars got struck in the sand. So again I had to stay back and I didn’t want to waste one more day as I didn’t have any online work to work from home.

Also I got a call from my friend who invited me for lunch to introduce his boss who would be of help in my business. I decided to travel though public transport (Pallavan Bus). Then I went to office to check if my old notebook which was back from servicing (it has 600+ viruses) is working fine. To my happiness everything was fine.

Still I was not feeling comfortable. My body vibes were not positive. Then I called bala to hear irritating news and our mud slingers have started with their work of disturbing us from doing our business. Again my folks are not allowing me to act because patience is always taken for weakness.

Then I went to meet my friend’s boss and I was not in a mood to speak business and I made the occasion as a normal networking lunch and I moved back to office. Bala reached in another 15 min of me reaching back to office and he had to take an interview and finish a client meeting.

After everything was done I went and engaged a conversion with bala and I still felt the day was not productive and I wanted to do something useful to sign off the day. So I decided to buy some motivation quotes to place it in our office. Then myself and bala went to Landmark and brought some 17 frames with motivation quoted and I personally got a thirukural book with also has an explanation about what the kural says.

Then again my friends called me for a movie and we all went to Aadhavan. I’m must be crazy or more brave to watch a movie which I didn’t enjoy when I watched it first.

Over all the day was pretty ordinary and I tried to make it little productive but taking some voluntary steps. Let me put all the bad omen back and step forward to have a fascinating Friday.

First thing I’ll be doing tomorrow is to have a hair cut and have a new look and feel to make some cyclonical difference.

Mind Game


2% or 98% ??

This is strange…can you figure it out?

Are you the 2% or 98% of the population?

Follow the instructions! NO PEEKING AHEAD!

* Do the following exercise, guaranteed to raise an eyebrow.

* There’s no trick or surprise.

* Just follow these instructions, and answer the questions one at a time and as quickly as you can!

* Again, as quickly as you can but don’t advance until you are done each of them really.

– Think of a number from 1 to 10

– Multiply that number by 9

– If the number is a 2-digit number, add the digits together

– Now subtract 5

– Determine which letter in the alphabet corresponds to the number you ended up with

(example: 1=a, 2=B, 3=c, 4=d etc.)

– Think of a country that starts with that letter

– Remember the last letter of the name of that country

– Think of the name of an animal that starts with that letter

– Remember the last letter in the name of that animal

Think of the name of a fruit that starts with that letter

!
!
!
!
!
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!
!
!
!

! Are you thinking of a Kangaroo in Denmark eating an Orange?!

I told you this was FREAKY!! If not, you’re among the 2% of the population whose minds are different enough to think of something else. 98% of people will answer with kangaroos in Denmark when given this exercise.

Courtesy: Bala Murugan

You have to read slowly, to get thru it


The European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the European Union rather than German, which was the other possibility.

As part of the negotiations, the British Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a 5- year phase-in plan that would become known as ‘Euro-English’..

In the first year, ‘s’ will replace the soft ‘c’. Sertainly, this will make the sivil servants jump with joy. The hard ‘c’ will be dropped in favour of ‘k’. This should klear up konfusion, and keyboards kan have one less letter.

There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year when the troublesome ‘ph’ will be replaced with ‘f’. This will make words like fotograf 20% shorter.

In the 3rd year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible.

Governments will enkourage the removal of double letters which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling. Also, al wil agre that the horibl mes of the silent ‘e’ in the languag is disgrasful and it should go away.

By the 4th yer people wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing ‘th’ with ‘z’ and ‘w’ with ‘v’.

During ze fifz yer, ze unesesary ‘o’ kan be dropd from vords kontaining ‘ou’ and after ziz fifz yer, ve vil hav a reil sensibl riten styl. 

Zer vil be no mor trubl or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi tu understand ech oza. Ze drem of a united urop vil finali kum tru.

Und efter ze fifz yer, ve vil al be speking German like zey vunted in ze forst plas.

If zis mad you smil, pleas pas on to oza pepl

Secret of Happy Married Life


Once Mathai asked Kuttappan, “What is the secret behind your happy married life?”

Kuttappan said, “You should share responsibilities with due love and respect to each other.

Then absolutely there will be no problems.”

“Can you explain?” asked Mathai.

Kuttappan said, “In my house, I take decisions on bigger issues where as my wife decides on smaller issues. We do not interfere in each other’s decisions.”

Still not convinced, Mathai asked Kuttappan “Give me some examples”

Kuttappan said, “Smaller issues like which car we should buy, how much amount to save, when to visit home town, which Sofa, air conditioner, refrigerator to buy, monthly expenses, whether to keep a maid or not etc are decided by my wife. I just agree to it”

Mathai asked, “Then what is your role?”

Kuttappan said, “My decisions are only for very big issues….

Like whether America should attack Iraq, whether Britain should lift sanction over Zimbabwe, whether to widen African economy, whether Sachin Tendulkar should retire etc. Do you know one thing, my wife NEVER objects to any of these”.

That is the secret of my happy married life !!!

Feeling drowsy – But got to finish a lot of work today


Being Sunday things move slowly. But I have a golden day to finish all my personal tasks today but not in a mood to list them. So, thought writing a blog will make me list the stuff I must do for the day. 

  • Committed to Balaji that I’ll take him to ICICI Home Loan Mela & accompany him for his hunt for a new house.
  • My old Compaq is in serious danger as it is attacked by Torjan’s, Spywares & Malwares. Must buy a USB and take backups of important files and must format the system.
  • Must make temporary arrangement to fix worms in Old Compaq system until I come back from Salem & Madurai.
  • Got an invitation from my sister to go to Muthukadu for boating. If it is in the evening I might accept the invitation and will go with them.

Being a Sunday I don’t want to push myself so hard. Let me finish these simple things and if time permits and if I’ve a company will go to a movie.

How to Finish a Task with Bureaucrats?


Last week it was the end of month long agony with bureaucrats. There is a common phenomenon with bureaucrats.

  1. They are lazy.
  2. They never accountability.
  3. They are irresponsible.
  4. They are corrupt and crocked.
  5. They won’t offer information on one go. Eg: Every time we make a visit they send us back telling one correction or other.

Over all for a work which should not have taken more than 3 days took 25 days to finish it. But the experience gained in phenomenal. I had two types on experience in Coimbatore & Bangalore.

  • One place i was not allowed to deal from the top and i was totally not accessible with the concerned person in the top.
  • Second place i was asked to deal with the Top directly.

In my experience both as challenging. In one case we can proceed with the work without having any one to deal with. In second case dealing from the Top expensive. So this is how i dealt with Case 1.

  • I met the Professional Tax Officer on second day and he took the documents and he didn’t give me his phone number.
  • Then again he was not approachable in office.
  • Then i caught hold of the Peon who gave me all information and called the officer everything i visited their office or gave me updates on the progress when i called him from Chennai.

Over all job got over after 15 days because of Bureaucratic delays and after constant followups. Totally i spent Rs.80/- for the peon for his help. I cant consider this as Bribe because he helped me for a job which was not his responsibility and for picking calls and linking with the concerned officer. Here Bottom-up approach helped.

Then in Case 2.

  • Officer was always available in Office.
  • Was directly dealing with the Department Head.
  • Bribe insisted was Huge.
  • We denied to offer bribe and we paid the entire penalty.
  • I was made to run everyday asking for more details / information / document.

Finally PTO said he can’t give me the certificate without giving him some Professional Fee (This is the term he uses for Bribe) and finally i had to bow down and make him some Professional Fee. I was deeply upset because PTO made me run to his office at least 11 times and i produced all nonsense information he requested and finally ending up paying him a bribe.

I behaved like a common man standing helpless and bow down to business pressure. Let me see when all this will change?

How to recruit your staff?


A corporation advertised all kinds of positions to fill for their new office in a big city, the candidates were selected based on their resume and tested for their aptitude for the positions. 

The corporation put around one hundred baseball balls in some particular order in a closed room with the room window open Then they send a group of two to three candidates of particular discipline into the room and locked it from outside They left them alone and came back after six hours, to analyzed the situation: 

  1. If they were counting and recounting the number of balls – They were hired for the ACCOUNTS DEPARTMENT
  2. If they had messed up the whole place with the balls – They were hired for the ENGINEERING
  3. If they were arranging the balls in some other order – They were hired for the PLANNING
  4. If they were throwing the balls at each other – They were hired for the OPERATIONS
  5. If they were sleeping – They were hired for the SECURITY
  6. If they had squashed the balls into pieces – They were hired for the INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
  7. If they were staring out of the window – They were hired for the EXPORT
  8. If they were sitting idle – They were hired for the HUMAN RESOURCE DEPT
  9. If they had thrown the balls out of the window – They were hired for the MATERIALS DEPT
  10. If they were clinging onto the balls – They were hired for the TREASURY
  11. If they said they had tried different combinations, yet not a ball had moved – They were hired for the SALES
  12. If they had already left for the day – They were hired for the MARKETING and finally
  13. If they were talking to each other and not a ball had moved – They were hired for the TOP MANAGEMENT