Anand Nataraj

Archive for January, 2010

Reached home early in the morning after a boring Saturday party and straight away went to bed. Then I slept till the afternoon and had to wake up for two reasons;

• Firstly it was my father’s birthday and had small party.
• Second is I’ve fixed an appointment for second half of the day.

My sister woke me up to celebrate my father’s birthday. I must thank her for talking all these initiatives as I’m very bad at doing things like these. She has brought a cake as surprise and this is the first time we are celebrating my father’s birthday as he has always stayed away from us and I think this is the birthday where in he has stayed with us and we all as a family were at one place.

Since my father is a person who has very less desire we had nothing to gift him. So we thought of buying him some shares which he trades.

After the birthday party I rushed out to a place called Vedal near Periyapalayam to see a piece of plot. Again it was a finest drive which I longed for. We drove along old traditional roads of Tamil Nadu which were not affected by the expansion of highways. Then we travelled through a stretch of forest and finally came the spot.

I’m not sure if this place develops immediately or not. I’d love to buy a piece of plot as it is within my affordability and its been 3 years since I purchased a land. Also there are small mountains and it would be a perfect place to have a small bamboo house and spend peaceful time or also we can party hard as it doesn’t disturb anyone.

From there we went to the famous PeriyaPalayam Amman temple which is visited almost 15 years back and a lot have changed since then. Since it is a normal day temple was not crowded and we had a nice darshan.

Then while driving back we spent all the money and neither of us had a single penny. After a long time my bank account has gone empty and I’ve been living with credit card for last 10 days.  While returning we didn’t realize that there was a toll. Then we were thinking what to do and one of my friends asked me to get all the old toll tickets in hand. We thought we can elope by the time the toll keeper checks the right ticket.

To our surprise the toll has a barricade where in we can proceed without paying. Also the toll rate was Rs.31 and we didn’t have anything other than credit card. Then with brave face my friend gave all 5 toll tickets to the toll keeper and asked him to check which the right ticket is. Without even checking he opened the gates asking us to leave. We didn’t know if he realized if we were conning him or he didn’t have patience to check all the tickets.

It was a thrilling experience and for long I wanted to explore things without any money on hand. I always thought of putting myself in such a situation and it happened today. I’m thankful to god for creating such an opportunity and I want to be on similar situations even in future.

Over all it has been a very interesting and heart filling day as; 

• I celebrated my father’s birthday.
• Went for site visits to buy land which is one of my hobbies.
• Went to a temple which I use to visit as a kid.
• And for the first time I experienced a situation to manage without money.

There are several instances where in i’ve experienced humiliation from government servants. Yesterday while i was driving back to office i got a call from my friend and i had to corner my car to attend the call as it was important.

Then a cop knocked my car with his Latti (stick) this behavior irritated me. But i ignored him and was continuing talking to him. He came for the second time and asked me if i didn’t have any sense and he asked if he has to repeat to move the car again and again.

This behavior of him made me break my cool and this time i wanted to take him for a toss. I got down from the car and told him there is a limit for everything. After all he is a government servant and I’m sure my tax money would have fetched him 3 – 4 months of his salary. Also i was abiding traffic rule by not talking while driving.

When i went on high pitch immediately cop came down. But i didn’t want to spare him and i asked him what is he going to do with the cars which were parked behind mine. By this time his superiors came to the spot and tried to convince me. They apologized to me on his behalf and then the cop himself conveyed his apologize.

Immediately when he apologized my temper got down and i didn’t want to test his patience and i left the place.

I’ve many other experience like this with other bureaucrats. But i took up the shit every-time and left angrily. This time i was contended as i got a apology from the cop.

Again while driving back to office i got caught by another cop assuming i was talking on mobile while driving. I posed this in my previous blog.

I’ve a habit of singing while driving my car. Today while i was singing and driving near Panangal Park a cop cornered me and said i was speaking with my mobile and when i said i contradicted he said i dropped my phone.

When he asked where was my mobile i took it from my pocket to his surprise. He must have thought he has got a priced catch. He asked if i’ve another mobile. I was at my cool because i did do anything that was against law.

Then out of agony he let me go. But soon another cop who watched this from a distance didn’t want me leave. Again he cornered me and he took my mobile and checked for call history. He even entered my car and checked if i used any other cell phone.

By that time there was another senior cop who received with best hospitality and asked if the cop who caught me was nut. Unable to say he was right i said i can prove i was not guilty.

Then the senior cop asked if there was anything wrong and the other cop said there is nothing to catch me.

All of a sudden the brightness in the face of cops faded and they let me go. Immediately they caught a guy driving without helmet in two wheeler and immediately started showing their piece of mind.

Now i can say the guy who caught me should be a nut. He argued that he saw a cell phone in my hand. I don’t know how exactly things happened. Finally i brought down the delight of all the cops and left the place HAPPY!!!

I came to know about the 10,000 hour rule from my friend Kaviraj or areapal.com and i immediately googled to know Gladwell’s 10,000 hour rule. It was interesting finding and i wanted to share it with my readers.

Gladwell writer of Outliners book mentions about the 10,000 hour rule and he claims that greatness requires enormous time, using the source of The Beatles’ musical talents and Bill Gates’ computer savvy as examples.

The Beatles performed live in Hamburg, Germany over 1,200 times from 1960 to 1964, amassing more than 10,000 hours of playing time, therefore meeting the 10,000-Hour Rule. Gladwell asserts that all of the time The Beatles spent performing shaped their talent, “so by the time they returned to England from Hamburg, Germany, ‘they sounded like no one else. It was the making of them.

Gates met the 10,000-Hour Rule when he gained access to a high school computer in 1968 at the age of 13, and spent 10,000 hours programming on it. In Outliers, Gladwell interviews Gates, who says that unique access to a computer at a time when they were not commonplace helped him succeed.

Without that access, Gladwell states that Gates would still be “a highly intelligent, driven, charming person and a successful professional”, but that he might not be worth US$50 billion.

Gladwell explains that reaching the 10,000-Hour Rule, which he considers the key to success in any field, is simply a matter of practicing a specific task that can be accomplished with 20 hours of work a week for 10 years.

He also notes that he himself took exactly 10 years to meet the 10,000-Hour Rule, during his brief tenure at The American Spectator and his more recent job at The Washington Post.

It is always nice to see companies which you have whished to flourish well coming up in a great fashion. Yesterday was the office warming ceremony of Contus Support Interactive Pvt. Ltd.

This company was founded 2 years back by a bunch of my friends and today they have crossed a milestone in their life. When I was out from the company I founded and till I started Cogzidel I was consulting these folks.

I’m emotionally attached with this company as I was there since its inception and it helped me to divert myself from all the problems I was facing during that time. Even today I interact with the founders and pass on my suggestions and they reciprocate the gesture.

I must give credits to the entire founding team as they took the risk of quitting their high paid jobs from companies like TCS, Accenture, IBM, Southerland, Slash Support etc.

Today they have proved their critics wrong and have made their well wishers proud. Soon they will be moving to this cool office and I think it must be a treat for all their employees.

I wish Contus & team all the very best for their future endowers.

Yesterday I went to the rock concert of Hammer Fall organized at SAARANG yearly IIT-M cultural. It’s been 8 years since I attended SAARANG which I use to be a regular. The visit took me to my college days where we would be deprived of money and we would long to make up for concerts.

This time money was not a problem and we went for the expensive ticket with which we can go near the troop. It has been an electrifying experience.

I didn’t know I carry such stamina. I danced nonstop for 4 hours. We stood on the first row from where folks were playing. We danced. We banged with each other. Then we had some grub danced on the steps. 

Other aspect is the way concert was organized. Everything was handled by professionals and it was absolutely delight to the eyes. Also sponsors were all biggies and I think they would have got value for their money.

Didn’t know how four hours had gone. Even as a student I didn’t try such dancing experiments. My friend has taken video of how I danced and will soon publish it in Youtube.com.

Since Madurai doesn’t have a beach only entertainment for people is this eco-park other than movies and temple. Park is spread over an area of 8.5 acres. Last year when I was feeling bored with hardly any places to visit. I was taken to Major Karthik to this place.

For a person from Chennai there is no excitement. But I was enjoying seeing on how locals were enjoying with what they have. It is a big park maintained by corporation of Madurai. Some of the attractions in the park are;

• Artificial pond
• Boating
• Fountain show
• Lots of walking space
• Lust green environment
• Kids play area

Though these are much less attraction compared to a person from a metropolitan city. One can pass time by seeing kids enjoying their day out; mom’s running behind their kids, lovers at their peak of romance et more. Also there are lots of philosophies displayed at every spots.

Again I must thank my PRO Mr.Major Karthik for taking snaps of the place and sending it to me. He is helping me a lot to blog these days.

One of the latest findings in Madurai is this joint CaneCan which is opposite to Germanus Hotel. We found it once while driving that way and we wanted to give it a try and when we got in we were in for a surprise.

There was a huge list of flavored sugar cane juice. This was something new for me and I immediately jumped in and tasted 6 varieties of cane juice. There are the available flavors and the bolded ones are my favorites;

• Natural cane juice
• Lemon cane juice
• Ginger cane juice
• Lime & Ginger cane juice
• Salt & Pepper cane juice
• Mint cane juice
• Chilli cane juice
• Honey cane juice
• Mango cane juice
• Pineapple cane juice
• Orange cane juice
• Strawberry cane juice
• Litchi cane juice

Other important aspect to be noted in this joint is the importance they give for hygiene. Their suppliers wear gloves and they use disposable paper cups. Also cane’s are washed and keep in a refrigerators and it is served cool without using crushed-ice which is always unhygienic. 

Other important thing which impressed me is the testimonial which they get it from customers in a stick-it which will be displayed. Also one can see their joint being covered in almost all famous magazines in Madurai.

This is a small joint opposite to Germanus Hotel and can be easily located. This is a must visit joint in Madurai. Now this joint has become my desert point after having my dinner as it is near to my house and I normally walk to the joint.

I’m known for bad planning for giving appointments to friends. Since i’ve a huge friends base and i want to accommodate everyone during my one and half day break during weekends. This leads to lot of commission and confusion. I’m really confused on how to overcome this situation. Today i’ve given following appointments;

• Promised to goto furniture ship and order for 2 PC tables.
• Promised to friends to make it to SAARANG (IIT-M Culturals) by 5:30 PM.
• Promised to meet a friend of my friend and they are on their way.
• Promised to meet my ex-GYM instructor by evening.
• Promised to meet my financial advisor by evening.

I’m sure I’m gonna bounce couple of promises. But i don’t know how to take control over these kind of situations…

One common trend in india is gaining popularity by aligning with Late(dead) leaders. Some common things they do are;

• Building statues for leaders. Which is mostly used by birds to shit.
• Celebrating their Birth & Death anniversaries by blocking roads.

Today while driving to office i came across images of Late leader M.G.Ramachandran fondly called as MGR all over Arcot road in chennai. Mostly all places were deserted and no one was there to take care of those images. Near Valasaravakkam i came across this scene and i immediately shot it. A cow eats the garland & flower kept for the leader.

I don’t know why at all they waste money, time & be a hindrance to public. Also they don’t do it with respect or from the heart. These things look like insulting the leader and in-fact general public only gets irritated by seeing these kind of non-sense.