My world

2010-07-23T12:07:00.004+05:30

After almost 4 years of stay at Google,I moved to my own place. It is always good to have your own identity rite? so welcome to sandeepvarma.com

I presume you all will like my new home. Thanks for the support and encouragement, see you @sandeepvarma.com

2010-07-21T17:27:00.003+05:30

My article on e-waste,published in On Sale Express

The mid gap is actually stylish rite? not done purposely but...

2010-07-20T13:54:00.001+05:30

Sebastian Wernicke talks about how to make "the optimum TEDTalk" based on user ratings.

Lies, damned lies and statistics (about TEDTalks) | Video on TED.com

2010-07-17T14:05:00.003+05:30

Nainamvalappu: The football capital of Kozhikode: Part II

N.V.Subair,President-NFFA,says there is so much talent here when it comes to football but lack of facilities is the biggest impediment.

Replica of FIFA World cup trophy, made by this person in wood.There is a purpose for this replica of World cup trophy kept here. This trophy is made in wood. During the final of the World cup when the winner lifts the original FIFA World cup trophy, this replica at Nainamvalappu will be handed over to the respective fan club members!so this time members of the Spain fans club lifted the trophy.

Even I had this rare opportunity of holding FIFA World cup trophy, a replica atleast!

Banners from Nainamvalappu!

Holland fans Club

Some section of the people here hope that one day India will make it to FIFA World cup football! Jai Ho!

The only place throughout Malabar where I saw a banner for Korean team!

Some local heroes playing with legendary Pele (good photoshop work!)

And an entire fence wall dedicated to World cup fixture!

NFFA even has a blog dedicated to football related news.

2010-07-15T20:00:00.012+05:30

Nainamvalappu: The football capital of Kozhikode: Part I

Nainamvalappu, a small town in Kozhikode, predominantly comprises of fishing community.

Founded in 1996,Nainamvalappu Football Fans Association, NFFA is in constant touch with FIFA. They send regular magazines,a copy of the new rules, brochures and miniatures. NFFA has a mini FIFA museum. “This time, FIFA sent us a gold key chain carrying its logo. We have displayed all our curios here,” says Subair, the President of NFFA.

Zakumi banner ,the Official Mascot for the 2010 FIFA World Cup

Gold and silver plated replica of World cup, key chains, buttons, stickers, all sent by FIFA!

FIFA World cup 2010 official poster!

The original Jabulani, official football of FIFA World cup 2010!

Official postcards of all the entire FIFA World cup matches!

FIFA Bag

Members of Nainamvalappu Football Fans Association, NFFA in front of the office.

To be continued..

2010-07-13T15:30:00.003+05:30

Hans Rosling's interesting TED talk about World population
Hans Rosling on global population growth | Video on TED.com

2010-07-10T13:27:00.001+05:30

Image of the week

Seen three, five and even seven star hotels but what about up star

2010-07-07T16:03:00.003+05:30

World Cup football banners: A visual treat! Part VI

This one for the Holland fans!

Found this banner near Nainamvalappu football fans association building in Calicut.You can see some of the fans also, wearing Holland jersey and one guy riding a horse!

2010-07-06T16:10:00.013+05:30

The story of FIFA World cup trophy and it's replica

Italian artist Silvio Gazzaniga designed the FIFA World cup trophy. The trophy stands 36.5 centimetres tall and is made of 5 kg of 18 carat gold Produced by Bertoni, Milano.

It weighs 6.175 kg in total and depicts two human figures holding up the Earth. That’s about the original FIFA World cup trophy now,through out my travel in Malabar I happened to see so many replicas of the FIFA World cup trophy!
World cup trophy at Aricode, Malappuram!

This one made by a person named Sukumaran in cement.

It took two days for him to make this. One day for molding and another for painting. He says he has made this World cup for Brazil to win.

This cup was given to the winning team, Brazil in the match organized at a place named Makkarapparamba, near Malappuram and again in Aricode match. There both Brazil and Argentina were declared joint winners.

I also had the rare privilege (as far as an Indian is concerned)to hold the FIFA World cup trophy, I mean at least the replica.
World cup trophy at Nainamvalappu!
There is a purpose for this replica of World cup trophy kept in Nainamvalappu, (considered as the football capital of Calicut) football fans association. This trophy is made in wood. During the final of the World cup when the winner lifts the original FIFA World cup trophy, this replica at Nainamvalappu will be handed over to the respective fan club members!

The person who made this replica!

Myself with the FIFA World cup trophy (replica)! holding the cup for the second time in a week.wasn't that great?

Even my uncle who arranged all the meetings in Calicut was so happy to hold the World Cup!
World cup trophy at Puthanathani!

This is the biggest replica of FIFA World Cup trophy I saw, stands almost 4 ft, made in Gypsum! in front of the Nice Coffee Day!

2010-07-06T12:23:00.002+05:30

Urban designer Mitchell Joachim presents his vision for sustainable, organic architecture: eco-friendly abodes grown from plants and meat.

Mitchell Joachim: Don't build your home, grow it! | Video on TED.com

2010-07-05T13:05:00.015+05:30

Day 4: Puthanathani, Malappuram district
Nice Coffee Day: 2 Argentina, 1 Brazil and 1 Germany please!

Through one of Malayalam dailies, I came to know about this wonderful Coffee shop in Puthanathani, a small town in Malappuram district.

So what's the specialty of this Coffee shop? and how is it related to the football World cup?

This is one sure sign of soccer mania!almost 4 ft replica of FIFA World Cup made in Gypsum! in front of the Nice Coffee Day!

Set of Brazilian and Argentinian juice glasses! Then I met Mr. Khalid who runs the shop, along with Mr. Abdul Karim. So if you ask for juice you are most likely get a menu like this "Brazil, Argentina, England, Italy, France and Germany".

"We wanted to do something very different this World cup , and we came out this concept of naming various juices as leading football playing nations", says Khalid who himself is a juice maker.

And the name is not only in the juice, so you have various tables branded as different nations like

Germany table

Italy, all you have to do is come and sit in your favourite nation's table, the particular juice, named after that nation we come to you!

The Samba table, for the fans of Brazil!So there are like friends, who will come as a gang and once they enter they split and sit in their respective team's table.

You have England table also. He is planning to show the semis and final live adjacent to the shop itself so that people can see the matches while sipping the juice.

So I went and sat in Argetina table and ordered, 1 Argentina please!

And enjoyed my Argentina shake, it was complimentary from the owner!

Later in Chennai at Cafe Coffee Day I found this, but according to me Nice Coffee Day is more connected to World Cup Soccer brand and represents the true spirit of people of Malabar towards Football!

To be continued...

2010-07-02T17:25:00.007+05:30

United flags of soccer World!

Every where you see only one thing, Flags in different shapes and colour. During the World cup season entire Malabar area will be wrapped by flags of different football playing nations. Argentina and Brazil lead the list but you will see flags of European nations also.

United flags in front of a Club in Perinthalmanna!

A Ladies store in Malappuram town

Argentina flag with bulbs!

This Argentina, I would say wooden flag was unique!

The scene at Nainamvalappu, the football capital of Calicut.

To be continued...

2010-07-02T14:02:00.008+05:30

Chennai Social Media Club's fourth session

As a part of Social Media Club Chennai knowledge sharing monthly meetup,Rennie Revin the Founder of Indiblogger.in (A popular Indian community that engages expert bloggers from the country) will be sharing his views and experience on Blogging.

The areas Rennie going to cover are,

1. How to blog successfully?

- Explore common elements of blog
- Learn how to become a blogger
- Find out how to promote your blog

2. How blogger communities established at Indibloggers helps brands in spreading a qualified word of mouth references.

3. The Indiblogger scenario and how can it help bloggers promote their blog.

The event is on July 3

Venue: Jayalakshmi Real Estates, Haddows Road, Nungambakkam, Chennai

Registration Fee: Rs. 200 /- (To be paid at the venue)

Looking forward to a wonderful session!

2010-07-01T15:35:00.007+05:30

Day 2,3: Malappuram and Calicut
Offers offers every where

I happened to see this banner when I was crossing the Perinthalmanna town. There was this huge banner placed in front of the home appliances store named Janatha Arcade. The banner said World cup 2010 mega sale.

I got curious to know more about the offers. Lijo, the person in charge of the store said most of the TV brands like LG, Samsung, Godrej and Onida have come up with World Cup offers. Then there was scratch card where one gift was assured. Other offers being Sony is giving a Jubilani, the official football of the 2010 World cup with every purchase of LCD TVs. Then there is cash discount of up to Rs.1000

Mainly clubs purchase TV in this season. On an average 10 pieces are sold in a day. One of the emerging trends in this World Cup season was the group purchase. 6-10 people, mainly youngsters will pool money and buy TV just to see the World Cup.

Here also the main teams have to reach at least in the quarters in order for the TV sales to pick up.

To be continued....

2010-06-30T17:33:00.005+05:30

World Cup football banners: A visual treat! Part V

One more for the Brazil fans!

Lots of action in the Banner.

On one side Maradonna kissing the hand of Ronaldinho and saying "Oh God, Now even if I die its ok!". Next to that one Argentina player begging to one Brazil guy, "Please don't thrash us any more" and another guy telling "Guys, lets go, its Brazil".
In the middle there is this 6 pointers on why they like Brazil, all statistics on how many times Brazil defeated Argentina!

To be continued..

2010-06-29T13:47:00.017+05:30

Day 2,3: Malappuram, Aricode and Calicut
Die hard football fans of Malabar! Part II

Argentina Brand ambassadors for Malappuram district!

Shafiq and Nithumon, the self proclaimed Brand ambassadors of Argentina team.

They visit all the near by fan clubs, get a warm welcome, especially from Argentina fans clubs.

Purchased this scooter only for the World cup 2010. spent around Rs.1000 for stickering.
Argentina cars!

Shiju, a business man wanted to do something different in this World cup. So decided to sticker his two cars. He attended all the road shows related to World cup

He spent around Rs 3000 per car for stickering work.

The official means of transportation for Argentina

Portugal and Italy fan clubs!The banner has the complete World cup fixture also.

I saw this person in Brazil Vs Argentina match organised at Aricode. Notice the strange percussion instrument.

Cheer leader for Argentina team in a match against Brazil at Aricode.

Meet Sukumaran, a die hard Brazil fan. He made this World cup replica in cement. It took two days for him to make the World cup. One day for molding and another for painting. He says he has made this World cup for Brazil to win. This cup was given to the winning team, Brazil in the match organized at a place named Makkarapparamba, near Malappuram and again in Aricode match, where both Brazil and Argentina were declared joint winners!

2010-06-29T12:21:00.002+05:30

Ananda Shankar Jayant,renowned classical Indian dancer,tells her personal story of not only facing the disease but dancing through it.
Ananda Shankar Jayant fights cancer with dance | Video on TED.com

2010-06-28T10:58:00.013+05:30

Day 2,3: Malappuram, Aricode and Calicut
Die hard football fans of Malabar! Part I

Throughout my trip in Malabar, I met some real die hard fans of football. They are ready to go to any extent to enjoy the World cup football season. I heard of some people coming from gulf, resigning their jobs, reason? they did not get leave. Lets meet some interesting football fans from Malabar!

Subi from Calicut.who rents out tarpaulin and chairs.

Came up with this interesting concept, he covered his roof top with tarpaulin and made it an indoor stadium!

With two TVs inside, one cable connection and the other DTH. There is a generator also. No way you can miss a match!

The Brazil van at Aricode!, covered with Brazil flags!

The youngest (and cutest) Brazilian fan, met this little fellow at Aricode.

The Argentina Car!

Jabbar with his Argentina Bike, a regular fan in all World cup special road shows, met him at Aricode.

Met this hard core Brazil fan at Puthiyathani, a place near Kotakkal in Malappuram dist. He has spent almost Rs. 900 for stickering his bike.

To be continued.....

2010-06-27T08:47:00.002+05:30

Image of the week

Return of the Demon King!

Found this banner of Ravanan the movie,Tamil version,in front of Kasi theatre in Ashok Nagar, Chennai!

2010-06-26T13:36:00.006+05:30

World Cup football banners: A visual treat! Part IV

We cheer for India!

It's not that only Brazil, Argentina and other leading Football playing nations have banners and fan clubs. India also has some supporters. During my trip I saw two interesting banners supporting India. They sincerely hope that one day Indian football will make it to FIFA World Cup.

I saw this poster inside a store at Malappuram town.

The wording are funny, " We want to play!we also have boots and jerseys!"

. The tag line says " World cup committee is waiting for them" day dreaming?

This banner at Nainamvalappu, the football capital of Calicut!
The headline says " One day India will also play in the World Cup." ending with a JAI HO!

Now lets wait for that the day when India will play in FIFA World Cup, JAI HO!

2010-06-25T10:54:00.005+05:30

Day 1: Perinthalmanna, Malappuram District
Crown fashion enterprises- The shawl distributors of Malappuram!

I met Manoj and Anil, two youngsters, in front of the Garima stores. They were about to leave with a bag full of shawls they had picked up from Garima. Manoj works for Kerala State Road Transport Corporation.

Their company, Crown fashion enterprises mainly distributes sports related stuffs through out Malappuram district. During World Cup season they take only football related merchandising.“Football is in our blood” says Manoj, who is a hard core Brazil fan, seen in the pic wearing Brazil jersey. I requested for some pic and within no time Manoj and Anil drapped their car with various nations’ shawls.

Messi’s jersey has the highest demand and Manoj has taken around 1000 pieces. Other items include Wrist bands, flags, football itself and shorts.

To be continued....

2010-06-23T14:41:00.006+05:30

World Cup football banners: A visual treat! Part III

A set of banners for hard core Argentina fans.

Diego Maradonna in traditional Malayalee (Tamil also)attire!

Now here I see a clear case of inspiration from a recently released Malayalam movie, Pokkiriraja, starring Mammooty and Prithviraj

And look at Messi, also in similar traditional Malayalee clothing of Shirt and Mundu (dhothi)!

Emulating your legendary coach (Diego)in football is okay, but clothing also?

Now the connection, Mammootty is one of all time super stars of Malayalam cinema, same with Maradona, who is one of the greatest in the game of football.
Prithviraj is the young super hero of Malayalam cinema and Messi is no different, is the new super hero of Football and (2010 World Cup?)

To be continued......

2010-06-22T12:37:00.002+05:30

Investor and prankster Yossi Vardi delivers a careful lecture on the dangers of blogging. Specifically, for men.

Yossi Vardi fights local warming | Video on TED.com

2010-06-22T11:01:00.011+05:30

Day 1: Makkaraparamba, Malappuram District
Brazil beat Argentina 4-3, lifts the World Cup!

On my way to Malappuram, I saw this wonderful set of banners, ten of them in a junction. For the first time I saw such a long banner series,later heard from some kids that some where in Malappuram there is a series of 32 banners, a banner each for all World cup football finalists!

There were banners for Brazil, Argentina, Holland, Italy, North Korea, France, England, Portugal, Spain and Germany.
So as usual I started taking pictures of the banners, by the time some students of nearby high school gathered and were looking curiously. So I started my usual chat with the kids about the World Cup celebration. One guy almost screamed in excitement and said that Brazil beat Argentina 4-3. I was bit confused. Because the World Cup kick off was yet to happen and how come Brazil won against Argentina? Then the details started coming in.

The match was a locally organized one for the fans of Brazil and Argentina. These types of matches are a usual occurrence during World cup season in these parts.Players will wear various nations’ jerseys and play exhibition matches. So Sakkir, who used to play for Viva Kerala was the captain of Brazil team and Asif Zahir, ex SBT Kerala player captained Argentina. The match was very thrilling it seems. Around 300 people came for the match.

A local club, Legends Club at Makkaraparamba organized the game.

The members of the club with their favourite team's flags!

And the winner gets the World Cup, not the original one but a replica, this one made in cement by a person named Sukumaran. Later at a Aricode I met Sukumaran and had a rare opportunity, but that's a different story!

The victorious Brazilian team with the World Cup! believe me this will happen only in Kerala, that too in Malabar!

To be continued....

2010-06-21T15:07:00.002+05:30

World Cup football banners: A visual treat! Part II!

My next pick of interesting banner is, am sure will delight Brazil fans and despond the Argentina ones.

Location: Chathamangalam, Calicut district,

Theme: Inspired from the Malayalam saying “1000 Kozhimutteykku Ara Kada”, a rough translation “half quail’s egg is equivalent to a 1000 Hen’s egg “ , the statement underlines the fact that quail’s egg is far more nutritious than a Hen’s egg. Now to the World Cup and the banner from Brazil fans.

Headline: 1000 Messikku ara Kaka, means

“Half Kaka is enough for a 1000 Messi(s)”!

Now how is that?

2010-06-21T10:47:00.003+05:30

My article on Mylai Shri Karpakambal Mess

Published in On Sale Express

2010-06-19T13:12:00.027+05:30

Football World cup live shows in Malabar

Once the matches are started you can hardly see a person in the streets, what you see is a bunch of people glued to TV. Now based on the convenience and financial capability the arrangements vary.

Ride-in live show

This is the most common scene through out the region! Either you buy a TV or hire it

Shutters will come down by 5pm, the time when the first match will start. Just place the LCD and DTH set,

just drive in your bike and enjoy the matches!

Drive-in live shows!

Now little more sophistication!

For the affluent ones, come in car with food and enjoy the matches!

I happened to read from the paper that World cup matches were showing live in a theatre named Rachana in Kootnad, a town in Palakkad District. So thought will have a look at the place.

The big banner announcing the live show of matches!

Sajesh, the person who has arranged the show has taken the theatre for a month for a rent of Rs 15,000. He is planning to show 60 of 64 matches of this World cup.

During last World cup also he showed the matches in big screen, but that was in a theatre in neighbouring Thrissur District and he lost money. This time he chose a place having hard core football fans. So he thinks he will make some profit this time around. Sajesh explaining the mechanism. DTH is kept and matches are shown from it.

Charges are quite reasonable, Rs 20 for one match.He arranged a special show for me, the highlights of Brazil's first match!

Sajesh guarantees that it's a house full during Argentina and Brazil matches Complimentary pass for the show!

Roof top theatre!

Now an interesting arrangement in Calicut!

Subi is a hard core football fan. He is in to the business of renting out tarpaulin and chairs. So he came up with this interesting concept, he covered his roof top with tarpaulin and made it an indoor stadium!

There are two TVs, for safety reason. One has the normal cable connection and the other one connected to DTH. There is a generator also."I want to make sure that come what may I will not miss a match", says Subi!

Now this is free for all, and by evening around 40 people will assemble and enjoy the matches.
Gallery at puthiyapalam

But the most impressive arrangement for the live football show I saw was in a place called Puthiyapalam in Calicut District.

The banner announcing the show, reads, "watch the World cup football matches sitting inside the stadium in Puthiyapalam, not South Africa".

The football fans' of Puthiyapalam along with Mathrubhumi, one of leading Malayalam dailies have come up with this wonderful idea! The entrance to the gallery!

Probably this is the only place other than the stadium where you can sit in a gallery and see the matches!The gallery can accommodate around 500 people. The greatest highlight is that its absolutely free show!

View from the gallery!People come from far distance to see the matches. They have also arranged some contests like predict the winner. Firos Khan the president of the club says "once you come and see the matches here you will never sit in front of the TV again". Now after seeing all these arrangements I think so!There is nothing like seeing the matches with your friends

To be continued....

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2010-06-18T12:17:00.007+05:30

World Cup football banners: A visual treat! Part I

During my trip to Malabar I saw at least 500-600 banners,took photos of almost 300. Every 500 metres you can at least see 2 banners, one for Brazil and another for Argentina, almost all the towns in Malabar have their fan clubs. These clubs (sometimes individuals)spend huge amount of money for printing and mounting these banners. Argentina and Brazil have the maximum fan following. I picked up some interesting Banners. Some very creative,some have high voltage dialogues (thanks to Malayalam cinema)and some vulgar too.

So this is my first pick. An Argentina fan club’s banner for sure. Argentina is shown as the Lion; don’t miss the Brazil,shown as a donkey. Italy as a bull, Holland a rabbit, Germany a horse.

The headline says “The king of 1986 (The great Maradona) and cubs are getting out of African forest”. The baseline “This Lion (Argentina) will pounce upon his preys as soon as the whistle is blown at Johannesburg”.

Epilogue

I was busy taking pictures of this banner and a guy came and said there is an another banner nearby, much more bigger and interesting than this one.He took me to near by junction.There I saw a huge Brazil banner, then realized the guy was a hard core Brazil fan! He smiled and said "We have already won 5 World Cups, so a bigger banner was required".

To be continued....

2010-06-17T11:10:00.019+05:30

Day 1- Perinthalmanna, Malappuram District
Garima Sports and Fitness!

Started my trip from a small town called Perinthalmanna in Malappuram Dist. Around 11:30 I reached in front of the Garima sports and fitness, one of the leading sports store.

Never in my life I have seen this much of crowd in a sports store.Most of customers are in their teens, busy selecting jerseys of their favourite football players.

Shamir, owner of the store, with his aides. He has procured a wide range of World Cup special merchandising for the fans.

Flags of leading football playing nations,car stickers, wrist bands, jerseys of great players, shawls,ribbons and the list continues..

Store is stuffed with Football related merchandising! Most of the materials comes from the neighbouring district Palakkad,Ernakulam and Thiruppur, a town in Tamil Nadu which is famous for Knitwear.

Brazil fans in their favourite teams' jersey, in front of the sport store.Inspite of all these wide range of merchandising,the crazy fans'never ending demands continue and Shamir is clueless on where to go and get the stuff.

The rival gang, hard core Argentina fans!Shamir prays that Argentina and Brazil should at least reach in semis, otherwise all this festivity will stop. But for the time now its festival time and Shamir is busy helping the fans!

Later during the trip found this Brazil and Messi slippers in a shop at Pattambi! The slippers are from New Delhi and cost almost Rs. 180 per pair.

And a proud Brazil fan was ready to show his loyalty!

To be continued....

2010-06-16T19:22:00.002+05:30

Image of the week

Found this empty ice cream shelf, really irresistible!

2010-06-16T14:35:00.007+05:30

A journey through Malabar!

The Idea of travelling through Malabar came when my friend sent me pictures of banners.Fans of various soccer playing nations have spent huge amount of money for printing and mounting these banners.

These banners show the real passion of the people in the northern Kerala for football. So in order to get a first hand account of the celebrations, I decided to travel through the main Soccer loving districts of Kerala i.e Palakkad, Malappuram and Kozhikode. The idea was to pick up as many news related to World Cup football,to meet fans, find out the World Cup special merchandising and to understand in detail various local soccer clubs’ activities.

For the next one month (almost) I will be writing about my experiences with, I would say World’s craziest fans of football.

To be continued...

2010-06-10T13:36:00.006+05:30

Workshop on Podcasting by Kiruba Shankar!

The concept of I'm bored! presented at recently concluded Idea Camp was quite interesting. Imagine you are bored or you have no clue about the exciting events happening in the city, what do you do?I'm Bored is supposed to be a website (read directory) where all these events / camps will be mentioned. So thought let me share something about an event that is going to happen in Chennai on July 4.

Kiruba Shankar is being doing Podcast show for quite a while. He has already interviewed many CXOs and celebrities in his show, Kiruba.tv. Now he is conducting a workshop on Podcasting. Nothing like learning the art from the best person around.

The Workshop will cover all the nuisances of Podcasting and is hands- on too, where the participants will be scripting, recording, editing and publishing their own Podcasts. Believe me, this workshop will be fun! Am eagerly looking forward to the event. For more details visit http://www.businessblogging.org/podcast

2010-06-09T17:51:00.004+05:30

Travels through Malabar during World Cup season

India's FIFA ranking stands at 132 out of 200.Way back in October 2007, in the preliminary to the qualifying stage, we were knocked out by Lebanon! We never had any foot ball demi-gods. Our list of foot ball greats stops at 5 or 6,actually I can not remember any names other than I.M Vijayan and Baichung Bhutia. The game is hardly played in any of the states than Kerala, West Bengal and Goa. Still millions of Indians are die hard football fans.

FIFA World cup 2010 is just 2 days away and its the best time to travel through northern part of Kerala, The Malabar. The entire stretch is decorated with banners and flags of various World cup football playing nations.

This World cup season I will be travelling the entire Malabar area, to celebrate the spirit of FIFA World cup with the true fans of the game and bring interesting stories and images of them.

To be continued....

2010-06-08T08:26:00.004+05:30

Once the US Vice President, then star of An Inconvenient Truth, now Nobel Peace Prize winner, Al Gore found a way to focus the world's attention on climate change.

Al Gore on averting climate crisis | Video on TED.com

2010-06-07T12:40:00.021+05:30

The Sapling project: Chennai chapter

Last time the Sapling project happened in only one place in Chennai (read) but June edition we managed in two places

Radhakrishnan,who organised the people and arranged saplings from Isha nursery at Madhavaram, North Chennai

Jagan of Space, who collected the saplings. They are planning to plant a 1000 different varieties of saplings in a place near Chennai. I am getting some info from him.

Isha nursery at Madhavaram

Samuel Eddy,Sapling project mentor,handing over Saplings to one of group members!

The Saplings all packed and ready!

From Madhavaram the team came back to Chennai, at Horticulture nursery, to pick saplings for distribution inside Chennai city!

Samuel Eddy,along with the Organisers, Rajasekar Nonburaj and Magesh. Eddy was a planter for almost 15 years, helped in picking up the right saplings.

I have not seen so much greenery inside Chennai city!

Lots of fresh air, different sounds of birds.

And drizzling,It was really a much needed break!

The saplings collected from Horticulture centre, kept at Housing Board colony at Royapetah, Saplings eagerly waiting to get picked!

Within 10 minutes people came and collected the saplings!

Good to see the saplings planted!And come July its going to be even Bigger, Better and lot more Greener!

2010-06-05T21:56:00.015+05:30

Social Media Club, Chennai

June month sessions by

Jayashree Ramasubramanian and Bharath Moro!

Jayashree Ramasubramaniam,Web Marketing Manager at Intuit and ex-Googler, started her session by asking "some of you must be thinking why did these guys quit Google?", actually I had this in my mind, because Google is the most Googliest company and why should somebody leave a company like Google?

Jayashree's session was her perspectives of Social Media Strategies at Intuit. She shared various concepts like freemium, humanising the brand at team turbotax where one can meet the team members. The thought leadership concept, bringing together the small businesses in U.K

The all round contribution of various social media activities.

One of the observation she had about social media was, in social media people are never on a buying mode, they either socialise or do research.

Bharath Moro, ex-Googler (again the same thought! why leave Google?) and now Independent Consultant talked about Social Media and Search. His points were

The concept of social SEO, how to use ones friends/ networking/
power users/communities and influencers to spread the message/idea

Do not expect high ranking for the site as soon as you upload it! it takes time.

Top 10 incredible audio illusions, Top 15 green websites, got it?

Bharat is very passionate about trains, its colours, coach numbers, photographing it, now he thought he was the only nut in the whole World (his mother was little worried it seems seeing his passion) then he went and found around 500 other nuts in a group named Indian Railways Fan Club

2010-06-04T08:36:00.005+05:30

The Vishu and the Kani!

Vishu , Kerala’s new year festival falls on the month of April. The most important event in Vishu is the Vishukani, means “the first to be seen on the Vishu day". Kani Konna, the yellow flower, Golden Shower Tree (cassia fistula) is the integral part of Vishu Kani.

A typical Vishu Kani, with Kani konna!

This Vishu we had a tough time searching for Konna and had to adjust our kani with some other yellow colour flowers.

Our Vishu Kani, without Konna

Now it’s June, almost two months after Vishu, I see this tree that too very near to my home.

Its Kani (not Vishu kani) for me on a daily basis.

So is it because of global warming? I searched, read some articles and found that actually trees flower early because of the climate change, so this flowering is for the 2011 Vishu, in that case I need to stock it (and probably stock a lot and make a fortune by selling them),because next Vishu is its just 10 months away!

2010-06-03T19:43:00.003+05:30

Image of the week

After Sachin ka Dhaba, now Chennai has 'Dhoni Ka Dhaba! Chennai Super Kings effect?

2010-06-01T17:11:00.009+05:30

The people's car on a Great India road trip!

Tata Nano, the people’s car is on a great Indian road trip. This June 9 Tata Nano cars will be travelling the entire length and breadth of India, covering 15,000 km, 36 cities in 29 days. The road trip will be flagged off from Tata Nano’s manufacturing hub in Sanand, Gujarat on June 2 and conclude on June 28.
Tri colour routes

There are three different routes for the road trip,
Saffron route

Team will drive towards North India, covering about 4098kms, through cities such as Sanand, Udaipur, Jaipur, Hissar, Amritsar, Chandigarh, Delhi, Meerut, Agra, Lucknow, Gwalior and Kota and back to Sanand

White route

This route is about 5888 kms, from Sanand, Indore, Bhopal, Nagpur, Raipur, Ranchi, Patna, Kolkatta, Bhubaneshwar, Vizag, Hyderabad, Aurangabad and back to Sanand.

Green route

Third team will head down south, covering 4829 kms. Starting from Sanand to Surat, Mumbai, Pune, Goa, Mangalore, Kochi, Coimbatore, Chennai, Bangalore, Kolhapur, Solapur, Nasik and Ahmedabad.

Now 3 Bloggers have been selected to cover the event. They will be travelling along with the Nanos and reporting the entire trip.
The blogs to watch out for

Saffron route

White route

Green route

So 'The people's car is on a trip, to meet the people of India!

2010-06-01T08:54:00.002+05:30

Steve Jobs' talk at Stanford University,Stay Hungry, Stay foolish!
Steve Jobs: How to live before you die | Video on TED.com

2010-05-31T12:48:00.008+05:30

Notes from Chennai's first Idea Camp!

Chennai is the great place to share ideas and meeting interesting people, that’s what Ramesh Manickam of Android had to say about the Chennai’s first Idea camp. Venkatesh says there were no big crazy ideas but many practical ideas. As soon as the camp was over, like minded people started discussing about how to take the idea forward, now that’s the very idea of Ideacamp. These camps give you a platform to share your thoughts, ideas and sometimes partners for your future projects.

Ram has already picked up the idea of TGs being involved in products and started working on packaging products under a brand name with TGs as brand ambassadors like Kurkure or Maggi?

But Benedict Gnaniah has a word of caution; good ideas play only a small part in success story. One needs to have good thinking, execution, risk, entrepreneurship, networking and plan to make that idea into action.

That's me(red T-shirt), live tweeting the event, believe me, tweeting live is big fun!

Some felt unusually tired physically after the event. This gives you an idea about the involvement of participants. For some, idea camp was the first social meet and had the initial hiccups so they just listened to the ideas (we need some one who can listen to,with lots of patience,to our ideas right?)
So what really happened?
Around 40 people met at Photon Infotech,Ranjiv Gandhi Road, Chennai. The camp kicked off with a great ice breaker. Then the ideas started pouring in. Ideas on creating Petting zones, a zoo of domesticated pets such as dogs, cats, hamsters and squirrels, A system to transfer food into one’s stomach wirelessly and a stomach simulator that gives a feeling of being fed, what an idea sirji!!

Then ideas on how to reduce heat by growing terrace garden (a must of Chennai for sure), eco friendly hygienic cost effective public urinals again a must for whole India. How about a site for travel networking? Review system for Colleges, a website www.howismyidea.com to share ideas, A mobile lab for rural India, an application very aptly named, I’m bored, for sharing interesting events / happenings in the city.

A kiosk for identifying talents and a website for rating various services, especially restaurant so that people can save time, money and health.
Points to Ponder

1.Spray cows milk diluted water can make tomatoes bigger
2.Terrace gardens helps reduce heat
3.Pets are good stress busters
4.India doesn't need big idea to solve all problems but small ideas to solve the million small problems
5.Gays are main stream. Lesbians are main stream. Transgendered people should be next
6.Best way to reach an idea to the mass is to put the idea behind autos
7.Technology barriers will always be broken
8.Its not all money in social cause, how much time one can dedicate, to be with the needy
9.Just implement your idea how small it may be
10.Don’t get married to one idea.

It’s really good to be surrounded by lots of ideas, but the real challenge is to convert these ideas in to actions as Arnold H. Glasgow, an American humorist said, an idea not coupled with action will never get any bigger than the brain cell it occupied.

2010-05-28T22:14:00.002+05:30

Image of the week

There are so many parts inside your watch and they all are doing a great job to show you the right time

2010-05-27T10:49:00.016+05:30

An Idea (camp) can change many lives!

This Saturday, May 29, Chennai is going to listen to some of wackiest, great, funniest, astonishing ideas. The Knowledge Foundation (TKF) is organizing the first Idea Camp in Chennai. The ideas shared might start a great movement or result in the birth of a great company.

Idea Camp's

page

Your ideas must be related to one / many of the fields mentioned below

1 Technology
2 Social Change
3 Arts & Entertainment
4 Marketing, Advertisement and Design
5 Outliers

Have a look at some of the ideas already registered. So register here, come and share your idea, you never know the power of your idea

2010-05-26T13:09:00.005+05:30

Chennai Social Media Club's third session

Chennai's Social Media Club is slowly but steadily becoming the most active SMC in the country. First Saturday of every month Social media practitioners and enthusiasts get together and share their experience.

June month's session will have two eminent persons sharing their take on Social Media.

About Speakers

1. Jayashree Ramasubramanian, representing Intuit

2. Bharat Moro, a writer, consultant, teacher and photographer

Session details

Looking forward to a wonderful session on June 5

2010-05-25T07:01:00.002+05:30

Jonathan Harris interesting Ted talk about the Web's secret stories

Jonathan Harris: the Web's secret stories | Video on TED.com

2010-05-20T07:36:00.002+05:30

Image of the Week

Bharani Shivakumar at the Pecha-Kucha night, Chennai edition 1. Came in full cycling costume, heard he cycled all the way from Thiruvanmyur to Nungambakkom. Gave a nice presentation on his passion,cycling of course and various activities of Tamil Nadu Cycling Club

2010-05-19T12:26:00.005+05:30

Cyclone Laila, what's in a name?

What’s In a name, as Shakespeare asked, but it seems there is lot, Its freezing cold in Chennai now, after almost a year I switched on the water heater, thanks to Laila , the cyclone article on Times of India
It’s not sure whether Laila will ever enter Tamil Nadu, but the big debate has already started. Cyclone Laila was the topic in one of FM channels and the RJ was dead against the name. How come the cyclone having a North Indian name (first time I am hearing that Laila is a North Indian name)or suggested by Pakistan? and as the cyclone is going to hit TN, it should have a Tamizh (tamil ) name, to be more precise any names from Sangam literature

And throughout the show (7-10 am) listeners were calling up and suggesting names, that‘s really funny right? We have started celebrating the arrival of natural disasters. The debate is continuing in Twitter. So I did a little bit of searching and found this site, offering pure tamil names.

Now can we pick one and welcome her, the ex Laila?

2010-05-18T11:52:00.002+05:30

Legendary music conductor Benjamin Zander on music and passion, a must watch Ted talk
Benjamin Zander on music and passion | Video on TED.com

2010-05-15T14:51:00.004+05:30

Meeting of Jumbos! Cerebrate Thekkady edition

Think of jumbos and highly picturesque Thekkady will come to every one's mind. Come May 19, eleven more will be joining them, 11 giants in their own fields, that's Cerebrate, meeting of achievers. They come from different walks of lives. Imagine a Cigar manufacturer. meeting a yachting champ or a food consultant meeting a visual artist! A story teller will be sharing his life story with a highly successful head of a chain of educational institutions. How is it to work with marginalized communities and devising ways of seeking acceptance for them? to know in depth about the World famous tsunami relief and rehabilitation project in Nagapattinam, what are the challenges one will face while working in rural India? whats common among Ads, scuba diving, restaurant and cigars? how is it to organise International sporting events? Whats so exciting in pastries and desserts?Thekkady edition of Cerebrate will truly be the meeting of jumbos (no pun intended) and that's Cerebrate is all about

Have a look at the achievers list

More on Cerebrate Thekkady edition

2010-05-13T17:39:00.004+05:30

The Sapling Project is back!

Love plants? then register and be there for playing real farmville, its fun believe me

have a look at the First edition

For more details, visit

Facebook page

Webpage

2010-05-11T16:20:00.002+05:30

Simon Sinek's wonderful talk on how great leaders inspire action
Simon Sinek: How great leaders inspire action | Video on TED.com

2010-05-08T08:37:00.019+05:30

An evening with Captain Gopinath!

According to Captain his Autobiography Simply Fly, A Deccan odyssey is the story of new India of possibilities. In midst of gloom one should have hope.

Autographed autobiography!

'Man is not finished when defeated but when he quits', Captain quoted from Shelly to Shakespeare,Einstein to Newton and Tagore!. First time his name appeared in a local paper was for a not so pleasant reason. He had taken loan from a bank pledging his wife's jewellery and the bank was about to auction it as he failed to repay. In midst of all this he came to Chennai to listen to Semmangudi srinivasa iyer's Carnatic music concert.

Once a bird hit the Delhi-Kokata Deccan flight,engine was damaged,Now a new engine had to be brought from Delhi to Kolkata and there was no direct freight service so the engine was flown from Delhi to Singapore and then to Kolkata (what a logistics nightmare you see!).

That night he decided to start an air freight services company that resulted in creation of Deccan 360. A well developed supply chain is essential for a matured economy. Its the arteries and veins of the Nation.

Low cost is more than a culture (once he sent a car for his dad but he refuced and came in a bus). Low cost is about innovation!

The Airplane Book

A bit of history! In my agency days I was handling an Airline client, so obviously I had to collect all news items on Aviation. After a while my desk became full and others denied the space in theirs! Then the idea of Airplane book came to my mind. Its a scrap book of what all I collected!

From the editor's desk! I wanted to make it as interesting as possible, so apart from the industry news I included

Trivia, jokes and various tags. Captain was curious to see news articles related to Deccan!

Logos of the various airlines

I added the book launch poster and got it signed! I would say a truly inspiring evening with the person who redefined the Indian aviation.

2010-05-06T11:16:00.011+05:30

Ravanan is back!

This time its Maniratnam's version. have a look at teaser
Its not the first time that Maniratnam has taken threads from epics.
One of his biggest hits,"Dalapathi" was losely based on the great epic Mahabharata.
This time it's Ravanan from Ramayanam. Ramayanam has various interpretations in various places.

Raavanah means 'one who makes people cry by his violent actions. Sage Valmiki depicted Ravanan as ten headed demon king. The symbolic meaning of "10 headed" is that he is guided by and does not have control over the five senses and five bodily instruments of action. An alternative interpretation is that he possessed a very thorough knowledge in the 4 vedas, and 6 upanishadas,which made him as powerful as 10 scholars. He also authored Ravana Sanhita, a powerful book on the Hindu astrology,also known as Lal Kitab. Ravana possessed a thorough knowledge of Ayurveda and political science

Raja Ravi Varma's Painting of Ravana, killing Jatau

In Sage Kambar's version, Ramavataram, Ravanan and Mandorai's first born was a girl that was Sita, but astrologer predicted that the the girl would become reason for his destruction.He threw away the kid in a basket. The baby didnt die, instead was safe in the earth and was found later by king Janaka who brought her up as his daughter. The great Malayalam poet Vayalar Rama Varma took this thread and penned "Ravanaputhri"

Devdutt Pattanaik,Chief Belief Officer at Future Group , has a different version. According to him Ravanan represents the law of the jungle where might is right. "Humans have the ability to say no to the law of the jungle - and the human journey from the animal to the divine is the gradual rejection of the law of the jungle. Ravana is the animal because he tries to take Sita by force because he is stronger. That is what one must conquer," Pattanaik says. full version of article

We need to wait and see what's Maniratnam version of Ravanan (Ramayanam)is,
So lets wait!

2010-05-05T11:26:00.002+05:30

Image of the week

This young Research Associate in need of funding for his Alcohol research, any takers?

2010-05-04T18:15:00.003+05:30

Wonderful talk by mathemagician Arthur Benjamin, calculates 3 digit numbers in seconds!

Arthur Benjamin does "Mathemagic" | Video on TED.com

2010-05-04T17:22:00.005+05:30

If at first, the idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it. ~Albert Einstein

Remember 'Idea Raman',the famous character who gives great ideas in an old Hindi Tv serial? if your memory cells are already started withering away, What about Sirji of the Idea cellular mobile, who has an idea for every problem?

The Knowledge Foundation (TKF) is coming up with "Idea Camp", a platform where anyone can come and share his/her ideas and validate it. The time given for sharing the Idea is around 3 mins and another 7 mins for Q&A and discussions. The most encouraging factor is that Idea camp is for non Techie people like me. So at least in this Camp you will not see the regular boring PPTs. Have a look at Facebook page of Idea Camp for more details.

So interested? is there a Sirji or Raman in you? Idea Camp would be the right place for you, come and share your ideas.

2010-05-03T11:50:00.007+05:30

The Man and the Machine!

I was intrigued to see this hi-tech machine at Property tax collecting centre.

But then the teething problems started, the officer took almost 10 mins to feed the details, the machine was stuck for another 10 mins, so almost after 20 mins he announced that the machine was not working

He calls up the service provider, requests him to bring another machine.
Now here who is at fault? not definitely the department who decided to make the billing process hi tech. I have my doubts whether The officer has enough expertise to handle the machine (you can't blame him also, all this happens all of a sudden). What about the service provider who had supplied the machines? is there any after sale service? The officer was complaining that after repeated calls no body came to change the machines. Anyway as always the common man is the loser. I have to go (and several others for sure)tomorrow again to collect the receipt.

But I was so happy and relieved to see the regular printer and printout at Water tax office!

2010-05-01T17:15:00.017+05:30

Social media club. Chennai

Will Social media cross the chasm? Session by Mr.Sukumar Rajagopal

Social media sessions are designed in the un-conference format. All contribute/participate in one way or other.

Swarna Rajagopal was session photographer!

Jayanth Vincent volunteered as official session tweeter, live tweets on the session.

Now the session kicked off with the fun theory initiative by Volswagen, a wonderful video that demonstrates the behavioural change in people.

Some keys points from Sukumar Rajagopal's session

a. CTS through social media inverted the conventional hierarchical pyramid.

b. Employees started contributing, created various communities, took up various social activities (Go green initiatives)

c. Management brought change management through social media,could easily discover talents in employees

d. Productivity among employees increased and they became happier

e. Better connected employees produced better ideas

Crossing the Chasm!

Like any new technology social media has to cross the chasm. to do that Sukumar's message for the social media marketers was 'If you don't have a precise path by which you can convince the Pragmatists, you can't cross the chasm'.

click here for Mr. Sukumar's complete presentation

2010-04-30T19:08:00.024+05:30

Rang De presents Swarathama Live In concert to change lives

Swarthma live in concert is to happen on May 1, check here for details and I was part of the blogger group that attended the press meet

Press Invite

Ramakrishna, Co-founder and CEO Rang De gave a brief introduction about how he got inspired by Mr.Muhammad Yunus and His Grameen Bank that resulted in founding of Rang De, a social initiative that supports rural micro entrepreneurs.

What's common between

and

Ms. Waheeda Rehman Waheedaji started her speech with a question? Are you all happy? If you help someone whom you don't know then the happiness doubles, she continued. A news report on Rang De made her curious to know more about the project (She thought Rang De was something related to Rang De Basanti). Actually they are realted, both are talking about bringing change.

Mr.Soumitra Ghosh of CSO explained how they are proud to support a change agent named Rang De. He touched upon Mahathma's ideology of Grama Swaraj and inclusive growth.

Mr. Ramakrishna, Ms Waheeda Rehman and Mr. Soumitra Ghosh

Rs. 5000 is the minimum loan amount Rang De arranges but Ram shared an experience where the weaving community in a village in Orissa asked for loans as low as Rs.1000 and Rs.2000.

Rang De has started a revolution, a butterfly flap and its sure that this small flap is going to change a million lives!

2010-04-30T10:07:00.001+05:30

Image of the week

Found adjacent to an elevator.

2010-04-29T12:19:00.005+05:30

Cheer Vishy

The greatest sportsperson of India GM Viswanathan Anand, I know there are equally great sports personalities India has produced, to name a few, Milkha Singh and P.T Usha, Ramanathan Krishnan and Paes, Geet Sethi and Pankaj Advani, Prakash Padukone and Gopichand, N. Karthikeyan and Chandhok, Radhore and Bindra, Sania and Saina, Kapil, Sunil and Sachin and many more but can we say Vishy is surely the first among equals? A true World Champ and now at Sofia Military Club, (right place to play chess), he is fighting with GM Veselin Topalov to defend his FIDE World title. After 4 rounds it’s advantage Anand (2.5- 1.5). Lets cheer the ‘King of 64 squares’ . Have a look at facebook fan page.

2010-04-28T12:50:00.005+05:30

Season's colour is Yellow

This season's colour is yellow for sure!

Everywhere you see yellow in different shapes

and sizes

Roads get a yellow coloured carpet made of flowers too!

2010-04-27T10:54:00.003+05:30

William Kamkwamba on how he harnessed the wind, an interesting TED talk

William Kamkwamba: How I harnessed the wind | Video on TED.com

2010-04-25T10:59:00.016+05:30

Coming of the Ipl season! concluding part

Love it or hate it but you can't ignore it, thats

The official partner is rocking!
Super Kings semma Rockings!
If you are the official partner then its a celebration! and its true, CSK roared and rocked!

T20 of a different kind!

Twenty days , Twenty cars free offer from TATA!

Curious connection of a car with a film star and cricket! thats IPL!

Buy a Hyundai car and get SRK signed cricket kit

who said IPL is batmens' game?

Mac spin foundation @ Chennai constructed (read painted) a new ground exclusively for IPL. No wonder spinners did well at IPL season 3.

Odyssey Prize Loot!
Odyssey cam out with OPL contest

Odyssey has complete range of Deccan Charges merchandising!

One more IPL season comes to an end. Even though this season was marred by many a controversy, everybody enjoyed. Now lets wait for IPL 4 and its going to be 10 teams next time.

2010-04-23T10:04:00.011+05:30

Coming of the Ipl season! part II

Love it or hate it but you can't ignore it, thats

Whats the easiest and cheapest way for hotels/restaurants to get associated with IPL?

Put up a banner

Then set up a big screen, print a banner and invite all!

To go a little further

try to put some catchy phrases like 'tasty matches' and delicious scores. But how come this hotel knew well in advance that its going to be Mumbai Indians Vs Chennai Super Kings in IPL final?

A Great catch!

This is interesting, found in front of a sea food restaurant, to an extent carries IPL flavour.

Now the most interesting one

Dosa Calling has whole set of IPL special items like bouncer bonda,inswinging idli upuma (Wasim Akram, did u see this?)to name a few. Have a look at more detailed post regarding DC. DC has done some homework and put lots of efforts to embrace IPL season.

To be continued...

2010-04-22T12:13:00.015+05:30

Social media club. Chennai

Chennai social media club's inaugural session by Mr. Narayanan, Co-founder, 2020 media was a big hit. If you missed it, here is my take on first session
Now club's second session is on May 1.This time it's a double treat, two speakers will be sharing their experience on social media.

Details of the speakers,

Speaker 1: Sukumar Rajagopal,Senior Vice President, Head of Innovation (CTS),SVP/Head of Innovation, Cognizant. Former CKO.Social.History.Anthropology.Culture. #KM.SWEBOK.Technology.Toastmaster.Indus Valley Researcher, Management.

Sukumar's twitter handle

Speaker 2:David Appasamy, Chief Communications Officer, Sify Technologies Limited,Business Manager & Strategist, Brand and Marketing specialist, Communications expert, student of the world at large, avid reader, photographer and blogger.

David's twitter handle

Session details

Follow the club's developments in twitter

So if you are interested in social media/ new media, don't forget to book your seat, be there this May day

2010-04-22T10:21:00.003+05:30

Image of the week

Scientific tailors that too by a diploma holder. I am really curious to know what scientific measures they diploy in tailoring.

2010-04-21T12:21:00.038+05:30

Coming of the Ipl season! part I

Love it or hate it but you can't ignore it, thats

Like the Christmas,Diwali or Pongal, IPL season is here and most likely going to stay for a while (forget the controversies). Now with any other shopping seasons, mainly festival seasons, in IPL season also many companies have come up with offers, some regular and unrelated ones and some innovative ones thats really connects to the IPL (T20 cricket)brand.

This one, meal pe free hit offer from MacDonald's, buy one meal and you get another one free,the same old BOGO (Buy one get one free stuff)in cricketing language.

Offers like this one from Pizza Hut is surely for the name sake. BOGO again (Buy one get one free) Cricket is only in the name and no way connected to the spirit of IPL or even cricket.

Now Pepsi is already eyeing at the T20 World cup but the offer is another usual stuff. Buy 2L Pepsi,

Complete the slogan (how many times in our lives we will keep on completing the slogans?)and win tickets

Now Cafe Coffee Day has come with a different game that go with the IPL season

Cafe Premier League
the game is you order,score runs based on bill amount,register in CPL,answer questions and win tickets to the IPL matches

If you order CPL super six menu (caught behind, cheer leader, power play)you can score 50% more runs.

Official Dhoni products: Tea cups and bottles

Dangler for smashing super six menu

Some CSK souvenirs, autographed bats, caps

Apart from this, CPL has the usual stuff, Third Umpire: to spot 20 differences (so far I have found 12) and Googly: To find 12 hidden cricket terms (I am yet to start this one)

Peter England has all new cricketing avatars for CSK fans

Interesting caricatures of Dhoni and Suresh Raina

Peter England has a whole lot of fan gears (CSK fan gear). Right from T-shirts to Binaculars to wrist bands to Caps

To be continued...

2010-04-20T10:18:00.004+05:30

Jonathan Klein of Getty images talks about photos that changed the World.
Jonathan Klein: Photos that changed the world | Video on TED.com

2010-04-17T22:35:00.024+05:30

Cholayil Sanjeevanam health restaurant, a Veggie's paradise

Sanjeevanam at Adayar is a great place for a vegetarian to have good food

As soon as you enter you see a detailed list of Business lunch combos

We ordered Rajakeeyam lunch, a warning they will not serve water as soon as you order something. You are not supposed to drink water before the lunch. There is a table top,telling the order in which one should eat Rajakeeyam lunch

And you begin with 5 types of juices (dates,nuts,butter milk, beetroot, and two pieces of banana

Then comes the not cooked ones, Avilputtu and vegetable salads of different colours and tastes

Semicooked (by this time your stomach will be almost full)traditional Kerala curries, Olan and spinach

Rasam, Sambar and all with strange tastes, not of the regular masala and other artificial ingrediants

Atlast you see something you are familiar with, fully cooked but without much salt and not that spicy

A glimpse of rice after almost 15 mins since you started your lunch,first the Chembavu rice, the red one and first time water enters

Then more familiar white rice now you start your usual lunch but here at Sanjeevanam thats almost the end. Forget about any roasted items and appalams/pappadams

The great lunch ends with a spoon or two of honey. Sanjeevanam is the place to be in if you love veg food and have a great appetite.

2010-04-16T17:40:00.004+05:30

Daily dosage from the World of books

" Be in the World, but don't be of the World."

Osho, Autobiography of a spiritually incorrect mystic

2010-04-15T12:14:00.015+05:30

Water melon: A great fruit to display

Product display plays a vital role in retail marketing.

If you go to any of these retail outlets, you see wonderful display of products, be it vegetables or fruits.

But when it comes to water melon, they lack this art.

Water melon can be a great thing for display and these so called retailers must take some tips from road side vendors.Wonderful display of water melons!

Fresh cut melons on display!

This time the hygiene factor is taken care of, melons covered with plastic, but yeah still plastic!

Being part of ad industry, I have seen several danglers, in different colours and shapes but nothing like this!

The Water melon dangler, a great thirst quencher!

More melon danglers, this time attached to the umbrella,wonderful display! I tell you these vendors have mastered the art of display for sure.

2010-04-14T10:10:00.002+05:30

Image of the week

I am confused, what work one can do with coffee? or is it something like Vinayaga coffee only works?

2010-04-13T12:14:00.011+05:30

Joel Levine: Planetary and atmospheric scientist, talking about the mysteries of the Red planet:Mars

Joel Levine: Why we need to go back to Mars | Video on TED.com

2010-04-12T12:16:00.004+05:30

Mahabharata, what is not in it, is nowhere!

Part V: Road block

Remember the Tank man's protest by blocking the Tanks at Tiananmen square in 1989? if thats too old, there are enough road blocking instances happening in India (almost on a daily basis in Kerala) by almost all the political parties.Blocking roads has become the most abused form of protest.

There is a different type of Road blocking happening in the Great Mahabharata. Panchali, during the exile once asked Bhima for the most beautiful kalyana sougandhikam flower. He went in search of the flower in the forest.On the way he found an old monkey lying and blocking his way. Bhima,greatly annoyed at the old monkey lying in his path,asked him to move off but the monkey told he was too old to move and requested Bhima to move his tail and keep it aside. Bhima tried with his fingers first then with one and later even with two hands but couldn't even nudge the tail by an inch.Later Bhima tried to move the tail with his gada(mace), but found to his dismay, that the gada which is now under the monkey’s tail cannot be moved at all.Bhima realised that the old monkey was no ordinary one.he begged the old monkey to reveal his true identity.Hanuman gave his introduction and asked Bhima to shed his false pride,blessed him. One more instances of what is not in The Mahabharata, is nowhere

2010-04-11T11:56:00.015+05:30

Chennai Barcamp 2010

I knew that Barcamp is where all techies meet and I am being no way related to that gang, still wanted to attend the event organised by The Knowledge Foundation

I like the Chennai Barcamp logo, Schmidt Memorial@Besant Nagar replacing the M

Session wiki

Name sticker

Registration on full swing!

Kaushik's session on common Java script, now my knowledge about Java is, its a bike model and script, nothing beyond a film script. and by the end of session I knew that there is a big debate happening in this field and lots of problems, some technical and social

Arvind Sridharan's session on RangDe, an organisation founded by Ramakrishna taking inspiration from the Nobel prize winner Muhammad Yunus and his Grameen Bank

Arun Balaji explaining the concept of Tirupathi darshan in a day! but then its already in place rite? and Tirupathi lord's actual name is Tirupathi Druva Bera, thats another take from the session

I know how to put Picasa album in Facebook. Login to picasa, copy the pic, login to Facebook then paste it, now here Ashwin explaining how to import Picasa web album to Facebook in three easy steps
And its only half way, more sessions (interesting I suppose, one being how to make movies better)to come but sad I had to leave. there is live tweeting happening, have a look

2010-04-08T10:40:00.006+05:30

Restaurants from different places
Part IV, I some how managed to make it a four part series,(if you miss first three parts, have a look here)

Namma Dindigul,Ampa skywalk

Punjabi Tadkaa,Acendas

Seoul Korean restaurant,TTK Road

New Delhi restaurant,Anna Nagar

To be continued!

2010-04-07T12:07:00.010+05:30

The Great Indian Premier League

Forget the film stars and multi billion franchisee deals. IPL is more than just Dance, Drums (Siva mani for CSK) and Drama. The festive feel around the stadium, (forget inside) adds more colour to the event.You see a different shades of the IPL outside the stadium, The IPL of the common man, where you find atleast 100 people of all ages selling 200 different items

As soon as I got out of Chepauk MRTS station, I was attached by a mob selling CSK flags!

Super Kings all the way and more flags on the way, boy selling CSK flags

More shops and items to come, CSK caps, T-shirts and Binoculars

Guy selling CSK headbands and devil's horns

This little fellow, all in yellow colours, selling desi clarinet

A mile long queue for IPL!

It took almost an hour to reach the entrance!

At last into the stands.

2010-04-06T11:38:00.005+05:30

Nandan Nilekani talking about the ideas for India's future

Nandan Nilekani's Ted talk

2010-04-05T12:56:00.003+05:30

Daily dosage from the World of books

"First we shape our dwellings and then our dwellings shape us."

Winston Churchill

2010-04-04T11:40:00.011+05:30

Chennai Social media Club's first session!

Session by Mr. Narayanan, Co-founder, 2020 media. His talk on Gartner hype cycle was interesting.

Some examples of hype were Tulips farms in 18th century Holland, Gold rush in US and FDI in China.

And according to him,Blogs are already passed peak of inflated expectation.
Video blogs,photo sharing,Twitter and Facebook are still on the rise.

Thanks to 20qbe solutions, there was a live stream of the session for those who couldn't make it.

The crowd actively participated throughout the session. He finished the session by asking a question to the audience. English speaking Indians are a mere 6 percentage of entire population (but having great purchasing power) and Social Media is still not a mass media so whether Social Media a myth or reality?

Kiruba Shankar, one of the key person behind the Club shared the Madhu Menon's Shiokstory

Next session of Social media Club is on May 1, 2010

2010-04-03T08:45:00.004+05:30

Convocation dress and Colonial hangover!

I was not surpised to see Mr.Jairam Ramesh,Environment minister taking off his gown at the convocation of the IIFM, Bhopal. read the news here

We at Amrita School of Business (ASB) did this a decade ago. Forget about removing, we didn't even dress like, if I could borrow the minister's words, medieval vicars and popes.

Our convocation dress at ASB,simple yet elegant and apt for our tropical climate. For men, Shirt,Mundu/dhoti(not even trousers)that guarantee more air circulation and white shawl and for women Saree.

Our Director was dead against all these so called Colonial relic. Can some one beat this convocation dress?

2010-04-02T08:27:00.003+05:30

Image of the week

Its a fact that an Autoride in Chennai can cost you a fortune. And this signboard says it loud and clearly, hey u rich fellows,you see this?

2010-04-01T08:26:00.004+05:30

Dosa calling IPL

IPL matches are getting hotter and peppier and if you get a chance to taste IPL dosa how would you feel?

DC,Dosa Calling (not to confuse with Deccan Charges) has come up with a range of IPL special Bondas,Dosas, Idlis and Appams.

Here you support your teams and taste them also

and the Line-up includes Openers bouncer bonds,Cauliflower Flipper, In-swinging Idli Upuma, Middle order Kings Rava Idli, Challengers chow bath

Then Drinks Break Melon ginger googly then Tail enders clean bowled puttu!

There is a big screen where you can enjoy the IPL matches. I was enjoying the CSK's run feast and King's special rava Idlis

2010-03-31T09:00:00.006+05:30

Chennai Social Media Club's inaugural session

Ever wondered what is this 'Social Media' is all about? Is it a medium to socialise? a place to follow and get followed (Twitter),Is it a place to connect (LinkedIn)? or to network and make friends,join fan clubs and communities(orkut, Facebook), and meet your schoolmates after a very long time and wonder How old you have become? Incidentaly I met most of my schoolmates almost after a decade or so, thanks to Orkut. Social media is fast emerging as the next big thing and is definitely much beyond all this.

Inorder to understand and share the immense potential of Social media, a bunch of enthusiasts (some addicts)have come together and started something called a 'Social Media Club', first of its kind in Chennai. In this club you will meet Social media practitioners and experts and they will in turn be sharing the best practices in Social Media.

Interested to know about Social media Club's formation and story so far? have a look here and here

So if you are a social media enthusiast, if not an addict, come and join here.On April 3,this Saturday,Club's inaugural session is scheduled.

The Event: SUCCESSFUL SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING,a session by Mr.Ashok Krish
Head, TCS Innovation Lab - Web 2.0 at TCS

Venue:
Access Atlantech(SAE),Jayalakshmi Estates, 29/8,Haddows Road,Pin- 600 006.
Ph: +91-44- 2821 4045/2821 4227. see map

Have a look here and here to know more about the event

Social media Club's Twitter handle : http://twitter.com/smcchennai
hash tag :#SMCCHN
Facebook profile

2010-03-30T10:22:00.004+05:30

Welcome to TED Tuesday. Artist Theo Jansen demonstrates the amazingly lifelike kinetic sculptures he builds from plastic tubes and lemonade bottles. His creatures are designed to move -- and even survive -- on their own

2010-03-25T21:31:00.010+05:30

Twestival Chennai tweetup

It all started with a change of venue, Amethyst did not give permission for the tweetup. Atleast for a while all were confused if not sad.

But better things were waiting for us, the meetup happened at Cafe Coffee Day @ Lloyds Road (Avvai Shanmugam Salai) and they were super supportive, kudos to CCD crew.

Lavanya Ravishankar, who organised the very first Twestival in Chennai talked about how 6 people,that too, all from IIT Madras turned up for the event. She gave an intro on Twestival

Kiruba Shankar,he has 8 or 9 times more followers than all of the rest combined, 54,899 and counting, was supposed to talk on how twitter helps social causes.As always, he made it an unconference and shared one incident that made him realise the power of social media

Almost 25 people turned out for the event,biggest so far in Chennai's Twestival tweetups.

Ramakrishna, Co-founder & CEO Rangde shared his experience on how Rangde, through their twitter handle clarifies various queries

Yes, we indeed discussed about celebrities active in twitter and concluded that Rahul Bose tweet all by himself, but Shahrukh Khan, hmm we couldn't find out. It was a bit shocker to know that Kim Kardashian charges a fortune to tweet and David Beckham a little less! If you are excited to know more on celebrities in twitter, have a look

Good show by Thomas, Krishvenkatesh and krishnanswamy who organised the tweetup!

and The Hindu's write up about the event

2010-03-25T10:55:00.003+05:30

Mahabharata, what is not in it, is nowhere!

Part IV: Male pregnancy

This is in continuation of my series on The Great Indian Epic, The Mahabharata

If you missed Part I(War live commentary), II(Walkout) and III(Quiz)

There is this wonderful movie Juniorof Arnold Schwarzenegger,becoming pregnant and giving birth to a baby. Its quite interesting to watch a man getting pregmant and giving birth.In animal world,Sea horse take care of the so called female activity but if you look at Mahabharata, you come across a similar incident.

Once,few boys of Krishna's Yadhava clan dressed up a boy Samban, as a pregnant woman. They teased Sage Durvasar asking him if the child would be a boy or a girl. Enraged Durvasar cursed that a steel pestle would be born which would annihilate the entire YAdhava clan. Same thing happened and the steel pestle resulted in the downfall of the Krishna clan. One more plot confirming the fact that what is not in Mahabharata, is nowhere!

2010-03-24T11:56:00.002+05:30

Image of the week

Oh no, don't get confused, the poster is to help the HIV affected ones!

2010-03-23T10:12:00.003+05:30

Welcome all. Parag Khanna talks about the future of countries

!

Enjoy the TED talk

2010-03-22T14:02:00.005+05:30

Social media club@Chennai

Chennai Social media club's second meetup@Access Atlantech was very engaging and productive

The club has taken so many concrete steps to kick start club's activities

Now the club's very basic purpose, as Jayanth Vincent put it, is to share the best practices in Social media

So whats the prog for the month of March? The club is planning to have talk on Social media marketing by an expert

If you are interested, do join the Club

The new hashtag for Social Media Club is #smcchn

2010-03-21T16:51:00.008+05:30

Blogger blogger everywhere

Thats what I call the second Chennai Univercell IndiBlogger meet.

Bloggers at the meetup (foto courtesy:Ram)

Blogosphere
Techy bloggers, some blog for niche segements (what about a blog on surrogacy or interriors), some because s/he hates her/his teacher, some just to record the various events, one person lost a fortune watching stupid films and in order to take revenge on the Directors of those films started reviewing film, some true professional blogger with around 17 blogs,OMG!

I did some home work,printed this card, exclusive for IndiBloggers, so that I could avoid telling people again and again what my blog url is

Then we had interesting way of networking. Each one was given a chart that (s)he was supposed to wear, meet people and get their comments. It was fun.

Chain reaction? Bloggers desperately scrapping! (foto courtesy:Ram)

This is what I got! anyway good to meet lots of people, an afternoon spent wisely

Sry forgot to mention

A T-shirt to all, so we blog therefore we are!

2010-03-19T09:55:00.006+05:30

by accident

by choice

Year 2005! Noted novelist in Malayalam literature Mr.K L Mohanavarma,his twitter handle my uncle asked me and few others to write some thing for the community souvenir

The Souvenir where my first writeup appeared!

I wrote about my childhood, my wonderful days and to my absolute astonishment, the writeup was included.Another wonderful thing about the writeup was I realised that I have a passion for writing. Later I found a platform to jolt down whatever I found interesting, blogging! and i became a blogger.It was a pure accident. The same writeup became the first post in my world

Then by choice I became an Indiblogger. A platform for bloggers. Now Indiblogger has organised a bloggers' meetup at Chennai this Saturday i.e 20 March 2010. Around 200 bloggers are expected. here are the details

And now am eagerly waiting to meet my fellow bloggers!

2010-03-18T09:56:00.010+05:30

Restaurants from different places
Part three of the hotel series. Part I and II

Kalinga

Adyar Ananda Bhavan

Adyar Arthi Bhavan

Triplicane Ratna Cafe

California Kitchen

Chennai food centre

Madurai Kanappar

2010-03-17T10:35:00.002+05:30

Daily dosage from the world of books!

" A Philosopher is a blind man in a dark night, in a dark house, searching for a black cat which is not there."

Anagoras, Ancient Greek

2010-03-16T09:44:00.004+05:30

IPL season 3 is on and getting hotter, this edition of TED Tuesday Harsha Bogle, Cricket commentator, talking about rise of Cricket as a sport and a business in India, enjoy the talk

2010-03-12T11:02:00.002+05:30

Image of the week

One day washing, three day washing, the washing expert!

2010-03-11T19:09:00.003+05:30

Daily dosage from the world of books!

"If you want to continue your mental and emotional growth every so often you must surprise yourself by changing the pattern of your life and interest."

Arthur.C. Clarke

2010-03-11T18:51:00.007+05:30

Chennai's First Drive thru McDonald's

Chennai gets her first Drive-thru Golden Arches, McDonald's at Velachery, here is how to reach

You enter and order!

Pay for what you have ordered!

Take a turn!

And you collect your packet and Exit!

Ronald McDonald, The Chief Happiness Officer, welcoming all

Ground floor. This outlet is fairy a big one, almost 3000 sqft!

And more seating and a party area on the first floor!very friendly staff. The only hitch. They play the same CD (Bryan Adams) almost all the time!Lets wait to hear more!

2010-03-10T09:55:00.008+05:30

Restaurants from different places

Second part of restaurants in China with place(s) names, if u missed part 1, here it is

China town

Dindukkal Bangarau restaurant

Little Italy

Karaikudi restaurant

Bombay Talkies

Search for more is still on!