Srini's blog

My blogging life, Cuddalore blog, The district collectors

2009-06-25T21:55:00.000+05:30

My passion for blogging started off with reading a news article which mentioned that blogging will contribute in decision making by the government. This was during the early 2005. Though, I read it and packed off that day's newspaper, that news bit gave an impetus for me "Why not try?". Those were the days neither a PC nor a broadband connection was there at home. I wait in queue at the internet kiosk to get a computer to browse and then too need to wait for minutes to see the websites open up and it did cost me Rs.30 per hour.

I had been running a yahoo e-group named cuddalore@yahoogroups.com. It was during that time a request for joining this group from a student named Madhu. After that, we became friends to be known only through the internet and we then not got any chance to get to know of our location in Cuddalore.

Those were the days, wherein blogging was getting to be heard through online and offline and Madhu had then started a blog for our town Cuddalore. My impetus to write on the web got to reality and I joined Madhu in writing at this blog. At first I had been writing about the issues / hardships faced in Cuddlaore, weather reports during stormy/rainy days and any other public events. Very few people out there would chance upon to read those write-ups.

As days passed, this blog became very popular of its kind and got to come up in top few results in Google. At one moment we got the surprise to know that the then district collector Mr.Gagan Deep Singh Bedi, IAS., was following up the posts published in this blog and taking up corrective measures. So the interest in making out quality posts got my top priority. See, nobody teaches you on how to write, you need to get out of experience and this was an opportunity to write in a better way, day in and day out. I would write less than five posts per month.

After his departure from Cuddalore, then came the new collector Mr.Rajendra Ratnoo, IAS. I was not expecting that this collector may have had the chance to visit this Cuddalore blog, but to be defeated of my belief. During one occasion, I had posted a photograph highlighting the problem of contaminated drinking water in my region. There were follow-up comments made by this district collector himself asking me to come and attend the water supply meeting. Days passed and I kept in touch with him through SMS and phone calls.

Now, Mr.Rajendra Ratnoo has got transferred to Kanyakumari district. Myself and Madhu wanted to have a short meeting with this great personality. So I sent a request for appointment through SMS and after some 5 to 10 minutest a call back from my District Collector. Such is the reach from him a generous personality...

"Hi Srinivasan, How are you…….."

And the next 2 hours on 31st May'09 we were there at his Chamber...

As already discussed with him, we got to see the sendoff meet given by the tribal people . After that, we got to his chamber, there were officials in the DRO cadre having discussions with him. After a few minutes he finished seeing off the officials followed by a few citizens who came with grievance and a college girl who aspires to pursue IAS sought his blessing and bid him farewell continued by a photo click. Then our talk started.

We actually needed an insight from this top most official. Yes we started an interview. And during the interview we were astonished on how he got inspiration to become a IAS.

His was a big family of 8 people from a small place in the Jodhpur district of Rajasthan state. His father was a revenue department official and it was his dream to see one of his sibling make it into the India Administrative Service. Our collector’s initial days of school sans much infrastructure. It had a single room and even basic amenities was then a distant dream for this small school. Such was his hardship and he further pursued his studies and came up in diffent colours and made into the Administrative services.

The interview ran for more than 35 minutes and we need to sit for transcribing the interview. Another article is there in the making.

We packed our visit with a load of sweet moments and thoughts in our heart.

And we had a click for our memories.

Good bye Sir and wishing you all the very best in your future endeavors .

Airtel responds

2009-06-22T20:17:00.005+05:30

Two months back I wrote my sordid experience with Airtel. The problem was that I got to be clarified with different kinda information for a single query on "When to migrate my post paid bill plan to a pre paid one?"

Though a blogger's attitude as a last point of solace is to write at his blog site. Done that for just to cool myself off. Then days passed and out of frustration I never tried to turn to Airtel for querying on that subject.

During mid June there was a buzz from K. Srinivasan Editor-in-Chief, PR-e-Sense, a corporate monthly ezine that a seminar is being organised jointly by TRAI and Consumers Association of India on 20th June at Chennai to study on the problems faced by telephony users.

Yes, my grievance made its way to the concerned personnel of Airtel during that seminar. This happened on Saturday the 20th June and on the next working day i.e. on 22nd June there was a quick response from the Airtel. A couple of calls came for me from the local Customer Relationship Centre and from their Trichy office which is governing the Cuddalore centre.

Within the End of that Day there was a representative from Airtel arriving at my home carrying the application form and finishing off all migration formalities by 8.00 p.m. on that Monday.

Yes, I was a contended lot on seeing this lightning speed that the personnel at Airtel took my case and sorted out the things.

Kudos to Airtel for solving the issue.
Thanks to K.Srinivasan of PR-e-Sense for putting it across.

Wish that the glitch in Airtel's customer care be set right.
Some insights of the seminar is here.

Nice moments at the Silver Beach in Cuddalore

2009-06-15T22:00:00.005+05:30

The picturesque beach in my town Cuddalore often gives me the charm and its just a 15 minutes bike ride from my home. Named Silver Beach, it is the second longest beach on the Coromandel Coast and one of the longest beaches in Asia. [[Wikipedia]]
Ofcourse its my quick destination to get a chillax and beat my boredom.

Nice photographic moments while I was there at Cuddalore beach.

Gaze at it, beat the boredom.

The reflecting evening golden rays from the Bay of Bengal making the charm..

The golden dusk.

Hope you enjoyed my clicks.

Boom Boomb Shakalaka

2009-06-15T21:44:00.004+05:30

The cow and the calf gave a feast to my camera.

This cow was giving me some scary moments while I was clicking her in this unique costume. The picture came out quite nice. Click it to see larger image.

Both of them in their new costumes giving delights during that early morning.

Will Twitter swallow the blogging fraternity?

2009-06-07T20:04:00.007+05:30

Many years ago there came a buzz on the internet in the form of blogging. A lot many people who had the little knowledge of Typing and Emailing became online publishers aka bloggers. They created their own Web url and expressed their views on their site.

By having a blog (Web log) you have a worldwide identity and it is available for free. The kick in this hobby is that you get back bouquets & brickbats in terms of comments to your articles from the readers of your blog site. These comments spice up for the intended networking on the internet.

Some bloggers got to monetize their blog with Ads and many “get rich quick” sort of stories cropped up. Though on the other side, more than 95% of them have still been stumbling to realize any money out of their blogs.

The downside is that, bloggers some times run out of inspiration and get stumbled with writer's block. For some of them, this online hobby took away their precious time since it required extensive research before sitting down to write an informative article.

Why not you publish a short and crispy post?
The fitting reply to this Q, came in the form of Twitter.com which snuffed off the stumbling blocks involved in writing out those longer posts. Make it short, make it sweet. How about typing out your thoughts in less than 140 characters. This has been called the micro blogging or tweeting.

Twitter ~~ What is it?
As Wikipedia tells...
Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read other users' updates known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters, displayed on the user's profile page and delivered to other users who have subscribed to them (known as followers). Senders can restrict delivery to those in their circle of friends or, by default, allow open access. Users can send and receive tweets via the Twitter website, Short Message Service (SMS) or external applications. The service is free to use over the Internet, but using SMS may incur phone service provider fees.

Since the tweets are shorter the micro bloggers aka tweeters were publishing out their posts too often as well as enjoy the fun of subscribing to the updates of their friends. But, at the same time this is taking toll on blogging. Many good bloggers who started to tweet became less involved in churning out any better articles in their blogs. So, is this new concept of micro blogging a blessing or a curse?

Yes, let us discuss

A one day unconference event to bring people together to talk about how to share information in 140 characters is happening at Chennai. The unconference was named buzz140.

When : On Sunday the 21st June 2009 between 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Where : Photon Infotech Private Ltd. Location : No. 2/102, Photon Towers, Old Mahabalipuram Road, Karapakkam,Chennai.

More about the event is here
Directions to the venue is here and here

Participation is absolutely free, though you may not bother to spend US $ 1 towards your lunch expenses.

Oh, did I miss to inform you of my micro blog?
Here it is : www.twitter.com/srinidotme

Catch you at the event.

The 18th Chennai Photo Walk

2009-05-03T23:45:00.005+05:30

Photo Walk - What is it?

Its an interesting phenomenon wherein folks with camera take a walk with the sole purpose of capturing the interesting moments happening around and then sharing the pictures usually online.

Chennai photowalk has been happening for quite sometime and I got the chance to mingle with the folks during the 18th Chennai Photowalk that happened on 19th April'09.

The plan was to assemble @ 6:30 a.m. at the Mylapore’s Kapaleeswara Temple, walk around the back streets of Mylapore, then board the MRTS line to Fort St. George. Explore Fort St. George, Fort Museum, Clive’s House, St. Mary’s Church, the Secretariat building (which one’s not allowed to photograph) and the many things there.

I reached MTC bus stand at Mylapore and got directions to reach to the temple.

It seems that it is too early a morning for these folks. Enjoying the Sunday morning sleep while the Philips Ad in the pic says "Step into a brighter world" Haa.

Afterwards I called Chandrachoodan to know the exact point from where the photo walk starts.

In black tee is Chandrachoodan, the man who is the reason behind the Chennai photowalks.

The walk started from the spot nearer to the Kapaleeswarar Temple's CAR

There you see the folks assembled. Behind them is a old building so good to look at though not well maintained.

OK shall we start the photowalking here!!

He is the first subject for my camera. As the scribblings behind this man tells "Browse, Chat & Relax" this person was seen relaxing by puffing a Beedi,the traditional Indian cigarette. Though he puffed three or four times, he managed to hide the beedi immediately after each of his puffs. He seems upset that the day has dawned.

An intellectual florist giving the fresh news paper the needed rub. He was at first tied up with the daily newspaper, but he then realized that a swarm of photographers making a sweep around, which made him, a little tensed.

The early day transportation vehicle, popularly called the "Kattai Vandi" (Wooden Cart) is rarely seen these days. Here this kattai vandi is being used to sell bananas.

Chennai Photowalkers include its own share of foreigners.

The next subject for my pic was a street dog. I was bit scary! Should I be unlucky, should there be a return gift as a friendly bite, I do not know if there is any hospitals situated nearby, finding a medical shop open gets little probability that too early morning and the fact its a Sunday.
Remember I am using a simple mobile camera and am the only person in the crowd to click using the simplest of the photo gadgets. My camera does not have an optical zoom and so I needed to go very near to my my subject to catch his moments. But my subject gave me the needed facial expression for me. Do you know that Dogs are pet animals and are intuitive about things that are going to happen. More about the spirits in Dogs is here

One of the old buildings, which gave out the construction style followed in those days.

The temple tank getting the cool illumination from the Sun God.

Guessed wrongly? Me too!! But, they are not spoiling the place, they are seriously capturing the moments, their subject happens to be there just below that iron gate.

The Kapaleeswarar temple gopuram, the temple tank and the Sun God making a perfect combination of reflecting His rays from the pond water.

Somebody came out of the premises of the temple tank by unlocking the door. We were gifted to tresspass inside the temple tank and make a few clicks closer to the water level. By that time, somebody from the other side of the tank was shouting. After a few minutes he came faster towards us. We realised that he should be the watchman to ensure that nobody comes inside the temple tank premises. We then came out smoothly as if we were deaf but with the content of doing few good clicks.

Yes these are the moments that happen during the early morning. Some of the men having a read of the newspaper at the milk booth. Both milk and the newspaper mark the fact that morning has dawned.

I salute this hard working old man. At this old age he is having the guts to make toiling as a rickshaw puller even though one of his legs is not suitable for doing the hard pedaling needed for his profession. I recall the people who make lame excuses while they get into situations which needed them to make a little hard toil.

The womenfolk taking their turn to fetch the much needed water for their family.

Getting the first glimpse of poster being pasted, while a slumdog child taking a surprised look at the photowalkers.

Then we went to Mylapore MRTS Railway station to catch the train to Chennai Fort railway station.

The old man sitting on the seat at the railway station. Though he was finding a solace at this age at the railway station, too many photographers and a few of them clicking him made him little disturbed and he went away from this place.

The awesome MRTS railway station with awful garbage seen everywhere around. Seems little importance is given to upkeep the MRTS railway stations. One can witness filth and cob webs around the walls of the railway station.

Then we got into the train to go the Chennai Fort Railway station.

The elevated pathway at the Chennai Fort Railway station.

The road below the walkers bridge.

Then we started walking on the South side of the Chennai Fort railway station. Its pleasant to see the assets owned by the Armed forces of Indian Govt.

Photographers swarming around a big tree...

to catch this Nandhi in their cameras.

An eco friendly vehicle that too bearing a 'valid' registration number is seen parked on to the side of the road.

The traffic is so dull, you might have guessed right, its a Sunday...

Thats Shillika. Sometimes people do want to do things which they are not supposed to do that too at the middle of the road.

All these places had the presence of the offices of the armed forces. I am surprised to see the clean and tidy road and got a question, whether I am in Chennai? Usually in a road you will witness it being encroached with shops and have a swarm of garbage. But this place is an exception.

Whether the strictness and discipline followed by Indian Militiary is the reason behind the clean and tidy place.

If this is followed everywhere, Man we should be enjoying our day to day life.

One of the important roads of Chennai.

There were police personnel making a gaze on the people using this road.

We were very tired and hungry and wanted to take rest. There was a shadow under a tree and the photowalkers took rest for a few minutes to be later questioned by a lady cop. She wanted us to move away and instructions for her was to ensure that more people should not gather nearby.

Why all these rules and regulations?
Why so many police are seen around on this road?

Yes, we were nearing the "The Secretariat".

We were neither VIPs, nor did we have a valid pass to enter this high security area. But got myself satisfied of my thirst with clicking this board. Hope that little more importance be given to this board at least to make it more attractive and a bit authoritative.

The flag mast of the Secretariat making a grandeur with the national flag fluttering with the clear blue sky making an interesting combination.

As per the plan we moved ahead for visiting the fort museum. But drawn aback when the woman officer at the museum did not allow us. The reason for denying entry for us, was that they will not allow a group of people (we were nearly 40 people) that too all of them were having cameras. Then Chandrachoodan tried to get permission from the director at the museum to be rather getting unlucky that he was not available at office.

Since all of us were damn tired of walking nearly 4 Kms that too hungry, we just wanted to disband and pack off. After clicks for a group photograph and having pep talks with some folks around we packed off.

Oh, does this man gets paid from so many sponsors and is a free mobile connection available for him?

The walk was so nice and had the opportunity of getting networked with some new folks.
Happy clicking.

Airtel gives me a frustrating rollercoaster drive

2009-04-22T19:11:00.014+05:30

I bought a postpaid mobile connection 4 months back from Airtel. I wanted to change it into prepaid for which I was told at the local Airtel shop (Customer Relationship Center) at Cuddalore that usually this change can be done after three months of activation of the number.

Here is a callous chronology I had with Airtel whenever I approach them for migrating my post paid plan to a prepaid...

End March'09 (3rd month of its activation): Airtel shop (Customer Relationship Center) tells "Network updation is in progress and migration to prepaid can not be done".

Around 6April'09 (well past 3rd month of activation): Airtel customer care executive at call centre tells “You can migrate to prepaid plan after April 16^th”

Then I decided on 21April09 to go to the local Airtel shop to convert my post paid connection into a prepaid one. To confirm that whether I could go ahead with the migration process on that day I called the customer call centre...

6.00 p.m. on 21April'09: Airtel customer care executive at the call centre tells “You CAN migrate to prepaid plan today. Please go with your passport size photo, a proof of your identity and a proof of your address, pay a migration fee of Rs.150 and within 9 Hours your prepaid connection will get activated. If in case of difficulty in getting the work done, please call customer care from the phone kept at the Airtel shop (Customer Relationship Center) and we shall help you out and get the work done. ”

So I arrived at my local Airtel shop (Customer Relationship Center) at 7.30 pm. The story is different here. They simply told that it is not possible in the first six months and since my mobile connection carries a fancy number, it can be done after one year. I then told them of my conversation with the call center executive and then asked them for calling from a phone kept there. But they simply told that that such kinda is not possible. May be such a phone does not exist for true!! Now I called the call center executive from my mobile phone and there awaits another kind of story for me.

7.40 p.m. on 21April'09: Airtel customer call center executive tells “You CAN NOT migrate to prepaid plan. It can be made only after 1May'09”

Just within 2 hours I get two different responses for the same query which frustrated me. I was quite dumbfounded to know that such is the callous way in which a call center of Airtel works and makes me run pillar to post. Is this the way they are supposed to serve a customer. Now I wanted the call center executive to connect me to his superior.

Now he puts me on waiting while the pre recorded voice plays. The prerecorded voice tells out that "Network updation is in progress, some of customer services will not be available till April 14^th". Oh man the date is now April 21^st.

After waiting for more than 3 minutes one person may be customer call center manager responded to me.

I explained to him the whole thing and made it clear that I am not satisfied with the different kind of information being given to me and making me to run like a fool. Now he confirms that my plan can be converted by May 1^st for sure.God only knows when I will get my connection migrated to prepaid plan. May be another call center manager will tell another type of story that I need to wait for another date. Let me wait for 1 May'09...

Returned home after a very bad spending of my evening time that too with my wife and toddler. Though I visited their website to express my grievance through online, I got dumbfounded that there is neither an email-id nor a feedback form to do so.

What a pathetic customer support?

Update as on 12 June’09: After delaying myself to forget those bad experience, I after a long tome went to ACRC. Now I got informed that migration from postpaid to prepaid will be done between 1st to 10th and not today. So I need to come on 1st of next month.

My younger son's first tonsure

2009-04-03T20:48:00.009+05:30

Tiny tots get their shave of their hair during their age of 9th or 11th month followed by piercing of their ear lobes. It is said that once the hair is removed the babies get better health. This is followed by piercing of the ear lobes and then wearing ear ring. Interesting to know that the nerves passing through the ear is said to be connected with that of eyes. The presence of the metal that is the gold is said to be good for the baby's vision.
Usually this ritual is done in any of the temple. Out family tradition is to do it at Tiruvandipuram Devanatha Swami temple. We fixed the ritual for the morning on 29th March 2009 a Sunday. So we set out with family members and relatives for Tiruvandipuram Devanatha Swami Temple which is situated some 5 Kms from my home in Cuddalore. It is one of the ancient Vaishnavite temples and also one of the 108 Vaishnavite shrines sanctified by the visit of the great Alwars and Acharyas.

My little son Lokashyam sitting on my lap and being given a head shave. Great care to be taken to ensure that he does not shake his head, otherwise the sharp knife is bound to give deep cut on my little one's soft head.

At first he did not give any protest, later as half of his head was shaven, he started to cry and gave enough tensions for me as I felt somewhat difficult to handle my little baby. Alas he got few cuts and little blood oozed, what to do, could not control his little angry protests. After the tonsure is finished he was given bath and enough sandal paste is applied on the head. The sandal paste gives the needed cooling effect and also prevents infection of the injuries.

Tradition is that, the baby will be made to sit on the lap of his maternal uncle and then piercing of the ear is done. My little son sitting on my brother-in-law's lap and enough of people taking care that he does not move his head which otherwise is bound to make a little bad thing.

Yep, the stud is screwed up and the work is over.

Oh my baby do not cry da Chellam, its all over.

Usually the babies get the good shape and health after this ritual. Pray that he gets good health.

Google Bus at my town Cuddalore

2009-03-28T17:59:00.000+05:30

The Google Bus, an initiative of Google to educate the off line Indian public on the benefits of internet had made its visit to my town Cuddalore. I have been following the itinerary of this internet bus for quite some days and awaiting to have the real experience.

Today evening I was returning from my office to my destination, the Cuddalore bus stand. While I alighted from my town bus, got to see this internet bus parked just opposite to me. Hey, this high tech bus coming to the place of the common man, that too in tier 3 town.

Check the curiosity in the eyes of the little ones at bottom left corner of the above pic. Yep, Google's initiative to educate the common people who may have lead a life without the knowledge of internet if not for this initiative by Google.

Had the chance to have nice moments with these people from Google. They recorded a short video of my pep talk inside this bus. May be it will get published on their youtube channel. If it happens, a separate post is here for you to have a feast. Hope that I have not messed in my talk.

People are quite curious of the new kinda stuff happening in the town.

The innovative bus has its own power generator and it can work anywhere, anytime with 100% internet connected through satellite network.

Some people who gazed from the outside were averse to get inside the bus. But the googlers convinced them with stressing that its free to go inside the bus.
Corporates of this kinda, turning to the less travelled path, is bound to mine precious benefits be it for them as well as India.

So What?

2009-03-27T20:34:00.002+05:30

Yours truly.,

The Search Camp at Tidel Park

2009-03-06T19:42:00.012+05:30

The day started for me with the journey for the Searchcamp from my town Cuddalore early in the morning on 1/Mar/09. I skipped going to the first day of the camp since I am feverish about the techy stuff associated with the Search Engine Concepts. With tiring me, I needed a little sleep, so went to Pondy and caught the ultra deluxe bus to Chennai to have a good sleep while travelling.

The picturesque ECR.
Though bit late I made to the venue at around 10.00 a.m.

The venue is so silent; it seemed like a prayer session at the Church. The session of advanced SEO by Stephen Spencer, President and CEO of NetConcepts. He did it from the US thru online. The audience were seriously listening to the session, it seemed a vital session was going on. But those are Greek and Latin for me.

Since I could not understand anything, I went out to the registration desk for a relief. Had a good chat with friends Raghavan, Sukumaran sir and Varun, a little networking.

www.findnearyou.com has sponsored this writing pad which had individual tid bits about their business in each sheet of paper in the pad. A thoughtful design on the little pad.

Then came the session "Marketing Mix during Recession" by Kalaivani an online diamond business woman. She did had the session in an interesting way with her simple and easy to understand terms.

Meanwhile Adam Lasnik the Search Evangelist @ Google had arrived.

Coffee time yaar.

During the coffee break, many of the people there were seen swarming around this Googler Adam Lasnik.

Clicking namma Chennai Blogger Kiruba who is having a new kinda hair do.

The interesting session by Adam has started. The wonder part is that he promised not to tire us with power point slides. The session was quite interactive.
The ice breaking had started with Kiruba raising a trivia question for the participants. What is meant by GOOGLE? The person who tells that correct answer will get the biggest choco nut. Someone did tell the correct answer that Google means 1 followed by 100 zeros. Yep, there were three guys and all deserved for the big choco nut.

You can see Kiruba taking out the choco and the nut. The nut inside that hand bag was too heavy and he took extra efforts to take it out.

Yepp, that is the nut you see.
Coconut,, Ha Haa

Some kind participant is seen following a unique way of reading his lap top. Guess what he is doing?

The brains behind the successful searchcamp.

Then its the lunch time. We had the gift of clicking snaps with Adam. That is yours truly with the great googler.

Some more buddies. All those who are posing with him have finished their lunch. But for Adam.. Finally he got to start his lunch.,

But see, there is another girl asking him an important doubt. Then the photo clicking continued and he however gave off his lunch plate to somebody. I do not know whether he had completed his lunch.

The big nut (prizy catch) is seen on the table...

The event had an added gift for the job seekers. Just few paper wikis on the notice board making out useful info for the needy.

The event was going on, but i started my way back to home, since i am still searching on what searchcamp holds for me. But a nice moment to network with fellows who i may have missed otherwise.
The arrangements at the camp were quite good, You guys rock in organizing such innovative event. Would have been nicer, if the sessions are designed to imbibe search concept even to dummies like me.
More of my search camp photos are here.

Aerobics show @ Pondy beach

2009-01-23T21:51:00.005+05:30

There had been a exotic show by the defence forces at the Pondicherry beach today evening. A few pictures and a video which I managed to get are here...

Navy helicopters making a whiz past.

People from all walks of life making little available places to be filled and ensuring not to miss the sighting of the naval and the army assets which were making a bee line on the coastal area of Pondicherry.

Could you be able to see that magnificent ship at a distance appearing as a tiny bee.

AND

Here goes a little video with the helicopter making a maneuver above the onlookers. Click it to play.

Pongal celebrations at home

2009-01-15T22:03:00.006+05:30

Its the festive season with the Thai month of the Tamil calendar bringing in new hopes for luck to happen. The Pongal festival marks the start of the month of Thai. At home, had a gala time while boiling of milk marks the festivity of the occassion. The boiling milk in the hot pot gave me anxious moments with myself having the camera to it at the right time while the boiling milk gushes off the pot.

Got it clicked. Yay !!

Do you notice the white vapors, those are of the milk added with it the sunlight giving an added effect.

The earthen stove makes its presence known only during this festivity.

The pot, the flame, the stove
Yay !!
Pongaloo pongal

Open Coffee Club meet

2009-01-11T09:49:00.010+05:30

Open Coffee Club (OCC) is a group which discusses on entrepreneurship. People involved in the startup companies get-together either offline or online through this club. The Chennai chapter of OCC has its online presence @ chennaiopencoffee.ning.com and members do meet offline once every month on the first Sunday. One of the offline meet up that I got a chance to witness was on 4 Jan'09 @ 3.00 p.m. at Ascendas in Chennai.

With my holiday plans scheduled for spending a few days at Chennai, myself with family had been staying at Chennai. A few plans were on the cards including a few purchases at Pondy Bazar in T.Nagar for the forthcoming wedding of my brother-in-law. On the day of the OCC meet up I was spending time with my wife, brother and in-laws for doing apparel purchase for my brother-in-law. Though I thought that everything will be over and I can head off to Ascendas after 2.00 p.m., time flew by and there was no chance for me to finish it off and head out to Ascendas. The time then was 3.00 p.m., so literally made the hard decision in mind to skip the event.

But at 3.30 p.m. a call from Virupa from the event, about the happenings there made me to change my plans to be bit shuffled and flied off to Ascendas of course on the Pallavan (MTC) bus. I was the last person to land up @ 5.00 pm at the casual gathering. So I had really missed some of the people who have went off by then.

The gathering happens at the Food court in the Ascendas.

In the Orange Tee is Sid, one of the visionaries behind the Chennai chapter of OCC and the brilliant youth at the extreme right is Murali who is pursuing MBA at Great Lakes institute of Management.

On the left is Virupa founder of Homeplanguru.com. He is co-working from Kiruba's place.

Co-working is a concept where people of different strides do share a common office space which makes them comfortable to share ideas and have a good networking which adds up value into their work life.

In the above pic, do you see a surprise of the absence of a pen, pad, projection screen, et la which you usually get to see in any meet ups !! Yup, this is the way in which networking takes place; in a casual manner, making flow of rich information across in a usually one to one way and helping each other to make a win win situation for everybody involved.

That is Kaviraj, founder of a new kinda networking website named www.areapal.com which allows people to network with those around their geography in a localized manner, Lakshmi Parkavi founder of Thumus Web Solutions, her friend, Murali and Vasanth a software engineer.

After a pep talk with Lakshmi, I came to know that she is also co-working from Kiruba's place, but does not know that Virupa who is also co-working from Kiruba's place. A surprise to me. Though Virupa and Lakshmi got to know of each other about their startup business during the meet-up and exchanged visitng cards, they do not know that they have been co-working from the same place but at different floors. The Kiruba factor is connecting us. Virupa had left half hour back while Lakshmi came to know of the fact from me. She then checked Virupa's visiting card she had got some half hour ago to be surprised that Virupa's co-working office is in the same place as her's.

Is this the power of off line meetings !!

Lakshmi Narashimar temples

2009-01-01T08:00:00.003+05:30

Having taken holiday from office since a week back, few travel plans are on the cards which is quite pending for some time. Me and my colleague Mohan Babu had the plan to visit the three Narashimar temples situated in Abhisekapakkam, Poovarasankuppam and Parikkal.
We two started off on his bike early in the morning of 24/Dec'08. The climate is so cold with the breeze giving us chilling tunes for the few early hours. We had gone ready for it with the helmet and apron to safeguard ourselves from the fog. Though the worst roads amidst the villages gave the extra heart burns and thrills, this is a way we have got used to live eventhough ours is a nation making forays in every field be it software or space science.

First is the Laskhmi Narashimar temple in Abhisekapakkam situated near Thavalakuppam in the Pondicherry region. This is quite near for us at some 11 kms from my place and we reached there at about 8 a.m. The above pic is the West facing Raja Gopuram of the temple.

The temple tank is full of water and gave a nice treat casting the reflection of the early morning moments.

Bakthimaan Shri Mohan Babu avargal, giving the good pose for my camera. !!

This is the path leading to the temple. Photography is not allowed inside the temple. So could not photograph inside the temple. After this temple we got to Poovarasankuppam, which is about 30 Kms from this temple. In the middle we had a stop at a place called Kariamanikkam and had a tasty breakfast of Idli and Puri.

This is the Lakshmi Narashimar temple situated in Poovarasankuppam. Though this temple is one of the great ones, little aspect is given in terms of the tidiness for it. Quite at the front entrance is the banners of the political parties which is spoiling the aesthetics which is needed for a temple of this magnificence.
The next temple is situated at Pariakkal. We travelled upto Panruti then to Madapet junction catch the Nationan Highways passing through Villupuram-Vridhachalam while turning to left side then travel about 4 Kms then take a right turn and travel on the narrow roads to reach this temple.

This is the Parikkal Lakshmi Narashimar temple.

Its Mohan Babu and me.
Renovation activities were taking place at this temple. The old wall made of granite stone dates back to 800 years. During those times, painting of the wall with white lime paint is done which has actually spoiled the originality synonymous with that of a granite wall. Now work has been taken up to remove those painting off the wall to maintain originality and also prevent corrosion due to the paints. We happened to have a talk with the people involved in this work. The removal of the painting involves sandblasting which is done by blowing of the common river sand with compressed air. This blows out the paint particles off from the granite wall and the wall behind us in the picture is what you see is the original finishing achieved once the sandblasting is done. Once the renovation work is over we should get the gift of aesthetic looks of the granite stones.
We then reached Cuddalore at about 12.30 p.m. The total journey clocked to 130 kms and we had a satisfied darshan at all the three temples. Since it is not a festival day the crowd is not there so we were able to complete our trip within 7 hours.
The next travel is to the famous hill shrine Tirupathi. I shall be coming out in the next article shortly...
Bye
Wishing you all a happy new year 2009.

Merry Christmas

2008-12-25T14:56:00.001+05:30

Merry Christmas to you all.
Christmas kolam by Lavanya & Sowmya - My neighbourhood school going girls...

The Successful Failcamp

2008-11-18T21:52:00.013+05:30

The event had been a great one, which gave the opportunity to know the great lessons learnt by the risk takers. For those participants who had so far not taken the risk, it gave the impetus on to know about the stepping stones which will lead to the successful destination. So it was really amusing to have seen such a good meet up which had got its initial birth in the mind of an energetic Namma Blogger Kiruba.
I started my trip to the Failcamp with Virupa giving me lift in his car. We went for the event at 9.00 a.m. The venue is at 6th floor of P.T.Lee Building situated exactly opposite to the great land mark of Chennai, the LIC. The P.T.Lee Building houses more than 5 offices and all of them except the 6th floor is occupied by Government Departments.
Me & Virupa arrived and met Kiruba at the parking area. Starting our way to the Tenth Planet's office, Virupa suggested to avoid the lift and go up by the stair case. Humpf, lazy me had was to take the hardest task of climbing nearly the 100 steps. But we got the chance to see all the government offices upto the 5th floor, which had its traditional look of shabby desks and dirty files lying on the tables. If not for Virupa we would have not got the chance to see these awesome things... Finally reached the 6th floor of the building.
The scene is different here with a tidy entrance and a security person handing out a register to have our details registered.

We filled up the register quickly and eagerly went inside the tenth planet's office to see the attractive office.

The interior speaks out on par with a Five Star Hotel and I needed to turn to left after much gazing of the nice reception hall. On seeing the computers and work tables I happened to recall that I am at the office of a software company if not a five star hotel.

A nice design on the wall...

I understand that much of sweating has gone out from the team @ Tenth Planet to ensure that those participants get the warmth feeling during the meetup.

I think by seeing this you will not believe that this is an art work on the walls which leads to the rest room.

A restroom in par with that of a 5 star hotel.

During the meetup since the talks given by different CEOs were so much interesting.I really delayed going to the rest room for peeing since doing so will make me at loss of missing the session. But this tiny aspect was already taken care of by tenthplanet's CEO Mr.Kumar Mani, he had designed the restroom to include the Public Address System.

Thats the speaker box blasting out the session going out at the main hall of the office.

Astonishing to know of how their work environment will be.

Ohh I really forgot to tell about the Failcamp.
Okay., Now lets see about the meetup...

It started with a breakfast. We had it at the conference hall of the Tenthplanet office. The art work on the walls of the hall was really nice.

The failcamp started with Kiruba addressing the crowd. Came to know from him that this is the second failcamp in the world.

Suresh Sambandam the CEO of Orangescape.com. He gave a nice talk and the participants were astonished to know that he had started his venture in Cuddalore Town at an early age of just 19 years with just only a 12th Standard qualification. He has failed in his first venture and gone for a regular job to learn. After that he has started his own successful company called Orangescape.com.
I am proud that he hails from my town Cuddalore and we both had our schooling at the same premises.
His company Orangescape has got recognised as top IT innovator by NASSCOM for two consecutive years and boasts of being one of the 3 companies showcased as EMERGING companies in the NASSCOM Product Conclave.

Thats Kalyan the founder of quadsgroup.com. His initial experiment has failed since friends were the partners in his company and that those friends had spent more time in flirting with their girl friends than mending for the company. After 7 months of journey he dismantled the business and also lost two of his close friends. His second experiment has come out successfully since he had got a lesson and concentrated more on marketing .

Thats Deepak the founder of Ensemble Technologies. His story is that after finishing his Engg Degree at his native place Erode, he started his business in partnership with one of his friends. Though he was one of the responsible persons in the placement cell at his college he had decided to not try for an employment. His father had supported his wish of starting the business with the condition that he will be given only one chance to experiment, if it fails, Deepak has to then walk on the track which will be shown by his Dad.
He has lead struggling days in his initial 4 years. Though he had not known what is what in business he had the perservance to develop it by any means. After 4 years, he decided to shift his Embedded Solutions to Chennai.
The initial days for him is rather hard with no known persons to give support. With just 1 Lakh Rupees in his hand he had landed up in Chennai and started in setting up a minimal office. He had had the worse case scenario of implementing cost saving right on the daily consumption of his drinking water at his office. To save on the expenses incurred on water can, he used to drink more water in hotels during his break fast and lunch. Thus he had would not drink water from the water can at his office.
Indeed a smart idea on part of Deepak, but its really a hard thing to see that these kind of bitter struggles had gone into the bricks which were used to make Ensemble Technologies into a now wonderful castle.

Thats Deepa an employee of Tenth Planet asking a point to the entrepreneurs. I am envious of the employees of Tenth Planet that they speak out of their desire to be an entrepreneur just in front of their own CEO.

Later I got astonished when the CEO Mr.Kumar Mani himself expressing that he recognizes his employees as an individual entrepreneurs by themselves.
Awesome.
Hats off to you people. Its really a Tenth Planet.
Thats the CEO's artistic cabin. Awesome...

Some of the cubicles had really interesting stuff pasted inside them, which made an interesting thingy.

Virupa the founder of HomePlanGuru.com making a point. The interesting aspect between us is that he is born in my native Cuddalore and now living in Nanganallur, Chennai. I was born @ Nanganallur in Chennai and now living in Cuddalore..

He stresses that most of us FAIL to say NO when we need to say NO. This is an important aspect due to which many of us FAIL to SUCCEED.

Its post lunch session. I forgot the name of the dude giving the talk. He is also from Cuddalore. The more theory he gave out made me more sleepy indeed. Any how the topic was interesting but since its post lunch session, the sleepy tunes set in forcing me to yawn.

Chanced to capture the Chennai's landmark the LIC at its full view on my little camera phone through the glass pane from the Tenthplanet CEO's cabin. The top left corner what you see is a bee hive. The dots are due to the dirt on the surface of the glass pane.

Thats Arvind who dared to innovate while he was doing his college. He started his business with friends as his business partners. Though he was offered US$ 12 Million by a venture capitalist from Hyderabad, due to the problems between the partners, he ejected out of the partnership. Dumbfounded to know that with such a huge sum of money waiting for his disposal he has ejected out of the partnership. Really a great thing that such young people are churning out interesting things on Earth and had taken such a strong decision to be a noble man to make his strings straight rather than taking the money for a ride.

Yep, I was there...

Awesome guys,
Thanks to Kiruba, Kumar Mani, Kalyan ...... You, You & You for making the day a wonderful one.

An unforgettable memory in my life...
Few more pictures at my flickr

Failcamp Starts with a yummy breakfast

2008-11-16T10:03:00.002+05:30

I am now at the failcamp venue - the tenth planet office..
Just had a good break fast at the serene office of tenthplanet office.

Fail Camp - Learn to Succeed from other's failure

2008-11-14T19:13:00.005+05:30

An unconference to celebrate failure.
I hope such a topic should be first of its kind. Awaiting to get the juice of lessons to be shared by everyone at the failcamp. The response to the participation itself is really great with 100 people registering though the limit was specified as 75. So awaiting for this interesting camp...
The event is starting with a free breakfast at 9.00 am on 16-Nov-08 at Tenth Planet Technologies situated opposite to LIC building in Chennai.

Barcamp Chennai 2

2008-10-16T22:32:00.005+05:30

The Second Edition of Barcamp Chennai is coming up at IIT Chennai on 18th and 19th of October 2008.
Should be a nice session to share ideas and thoughts during these two days

Venue: IC&SR, IIT Madras
Website:http://barcampchennai.org/
Twitter feed:http://twitter.com/Barcampchennai

I am attending the event, catch me at the venue

Blog crossed 10000 hits

2008-10-14T21:34:00.004+05:30

A Blog - Ever since I started this blog way back on 11 June 2008, its a fond memories that gets hosted in this site. The technology called blogging had given me an awesome experience to connect with so many friends and readers which I never thought could have been possible by off-line means.

I had been part of the Podworks organisers and its a great experience to have worked with the people to churn out an wonderful event from the staples of The Knowledge Foundation (TKF), Chennai. At the second day of the Podworks event I happened to start this blog. Although I was writing two blogs then namely Cuddaloreonline and Funnyclick, there had been a blank when I wanted to express my personal thoughts. Thus happened the birth of this Coolsrini blog. At the second day of the event, I decided to start a personal blog and was trying different possible names to register a blogspot address, but in vain. At the venue of the Podworks in the Tidel park, seated in the adjacent seat of mine was Karthi who had then suggested to try the words "cool" or "hot" along with my name srini. Thus the coolsrini happened to go live on 11 June 2007.
The visitor counter clocked into Four digits (1,000) by Oct'07 and it now it has clocked into Five digits (10,000).
Though it seems that I am exaggerating the not so famous statistics of this site, its feeling of pleasure to record these little happenings, so that it will amuse me when I walk past through this site.
Yours truly hereby makes you known that he has got a short and sweet url on the internet http://srini.me/. Now, I find this short website name of mine a much easier way to communicate to others of my online entity.
Thank you Dear Patrons...

TADA trip with CPC folks

2008-10-01T20:53:00.012+05:30

A trip to TADA falls was arranged by the Chennai Photography Club on Sunday the 28th Sept'08. Myself along with my colleague Mohan Babu got to join for the trip. As per the plan the journey starts from Koyambedu at 5.00 a.m.
Leaving Cuddalore by 12.00 a.m. (mid night) we reached Koyambedu by 4.00 a.m.
Humpf
Too early and we took some time to pass time and refresh for the amazing trip ahead...

Came out of the bus terminus by 5.00 a.m. and waiting for the CPC folks. After some time got to see Arun and other CPC folks nearby the Arihant Towers with a Maruti SX4 car.
Then Siva arrived in his Mahindra Classic Jeep followed by Deepak Gupta in his WagonR. The trip started by 5.30 a.m. with Mohan Babu, Ramesh and myself getting into Siva's Mahindra Classic Jeep.

A warm welcome from Siva to get into his jeep.
Normally while I attend to any events in Chennai, these IT folks chat usually in the English. But CPC is an exception. Folks here, though they work for great IT companies, even if I speak to them in English they will respond only in Namma Chennai Tamil Baashai. I do like them on this.

Yes, our thrilling trip has started. You are seeing the Ranjit's Maruti SX4 making its smooth start.

The Classic jeep is traveling on the NH5. I am awestruck with the driving style of Siva and his toy dancing to its masters beat in a perfect fashion.

The jeep clocking its top speed. The jeep had a good cornering capability and the road grip is at its best. No swinging to sides when its maneuvering a turn at high speed.

Reached some 60 kms on the NH 5 and the vehicles are seen lazing off their arse for us to relish a breakfast at the road side shop.

The Dosa Kallu ready to churn out stuff to quench our hungry stomach.

Munching the vada and dosa. But pongal seems not available. A complaint is hereby raised with Sukumaran sir for breaking the CPC rule of the mandatory pongal vada combination.

Pic courtesy: Ramesh
Siva, Ranjith, my colleague Mohan Babu and me.
Do not attempt to raise your complaint by using this photo as evidence to book Siva for smoking. Smoking was banned only from Oct 2 onwards and this snap was caught on Sept 28.

By this time, Deepak Gupta and his car team were making ready the lunch for the trip. So it took some time for them to join with us. Meanwhile, the revealing of the red beast happened. Siva decided that his toy (i am mentioning the jeep only) be nude. So Mohan Babu and Siva undressing it.

Once the nudity was exposed, it created an awe on everybody's heart. You can notice a localite watching the jeep with a great question running in his minds. Some cinema shooting is going to happen?
Drivers of public transport buses passing by the way were seen to make their gaze at this open top jeep.

Finally she was made ready for the cat walk. No. no.. thrill run....

Ranjit's SX4 and Deepak's WagonR making a pass thru.

Finally reached the Tada region. As you see the board, the forest department plays a joker role with giving out funny spellings on the board. Similar is the case in Pichavaram boating area.

While we were at the place for getting the entry tickets, the security persons were asking whether cinema shooting is going to happen. Such a message is being sent out by this open top Mahindra Classic.

Rocky terrain ahead, so Siva switched his jeep into 4X4 mode for the uphill adventure.

The above photo is the front wheel of the jeep. By turning the hub at the center of the wheel, the 4 X 4 gets gets engaged.

While into the TADA forest area Siva happened to see the mud on the road. Thus came a feast for the CPC folks to catch the mud splash from the over speeding jeep driven by Siva.

Picture Courtesy: Mr.Prabakaran

This mud splashing was done at two different places and you can view a short video clip to know what had happened behind the scenes to make out this awesome high speed photograph.

Here the jeep gets itself the litmus test of entering into 25 feet deep rocky ravine.

Picture courtesy Mr.Prabakaran
Does the jeep looks tiny. Its to far away and at a depth of some 25 feet.

Some fault in the jeep had happened.

Mohan Babu and Siva checking the engine side of the red beauty. The problem was identified to be the clutch going into coma. Ohh, what to do?
Mohan and Siva seems to have discussed and decided to make the jeep to run without clutch. If the clutch is not working you will not be able to switch on any of the vehicles. But since this is a 4 X 4, without the clutch the vehicle was engaged in first gear and started. The engine peps up simultaneously moving the vehicle.

In the video what you see is the jeep returning into the ravine and climbing up into the road. Although there is no clutch, Siva made the jeep to move without any hiccup. Now there is no option to switch off the vehicle, so as the vehicle is moving we ran and caught the jeep. We travelled further by about 3 kms to reach the parking lot.

My colleague Mohan Babu is working as a Mechanical Supervisor in my factory. So his engineering skill was better utilized here to make the jeep come out of its sickness.

A bit tedious work for Siva and Mohan Babu in finding what went wrong in the vehicle.

It was decided that folks can head on to the falls and we three will set the vehicle right and join them.

After some one hour of mandai pichifying, the problem was set right and we three set our trekking into the forest of TADA.

These two people were jubilant that they have made a successful work and a peace of mind that, once back from the trek, we could move out peacefully on the adventurous jeep.

The path to the falls is very much narrow and there is hardly any people coming across our path. We were having a little confusion whether we were going in the right path.
God Only Knows !!

Nature at its best.

The real music to the ears and a cool climate.

At last after nearly one hour of our journey, we finally met our team. We now got to know that we were trekking on the right path so far.

So far so good, but many of the people are averse on travelling further up the hill. Many of the people returning back were giving feedback that the places at the top were not that much amusing.
But I was keen to know what was there. So far the name "falls" has not made itself the right meaning for me. I had not seen any falls till now. Mohan Babu, Arun and myself after climbing the slippery rocks finally reached to the falls.

Although it was called falls, too little water seeped through the gaps of huge rocks. But anyway we enjoyed the showers. A soothing shower after a tedious uphill walk made me have a peaceful time. After about half hour of we three enjoying the place, our few other team members reached the spot.
In the above pic, Arun is sheen catching me on his camera. This is the moment when I got to know a lesson in photography. You can notice Arun placing his camera on the rock floor and then shooting it. After a bit discussing with him we came to know that one should prefer keeping the camera to a fixed place to avoid shake while clicking the picture. A good lesson which i shall follow while I take pictures on my K790i mobile phone by avoiding blurred pictures.
Then we returned back a few feet downwards and had lunch.

That is Mohan Babu enjoying the Gulco-D orange flavour. A good idea of having Gulco-D mixed with water made a good nourishment. Thanks to the brain behind the Gulco-D idea.

A good place to enjoy the nature.

Yours truly, while making journey downwards.

Although many of the people know to read and the government is keen to put up this notice board....

They do not take the next little step of banning plastic products churned out by these little shops right inside the forest area.

There is no body to ask a question on the human beings spoiling the nature. PET bottles, beer cans and broken glass bottles were seen every where on the path.

Just a checking by the security personnel and enforcement of the forest act will surely help in maintaining the place at its best.
CPC had taken care in not to throw away the PET bottles used by the folks. All empty bottles were crushed and stored in a bag which was later disposed while out of the forest area. The lunch pack too was packed in dried leafs plus newspaper. A big WOW to Deepak Gupta to taking this responsibility towards preserving nature while at TADA.

Ready for the return.

Myself having a drive on the Mahindra Classic. I drove the jeep for about 4 kms and its thrilling to ride this. There is no offset in the steering. Just a little movement of the steering gives away the sway on the front wheel like a power steering.
Pic courtesy: Ramesh

Many of us had the opportunity to drive the 4 X 4.

Had a nice refreshing tea.

Caught the dusk.
The Sun God made a good help in providing me the necessary lighting for my photos. In the group which had the high end cameras, myself is one of the two odd men out with a little K790i mobile camera.
For more pictures taken by me, click here

Hey, its me

2008-09-26T22:08:00.005+05:30

The place is at Cuddalore old town and its the road leading to the upcoming Cuddalore port which is nearly 10Kms South of Cuddalore.

The huge mound of sand behind is due to the dredging being done by a private company. The place is called Iyyampettai Beach and its nearly 22 Kms South of Cuddalore

Then we moved further Southwards to a place called Annapanpettai Beach, nearly 25 Kms from Cuddalore. The place is near to the house of Venkatakrishnan. The beach is less visited by people and its hard to see any filth around. Really had a good time enjoying the beach.

Mohan Babu hinted on the idea of having our bikes very near to the sea and it really added more attraction to the pictures. Since my bike was to be photographed I was forced to clean the dust which had got piled up on my promising horse for the past nearly one month. Luckily I had some cotton waste in my bike which helped to make it shed little weight due to loss of dirt from the visors & mudguard.

Mohan Babu clicked the same frame at different heights. I really got a good idea of photography from Mohan Babu.

Pics shot during the first cuddalore photo walk on 31 Aug 2008
Camera Used: K790i Sony Ericsson Mobile Phone (3.2 Mega Pixel)

My colleagues during the cuddalore photo walk

2008-09-26T21:57:00.006+05:30

Venkat freezing the moment of Mohan Babu standing on the fishing boat. Place: Fishing jetty near Singarathoppu, Cuddalore Old Town, 6 Kms south of Cuddalore.
The quality of this pic sucks when compared with the other pics in the previous articles. Why? This one is hosted thru Picasa, the others thru Flickr.

Ramalingeshwar temple @ Nettapakkam in Pondy

2008-09-24T22:34:00.001+05:30

My company is situated in the Nettapakkam region of Pondicherry. Though I am working here for the past 10.5 years I had not got the opportunity to visit the famous Shiva temple situated some 3 kms away from my factory.

I was once regular to the Prodhoshanam event to Shiva temple in my town Cuddalore, but nowadays since I often get back home little late I am missing to make it to the event which ends before 6.30 p.m.

On 12-Sep (my wedding day), I was about to catch my bus after leaving from office. Just happened to see my colleague Murugadoss who is also awaiting for bus.
Murug: "Hey, Today is Prodhoshanam and I am going to the Shiva temple, R u coming?"
So I got along with Murugadoss to go to the Ramalingeshwar temple in Nettapakkam. Thanks that I just got the time to make to this famous temple.

The Southern entrance of Ramalingeshwar temple.
The specific about this temple is that the presiding deity Lord Shiva faces West. His Consort faces the Southern direction. Usually in all temples the Deities face the East.

The milk abishekam is being done to the Nandhi on the Prodshanam time.

Murugadoss (My colleague in blue shirt), left no time to take the opportunity to lift the Deity.