Monday, June 23, 2008

Prathishta and Samprokshanam of Sri Ayyappa and Sri Guruvayoorappa Temple in Velacherry

Prathishta and Samprokshanam of Sri Ayyappa and Sri Guruvayoorappa Temple in Velacherry
I would like to share the information about Sri Ayyappa and Sri Guruvayoorappa Temple Prathishta and Samprokshanam celebration that I came across from the advertisements that the temple authorities have put near the Velacherry for the benefit of other Sri Ayyappa devotees.
Event: Prathishta and Samprokshanam of Sri Ayyappa and Sri Guruvayoorappa Temple.
Date: 14th July 2008
Temple Address: 7, 4th Cross Street, Dandeeswaram Main Road, Velacherry, Chennai -- 600 042.
Temple Contact Number: +914422430329
Swamiyae Saranam Ayyappa!!

Sunday, June 22, 2008

Online School Textbooks from Indian School Education Departments

Online School Textbooks from Indian School Education Departments

I actually thought of sharing this a while back but because of time constraints it has been remaining in the Write Queue for a while. Two of India's school education departments like CBSE (Central Board of Secondary Education) of NCERT (National Council of Education Research and Training) and Tamil Nadu Text Book Society have brought in innovative online websites that hosts the textbooks of various school classes.

The websites are:

1. Tamil Nadu Text Books Society TextBook Online
2. NCERT Textbooks

For those who have school-going kits in their homes, I am sure, now can help out them by guiding them to these informative websites too.

Saturday, June 07, 2008

Innovative Time Management Helper websites

Innovative Time Management Helper websites

The importance of time can never be underestimated. Every second is very important and we should take utmost care and precaution that we do not waste time for any unproductive activities. There are a number of utility programmes and websites that help us, in this Internet Age to support and help us in effectively managing our time. This blogger prefers 'Todolist', which is a freeware open source utility downloadable from CodeProject. Perhaps if you are interested, check out a review of todolist in my other weblog over here.
Since this is a desktop tool, the onus of remembering and carrying the files wherever you go, lies on you. Thanks to Rajesh Subramanian (CodeProject MVP) for sharing a nice website called 'Remember The Milk'. A quick tour of the website shows a lot of features that help us manage our time very productively. They also seem to be supporting text-message reminders for a few countries.
The other excellent websites that help us in time management are:
I just thought I would share these for the benefit of other readers too.

Satisfying (y)our aspirations for gold jewellery

Satisfying (y)our aspirations for gold jewellery

Everyone loves jewellery. And the most cutest of the jewellery items are Silver, Gold, Diamond. These days there are also advertisements for Platinum jewellery all over the city. If you watch attentively the Tamil news channels from 1800 hours to 2100 hours, there is a section dedicated to 'Business News' and they have the following announcements in it:

  1. Gold/Silver Prices
  2. Foriegn Exchange Rates
And these days, Gold has been most dear that we can not just walk into a jewellery showroom and purchase it. There should be a definite plan to purchase gold jewellery. A quick research on the jewellery showrooms in Chennai revealed that they all have good 'Small Savings Programme' where you pay a small amount every month to them. They maintain a passbook similar to bank passbook and give you. After paying for a stipulated period, they give you some interest for the maturity amount along with some incentive. But be careful regarding the showroom or shop you are dealing with. Chennai has some notorious fly-by-night shops too which take your money and runaway. You know of the latest GoldQuest scam right?

I just thought I would compile a few traditional jewellery shops that offer this type of Small Savings for Jewellery. They are:

  1. Saravana Stores Jewellery
  2. GRT Jewels
  3. Balu Jewellers
Perhaps if you know other trusted jewellery showroom, please share them as comments for the benefit of other readers.

Tamil Nadu's Premier Diary Products Supplier comes closer to you ...

Tamil Nadu's Premier Diary Products Supplier comes closer to you ...

I don't think anyone would be there who does not know Aavin milk. Aavin is a premier diary product supplier to everyone across the state of Tamil Nadu and I believe it is also Government of Tamil Nadu undertaking. Take the example of the city of Chennai. When you feel really tired somewhere, you need not worry about taking the carbonated water cool drinks. There should be an Aavin milk booth somewhere near you.

At least, a few of them I could suggest (as I recall) over here:
  1. Broadway (near Kuralagam)
  2. Spencer Plaza Junction
  3. CMBT Chennai [I believe they have two stalls. You can get a good hot cup of milk quenching your thirst and energizing you for a tiresome bus journey]
  4. Mylapore Tank
Perhaps I would say, you can check out Aavin website (which I have hyperlinked in the opening sentence of the post) for complete details.
Well! Coming back to the main discussion. I just came across an advertisement in Spencer Plaza Junction of Aavin regarding announcement by Aavin of their Toll Free Contact Center numbers which the customers can dial in and get their queries answered: The number is: 18004253300
Now I think, it is one more customer-friendly measure by Aavin and one more step to come closer to us.

Siruvachoor Madhurakaliamman Temple near Thiruchi

Siruvachoor Madhurakaliamman Temple near Thiruchi

During my Vishu Sabarimala trip this year and when we returning back to Chennai, we went to Siruvachoor Madhurakaliamman temple. While coming out of the temple, I saw the temple noticeboard where they had advertised about the website of the temple also. I noted it down but misplaced it somewhere.

Today, by the grace of Goddess, I came across the website and the URL is this one: http://www.siruvachurmathurakali.org/

The page has a good design but it is little heavy because of lot of images. The website is fully in Tamil and the text also is displayed as images and that is the reason, I doubt, when I misplaced the URL, I could not spot it through a quick search engine.

I just thought I would share the same to other readers so that interested can try planning a visit to the temple and get the blessings of the Lordess.

Distribution of Textbook Guides by Noble Foundation, Madurai

Distribution of Textbook Guides by Noble Foundation, Madurai

I came to know of Noble Foundation through my college friend.. They have a very noble mission of helping out students in various schools and colleges by distributing text books and guides. I just recieved an email newsletter from them regarding this year's plan of distribution and just thought I would share out with other interested readers so that more people can participate in lending a helping hand to a needy in his/her education. "A candle lights another and in the process neither grows dimmer but brightens up the entire ambience" is a proven saying right?

From the newsletter, I could gather the following information, which I would like to share:

  • The academic year (2007-08) witnessed a distribution of text books to 54 students. Most of the students have returned their books after completion of their course. Books seems to be good and which are able to be utilized this year were stitched / wrappered. This shall be used this year also.
  • For this year, they are planning to purchase nearly 20 books in replacement of damaged books. Also they are planning to step-up the distribution to more number of students. With this expansion in the offing, an estimated sum of INR 3000 to INR 3500 is being incurred to distribute to 75 students.
They seem to have begun this noble initiative in the year 2004 distributing to 6 students and now the plan is intending to serve upto 75 students. I think this is a very good moment for us to join hands and helping out a needy for his/her education.

Here is the address of the foundation for your quick reference:

Noble Foundation
New No.48 (Old No.29/1)
Perumal Koil South Mada Street
Madurai – 625 001
Tamilnadu. INDIA.

Telephone : +914523298525
Email : noblefoundationmadurai (at) hotmail.com
Website : http://www.noblefoundation.cfsites.org/

Friday, June 06, 2008

Evergreen Memories (Album Collection) :: Recall of Takewing (3rdAgenda Parent Company) Colleagues

Evergreen Memories (Album Collection) :: Recall of Takewing (3rdAgenda Parent Company) Colleagues


A while back, one of my previous company (3rdAgenda -- Agenda Netmarketing P Ltd) CTO (Rajendran Dandapani) sent out a fond "Recall your memory" snap. He also opened up a small quiz on how many of us could guess and recall the names of the persons. Our web development company (3rdAgenda) was actually child of Takewing, which is an advertising company. Later, 3rdAgenda was acquired by SSI Technologies. I don't think either SSI or 3rdAgenda exists now since search engines don't show up anything.



Thanks to Rajendran for bringing up the YahooGroups which serves as a very good discussion platform amongst the Ex-3rdAgenda colleagues. The original quiz thread is here. I could guess the following persons:



  1. Ganesh Mandalam (CEO of 3rdAgenda)

  2. Makesh (Design and Creative Head)

  3. Raja Seetharaman (He managed the finance and other sections for both Takewing and her kid (3rdAgenda))

  4. Latha (Takewing Employee)

  5. Vidya (Takewing Employee)

Life at 3rdAgenda is always an evergreen thing in memory. I joined 3rdAgenda after college referred from a newspaper advertisement. I fondly recall about the recruitment process that was followed: Three rounds of tests and then a personal discussion. Rajendran was so polite. Instead of just looking at dumb questions, he could analyse and get the real skills required and the aptitude of the candidate.



Rajendran used to give me a lot of advise on having the communication skills fine tuned. Besides, he also would organize 'Points scheme' to enhance the performance of employees. What I could recall from the 'Points Scheme' is here:



  1. Publishing of article in various magazines/websites

  2. Experts-Exchange Points

Monday, June 02, 2008

The Big List of Departures...

The Big List of Departures...

This month seemed to be a long list of departures and farewells in my close friend's circle. A few of them are:

  1. Resignation of Santosh Kumar Sinha from Siemens, Bangalore to a small organization in Hyderabad.
  2. Resignation of Redhy Palakatil Issac to a small organization based in Egmore, Chennai

When Santosh flashed a text message to me besides sending an email informing of his last day at Siemens, I called him and verified whether he was serious or just cracking another joke. For some reason, I have been not able to convince Santosh to bring a state of stable mind for him. We would normally be advised that wavering mind is always considered bad. While my ex-colleague (Santosh Kumar Sinha) has a good cordial nature, versatile technical skills but this one downside of him seems to be paining my heart like anything. In one way, I feel bad in that whether I am not able to properly correct him or convince him as a friend on making him think logically and also to stick to a firm decision. But in the other direction, I just felt that if this is going carcinogenic, then I ought to restrict the amount of relationship or close proximity with him and make it more formal else I am afraid that this weakness would cling on to me.

A week later, my other colleague (Redhy Palakatil Issac) told me that he is joining a small organization in Egmore. I know Redhy for about three to four years. Some of the good things about this guy are:

  1. Good focus towards work on hand.
  2. Hardworking. I have seen this guy struggle odd hours to get his tasks completed.
  3. Friendly. Whenever we find a lot of time during weekends and when the work was sparse, we used to visit a lot of temples.
  4. Unlike other spendthrift personnel of this age, this noble soul had very much responsible and committed goals towards his family:
    1. In his tender-age, he supports his father and also took credits from bank for his sister's wedding.
    2. I really salute him when he was so happy to open an account in State Bank of Travancore and used for his small savings. The current day trend of swiping the debit card for mundane worldly purchases is clearly missing from him and he is for sure, a very good role model for anyone of any age to emulate and follow.
  5. Nonchalant of disturbances in the environment. I have never seen him carried over by worldly disturbances in his environment hampering his work productivity. I really feel that we have to learn this from him.

These two departures have a mixed impact to anyone in our circle. The former representation keeps getting disturbed and jumps from place to place at even a sneeze or a whistle while the latter has a good calm and poised mental collection to deal the problem so very amicably.

Let us wish them anyway good success in their future endeavors.