Saturday, January 24, 2009

Sulekha YellowPages Contest

Sulekha YellowPages Contest

I just came to know from Sulekha Yellow Pages website and after a quick call to one of their executives to ensure that I can share the same with others that they are organizing a cool novel contest running in their yellow pages section. The contest goes as follows:

  1. When you search and view a business in Sulekha Yellow Pages and if you find an error in the entry, you can submit a suggestion/correction towards the same.
  2. You can also add a new business to Sulekha Yellow Pages and it would be added after due verification from their team.
  3. There are also five gift vouchers to win on a daily basis.
  4. Quick Pointers:
    1. The 'Report an Error' and 'Add More Info' options appear and is available only when you view a particular Yellow Pages entry.
    2. The 'Add a Business' can be exercised from this direct URL. The first screen offers to do a quick search on whether the business intended to be added is already in their catalog. If not, it can be added in the subsequent screens.
  5. You can view the monthly winners from this page.

Let us try and use this opportunity to contribute to Sulekha Yellow Pages for the following reasons:

  1. Contribute to a healthy and vibrant yellow pages development for our own benefit for future.
  2. Support the vibrant community-based Yellow Pages development.
  3. Stand to win cool gift vouchers.

Friday, January 23, 2009

Happy Birthday to Seshadri Manivannan (My Greeting to him through Go-Ergo too)

Happy Birthday to Seshadri Manivannan (My Greeting to him through Go-Ergo too)

My work colleague (Seshadri) who currently is put up at Gurgaon celebrates his birthday today. Rather than just scrapping his Orkut and sending another just dumb simple email message, it was a good great opportunity from Go-Ergo, to express and share birthday greetings through their columns.

You can find the birthday greeting through Go-Ergo January 23rd Edition on Page 13.

You laugh at me; I serve as a source of humor. You cry at me; I serve to shoulder you in the moments of your pain

You laugh at me; I serve as a source of humor. You cry at me; I serve to shoulder you in the moments of your pain

Did I become an astrologer?
Did Irving give me renaissance?
Did ?Residence Inn serve as a Bodhi Tree for me?

There are little to more plausible questions when it comes to the point that my forecast over here was rather getting true. Of course, as even I mentioned that I would stay away from the politics, I believe, I have kept that too without delving deeper into any political dragnet. A few days back, I had a casual conversation with Soorej Andrews Paul (who was with me in my previous organization). He was actually saying not to be too carried over by political pressures but just to concenterate and focus on the actual tasks on hand. The politics, in any sphere, is just to contribute to jeopardizing the general well-being of anyone.

"ஆமை நுழைந்த இடமும் அமீனா நுழைந்த இடமும் விளங்காது" is a famous Tamil proverb (meaning 'The place where Turtle/Court boy enters would suffer from debilitation"). I think this can be extended for one more candidate "அரசியல் நுழைந்த இடமும் உருப்படாது" (meaning 'place where politics starts to play a significant role is also on its way to crashing')

I have another perspective of seeing this thing anyway. Even if some one laughs at any of my weakness, at least, I don't really get intimidated. Neither do I nurture any illwill at them at any point of time. I have been practicing this successfully, copied from Soorej Andrews Paul. In another way, when one laughs at me at any of my weakness, I am proud that I have been a source of laughter for him since laughter is a tonic for good health. I have been helpful in that way in the world. At the same vien, when he cries in misery or pain, I am ready to support him and/or shoulder him to completely comfort him or to give solace to him. I admit anyway I still have a long way to mature this since to a certain degree a little disturbance hits me sometimes but Soorej is successful in depicting a one hundred per cent immunity to any political tornadoes of any kind waving at him.

The VIT SJAM -- The Twin Great Gala Celebration Weekend

The VIT SJAM -- The Twin Great Gala Celebration Weekend

This weekend woud be a twin (or rather even multiple) great gala celebration for the VITians. We have the 'Republic Day' holiday on 26th (to show our gesture of patriotism to our Motherland, India). Besides this, it also coincides as the Silver Jubiliee Alumni Meet. The VIT SJAM website here shows more details.

My college has planned for a two day long residential programme for alumni to stay, enjoy and revive the green memories of college days in the lush green VIT campus. The VITAA has also arranged for buses for the facility of alumni from Chennai, Hyderabad, Chitoor and Bangalore. To crown the entire celebrations, the President of India (Pratibha Devi Singh Patel) would be inaugurating the SJAM celebrations. Check out the news from 'The Hindu' here.

Vit Sjam2009


Happy Republic Day to everyone and Happy Republic Day and Happy SJAM celebrations to fellow VITians.

A little website to Lord Hanuman

A little website to Lord Hanuman

I have been wishing this for a while and it was divine blessing for me to start this little website dedicated to the service of Lord Hanuman. Check out my new weblog dedicated to Lord Hanuman.
This is just a small humble start. Stay Tuned!

Monday, January 19, 2009

The Most Constructive and Useful Weekend (1/17 through 1/18)

The Most Constructive and Useful Weekend (1/17 through 1/18)

This weekend had been a little to more hectic but it had been more useful in clearing almost all the backlogs that my Todolist was reminding me for some time. There had been a little bank work on Saturday morning to complete. A friend of mine wanted to get his Subscription to Saptagiri started off. This task which had been lying around got completed along with the same. With March nearing, all necessary documents towards the requirement of my auditor were to be arranged in place and this got completed too.

The Sunday was Holy Sunday. I have just started on the Sabarimala Vratham to visit the Holy Shrine of Sabarimala around February.

Saturday, January 17, 2009

Mata Amritanandamayi camp in Chennai Brahmasthanam on Jan 21st and 22nd of 2009

Mata Amritanandamayi camp in Chennai Brahmasthanam on Jan 21st and 22nd of 2009

Whilst commuting between Velachery and Guindy a couple of days back, I came across a banner hoarding of Mata Amritanandamayi Mutt announcing the camp of Her in her Chennai Brahmasthanam on 21st and 22nd 2009. The Chennai Brahmasthanam is located in the following address:

M.A.M, Brahmasthanam Temple,
Arcot Road,
Virugambakkam,
Chennai -- 600 092.

Landmark: Next to Avichi School

Telephone: +914423764087, +914423764063

Contact Person: Br. Vinayamrita Chaitanya
You can also check out their website for complete tour programmes of Mata Amritanandamayi.

Friday, January 16, 2009

Cool New website of Swamiyae Saranam Ayyappa!

Cool New website of Swamiyae Saranam Ayyappa!

Whilst casually browsing through 'The Hindu' online regarding updates on Makara Jyothi pooja in Sabarimala, I came across a new website on Sabarimala which can be located over here. The actual news article from 'The Hindu' which guided me to the new website can be located here. The website says that is also organized by Sabarimala Senior Tantri.

The downloads section has an excellent big image of Sri Ayyappa which you can take a print and have it included for your daily pooja. You can download the same over here. The website also gives the MP3 version of Harivarasanam download.

Let us try to visit the website often and get the blessings of the Lord.

Swamiyae Saranam Ayyappa!

Thursday, January 15, 2009

The ever-crowded Guindy junction

The ever-crowded Guindy junction

A few hours before, I needed to visit the Guindy junction for a couple of tasks. First one being, getting some palatable food since I was feeling really pinching hunger. I chose to visit the Sangeetha restaurant. The usual overcrowded scene at the restaurant greeted me there. I just thought I would share with you some more landmarks in Guindy which present always crowdy scenes 24x7.

  1. Sangeetha Restaurant
  2. Guindy Bus stand (towards Parrys)
  3. Guindy Railway Station (always one can see serpentine crowd at the counter)

Perhaps, just thought of sharing this thought; if you are in a hurry with more schedules, try avoiding Guindy junction as your transit center.

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Save EMRI which saved, saves and would save millions of lives

Save EMRI which saved, saves and would save millions of lives

We just discussed about the bad signages which are eclipsing the growth of Satyam Computer Services. I just thought I would add another related discussion on the same thread. Just about a few months back, the foundation launched EMRI (Emergency Management and Research Institute), a non-profit group, which offers to run free ambulance services in the four southern states of India offering to ferry patients to nearest hospitals.

The telecom operators have also been kind enough to allocate 108 as a toll-free number to reach their contact center to avail of their ambulance services. When I tell this sentence, I have another thought about the same. I am wondering why they chose 108. They should have chosen either 112 or 911 for simple reason that these are world-standard emergency numbers and anyone can reach these numbers from their mobile even with the phone keypad locked.

The recent eclipse on Satyam seems to be casting its ill-effects on EMRI as well. And, as we saw in the previous discussion, this is just a political vendetta similar to the one in Sivaji. EMRI had been functional in Andhra Pradesh for a while. But I came to know of it only after the launch in my state of Tamil Nadu around October 2008. At least till date, their services are well appreciated by all people of my state since otherwise poor people can not afford to hire costly ambulance services of the private hospitals. What's more? The ambulance is also so much equipped with enough first aid medicines to ensure that the ill-fated patient gets rescued and comes out of the trauma as early as possible.

Today, while casually going through some of the articles, I saw the following article in 'Times of India'. For a day, many of the banks have frozen the accounts of these noble service. I am not sure how is God going to penalize and punish them for the heinous sin those people have committed and in that day because of ambulance facing the issues of fuel and resource crisis, if some life has suffered, I think that would be the most dreaded sin accrued by the politicians and bankers.

Let us try to pray Lord Almighty and try to petition to the government to ensure that EMRI services are not affected by these scam-political menace. It is a very noble mission. It does not matter who started this noble life-saving service. But the mission is noble -- lives of millions of poor people are being saved every day, every hour, every minute and every second. If the administrators feel that the founder is corrupt and disgraced, I don't find a valid reason on why they should be keeping mum instead they can fund the non-profit organization and vest the administration to another good service-minded NGO. I am not subscribing to the fact that it should be run by the government. A typical government tenure is 5 years and the party in power, at least in India, gets into cheap tricks of amassing fast bucks by doing all sorts of crazy things. Hence it is better to have this noble mission run by a social-minded third party without any political interference from the government.

Readers: What do you say? Share your comments.

Is Satyam Computer Services becoming like Shivaji Foundation?

Is Satyam Computer Services becoming like Sivaji Foundation?

I don't want to go deeper into dirty politics on who is corrupt or accused in the entire Satyam Scam case. But at least from a common man's perspective, Satyam had been helping million share holders and had been serving as a valuable breadwinner. Because of the alleged wrongdoings of a few board members, accusing Satyam on the whole, I feel, is rather little harsh. In a way, I feel, this is becoming something like what happened to Sivaji Foundation in 'Sivaji - The Boss', the most successful recent Tamil film starred by superstar Rajinikanth.

After his return from US, Sivaji (Rajinikanth) would be planning the following things:

  1. Marrying a homely Indian girl who would like to stay away from the artificial modernities of the current age.
  2. Setting up a foundation called 'Sivaji Foundation' which would usher to provide
    1. Free and/or subsidised education from school to higher studies
    2. Free and/or subsidised medical aide to all walks of people
    3. Employment benefits to all walks of people
But even at the start of his noble venture, he was confronted by a hoodlum-politician who offered him real estate business and threatened him to stay away from medical and educational fields since he himself was making fast bucks in those fields and if Sivaji brings his social service mentality, his business would need to embrace a slow death. Sivaji was persevering on his mission and when he approached the various government authorities for approvals, the second hurdle hit him -- the reckless bribery solicitation by government staff at all levels. As the story goes, the politicians even go to the extent of killing Sivaji with the help of underworld police.

Now, coming to the real life situation, Satyam is currently employing more than 60000 software professionals and quite a number of them are also placed as onsite consultants in various locations in US. Besides these, it had been helping out various shareholders with good profits and dividends periodically. A few of the rotten eggs holding vantage positions in the organization is trying to jeopardize the general interest of the organization, which I don't think, God is not going to allow to succeed.

In Sivaji, while the story completes, Sivaji narrowly escaped from death with the help of a few good samaritan people but pretended to be dead and entered the country again as MGR (MG Ravichandran). The illicit cops were shocked on very close resemblance. Now with good mass support for Sivaji foundation, he could weed out the bad entities from the society itself. Let us hope that Satyam would also be having some radical strategy to come out of this political dragnet and establish itself to help young software professionals and shareholders worldwide.

Proof of Address cards by Indian Postal Department

Proof of Address cards by Indian Postal Department

I remember my colleague (Pradeep Joe Felix) once telling me that his mobile phone is seldom of any use to him. His only intention of having the mobile number with Airtel is to serve him as an address proof since his hometown is based in Tiruchi and he currently stays in Chennai for his work conditions. There are actually hundreds of scores of people in Chennai who are sharing the similar plight.

On Monday, during my visit to Guindy Industrial Estate Post office, I was seeing a board called 'Address Proof Cards for INR 240'. I was wondering about this service. Since the counter was already crowded, I didn't want bother them about a service which I am not going to avail immediately. However, this went to my 'Todolist'. Today being holiday, on account of Makara Sankranthi, I was doing some research on this and found the following information about this 'Proof of Address cards' service by Indian Postal Department.

Source URL: http://www.tamilnadupost.nic.in/psvc/adproof.htm

  1. Currently this service is available only in Chennai city (upto Tambaram)
  2. Only people who have a valid Indian citizenship can avail of this service
  3. Applicants should have completed 18 years of age in order to avail this service.
    1. Issuing Authority: Head Postmaster
    2. Verifying Authority: Public Relations Inspector
  4. Validity of the card: Three years from the date of issue or change of address (whichever occurs earlier)
  5. Tariff of the card:
    1. Application Fee: INR 10
    2. Card Fee: INR 240
  6. Availability: Any head post office in Chennai City should be able to help you with the request.
For other details, the contact details have been mentioned as below:

Manager (Business Development),
O/o the Postmaster General,
Anna Salai, Chennai - 600002.
Phone: +914428594745, +914428521444-Extn.:323
Email: pmgccr (at) rediffmail.com

Sunday, January 11, 2009

Smoke-Free Bhogi and Contributions towards No-Smoking India

Smoke-Free Bhogi and Contributions towards No-Smoking India

Well! The new year 2009 is on and we are marching ahead towards Bhogi and Thaip Pongal. Bhogi is one festival where we destroy the unneeded old things and rejuvenate our homes and heart with fresh and vibrant divine feelings and assets. As a good coincidence, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare of Government of India has also launched a more vigorous 'No-Smoking' campaign now. I have just discussed about the same here.

Interestingly just yesterday, I had to mend the zip in my bag which had got damaged sometime back. Whilst I was waiting in a small bag shop near Kamarajapuram (Tambaram East), I observed two incidents:

  1. Some two wheeler fellow briskly walked to the neighboring petty shop (In Tamil we call it as petti kadai) and was purchasing a few cigarattes only to light it right in the public road.
  2. Another political party comrade, I observed, was smoking and driving his Qualis car. Smoking itself is an offence now. Smoking-and-driving is a dangerous art not just for the riders of the vehicle but also for the general road users since their focus and safety is highly jeopardised.
  3. Not too later than these observations, the petty shopkeeper himself pulled out a cigarette and was demonstrating his artistic skills in sketching air bubbles from his mouth.

Thanks for the shopkeeper in getting a bit late in completing my work that I could witness all these incidents. I was really feeling bad that the yeoman efforts of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (Government of India) is just going to drain because of these unscrupulous people. Though this was just my thought process and no one would be knowing about it, God has listened to it. Today's 'The Hindu' carried a magnificent half page advertisement on Page 6 enumerating the ban process besides publishing the National Toll Free Helpline put up the Ministry to report incidents.

I immediately took this occasion and have reported the same to them. The contact center staff is very courteous and they take down every detail including the landmark. You ought to be little slow and explain them since the call center lands in New Delhi and they understand either Hindi or English. Let us make it a point to report any violations then and there to the call center as this would be a great encouragement for them as they would be glad with the demonstrated public patronage of the noble mission of 'AntiSmoking Campaign' in India.

At least for me, I have a feeling of happiness that I have tried to have this weekend towards serving a national cause. Let us have this word spread across and make India smoke-free and ensure that everyone gets spring-fresh oxygen to breathe.

Saturday, January 10, 2009

A little website to Lord Muruga

A little website to Lord Muruga

I have been wishing this for a while and it was divine blessing for me to start this little website dedicated to the service of Lord Muruga. Check out my new weblog dedicated to Lord Muruga.

The weblog dedicated to Lord Muruga is in Tamil Unicode. Your web browser/operating need to support Unicode so as to view the webpages.

A new shorter URL for my school website ...

A new shorter URL for my school website ...

My sincere thanks to Rajendran Dandapani for his encouraging words on my little personal website on my school. I just thought today I would just try updating it and also adding a friendly short URL to the same.

You can check out my school website here. There are more things to include in the website besides a little more page updations which are being enqueued in my Todolist. I would keep sharing with you the updates as and when they are published.

Sify webmail powered by Google Appliances ...

Sify webmail powered by Google Appliances ...

After a long gap, when I casually surfed on to Sify, I just observed that they have configured Sify Webmail to use Google Appliance. Now you can get the full advantage of Google Mail services through your Sify account. Even the advertisements that Google Ads displays on the webpage are actually Indian advertisements like Naukri.com.

In this juncture, I would like to recall that when it all started around in 1999 (just after my graduation), the Sify was known as Satyamonline. They slowly transitioned it as Sify. Interestingly, Infosys too started its website alias as http://www.infy.com/. For those who are curious, the trade symbol in stock exchange for Infosys is Infy. I remember, Sify during its Satyamonline era was powered by Critical Path. After that they supposedly had their own indigenous web mail solution powered by PHP. The latest in their evolution is transition to Google Appliances.

In this context, I would also like to relate my other post in LavanyaDeepak 2.0 which states about a service provider change for another webmail.

What is BS III?

What is BS III?

Those of us who have travelled recently in Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC), would have seen the following on the buses painted new:

  1. BS III
  2. Yellow Line
  3. Metro Line
  4. White Line
  5. Orange Line
  6. Blue Line

Some one just asked me if there is some defined circular or official note on what these stands for. Today being weekend, I just thought I would do a little homework on these and share with the other readers as well. Here are the notes on the topic.

BSIII is one of the emission norms that is currently adopted in India. It is actually the amount of gasoline and other ingredients that are consumed and the pollution control parameter. You can check out more about Emission Standards from this wiki page.

The other things that are shown in the bullet points are the type of new buses introduced by the transport corporation in Chennai and in other cities of Tamil Nadu. Here are the explanations for the same, as I gathered info on it:

  1. Blue Line. It is basically a deluxe bus designated as Limited Stop Service (LSS).
  2. Yellow Line. It is an express (fast) bus and is also a deluxe service.
  3. Orange Line. It is an LSS service along with deluxe facilites besides being equipped with automatic doors and featuring low floors.
  4. White Line. It is basically a long distance service featuring with low floor and automatic door facilities.
  5. The Metro Line is currently a very new type of bus recently introduced in the fleet serving within the city limits and connecting the suburban areas.

MTC is now high-tech and getting more tech-savvy. You can check out more information about the transport corporation, its fleet strength and future plans from their website at http://www.mtcbus.org/. What's more! You can send in your queries or complaints or suggestions to mtc_chennai (at) vsnl.net.

Helping those who gave their lifes to save our country on 11/26 (India's 911)

Helping those who gave their lifes to save our country on 11/26 (India's 911)

The gruesome and heinous attack of terrorists on Mumbai (the country's commercial capital) for three days ranging from 26th November through 29th November can never be forgotten by anyone. A significant number of people from NSG commandos, Home Guards, RPF and GRP besides a few city police) embraced death to save the city from the furious attack of terrorists.

The city is limping back to normalcy. The country is slowly gearing itself towards precautionary efforts to prevent recurrence of such incidents in future like strenghtening its borders and fortresses besides weakening the terrorist camps and eliminating them. We have also entered a brand new year 2009. At this moment, it is our duty to ensure that we do our might and contribute for the cause of martyrs who laid their lives for the sake of country.

Now it is a good news. Axis Bank, has opened a new savings Account called Account 26/11 with account number 447010100132022. According to the bank webpage, the beneficiaries of the account would be the following:

  1. 17 slain security personnel
    1. 12 Mumbai Police Personnel
    2. 2 NSG Commandos
    3. 1 RPF Personnel
    4. 1 GRP Personnel and
    5. 1 Home Guard Officer

Let us try to utilise this opportunity and help out the victims of our brave warriors in assisting them financially and thus helping them to enter the new year with more confidence.

*Please note that the contributions made to the cause would not qualify for any income tax exemption.

Saturday, January 03, 2009

Safe Motoring in the roads of Tamil Nadu

Safe Motoring in the roads of Tamil Nadu

During my friday trip to Sholinganallur Pratyankara temple and particularly while returning to Adyar, I got a glimpse of the new advertisement posted by Chennai City Traffic Police near Indra Nagar junction.

"For traffic emergencies, please call 103 or SMS at 9840017626".

I recall that sometime back, 9840000103 was used as SMS but this number is currently unsupported, as I learnt after clarifying the same with Bharti Airtel CustomerCare. I am not sure whether this SMS or Voice call would be toll or toll-free but when we witness a traffic emergency, a quick call can save a life or limb and if it is our hand-held mobile that can partake in the noble service, it should be a great solution to humanity.

Let us bookmark these numbers in our PhoneBook and try our best to ensure safe motoring roads in the state of Tamil Nadu.

Sin Sharers

Sin Sharers

During my Friday (2nd January 2009) visit to Sholinganallur Pratyankara temple, I came across a very nice slogan that they have put on one of the walls in Tamil. I just thought I would share this with others since it is a very good peace-propagating slogan which would enhance our mental peace besides elevating our productivity levels.

The English translation of the slogan goes as below:

"Do not get intimidated or enraged by people who try to be endeavoring as hurdles in your path or defaming you or engaging in any sort of betrayal against you or trying to cloud you with negative feelings or thoughts about you. Rather you should sympathize them for the simple reason that by virtue of the activities that they are resorting against you they are offering to share and partake your sins."

This exercise, of course, requires a little to more patience to cultivate but once done, it would be an enormous spiritual exercise in that our sins drastically get reduced since they are offloaded to those who really deserve it.

Perhaps, we can try cultivating this habit starting 2009 for our self-development.