A common man-Hero who teaches life's tough lessons

        Today where inflation has made normal life a tough game, there are people who succumb to these fatal disorders and the main victim are the poor lower & lower middle class people. Despite different tricks of the govt  the circumstances have become so tough that its a really a tough stand to live life. And this may be a reason quite case has come to notice where the entire family choose to die due to poverty & many other implications in the society but there are still few fighters in every corner of life & they don't leave any stone unturned to win the race of life. you may find no surprise in my words now as we all are part of the fight to win life in this tough situation, but there are still few people who inspires me and just want to share such a brave man's story.

I travel by local train for more than 25 kms daily to work in one way and its a better mode of transport then any other mode. And in a typical Indian city of rush hours you can expect the general scenario inside the trains. I have travelled in the local train in Mumbai, Chennai, trams in Kolkata & in the Delhi Metro rail as well. As far as luxury is concerned Delhi metro edges out itself followed by tram & local trains. but when it comes to local trains Mumbai being the most dense commuters in the train, is the toughest to travel & followed by Chennai. And in Chennai the locals are hub to easy travelling people & it mostly includes crowd from lower & middle class commuters. And in India typically from ferrywalas to beggars everybody find their market better in these locals than any other place. In the evening return train where the public will be heading home from work one can find items ranging from ripen bananas to vegetables from groundnut to healthy fruits on the train itself & I have witnessed people buying it hurriedly (I think to save money & time as well). in the morning hours as people will be heading to work the beggars aim the public to earn their sympathy. In the morning hours I don't get my mind out of any intention to reach office in time, but the return journey just brings out the reporter or philosopher in me & In that mood the situation too happens to be so tragic that it tends me to think of the people & heir lives.

My story roams around such a man in the train whom I first saw in a crowded train close to 8-10 months back. On my first look of this man of honour & the man of self dignity, my mind just charged. you might be thinking what am I saying , but yes dear its the hero of the story, the old man had made my day. the old man is in his seventies, carrying the load of his life for such a long period hid backbone has leaned in the front ( in the spirit to worship the funda "work is god"). wearing a white dhoti & a kurta ( a typical south Indian dress & a towel on his shoulders to cover his common manship) he was shouting "Nilakadalai" which means groundnut in Tamil. Seeing him I can say that he has defeated age for his earning. I could see he can hardly walk but he dared to sell the favourite time pass item of many in the trains to get his earning. I have seen healthy young people acting like disabled begging on roads in Delhi & they used to run when police chased them. But here an old man who can hardly walk dares to chase the crowd in the no space train. In the beach to tambaram lave where at every 3 minutes a train passes this man travels from chromepet to nungambakkam to sell a little bag of groundnut. I have seen this man counting his earning off the business a chromepet station. Sitting on the ground he tries his mathematics to yeild profit & return home. What a man, what dignity he has as compared to people who dont feel ashamed to beg even if they can earn it. Seeing him i get strength everyday & I say to myself that I won't stop working at least till my body is with my mind. Like his spirit of never let go I will fight with every odd & have little espect to hold my head on my shoulders.  There can be nothing new for people like us to witness hard work in office but considering his age where he should have bedridden & mouth fed he is doing such hard work. It just reminds me of the pain people go through to earn their livings & kicks my butt when I feel tired or lazy to go working. May the almighty lord Venkateswara give him all strength & his share of fruits for the hard work he does.May everybody understand the meaning of work & life , India for sure could have got out of many reasons for which it lags behind...

Lets salute the spirit of such people.

Pappu’s end year final exam

( A nice Read from Firstpost.com )

We all know how important it is for students in India to excel at examinations and what a rat-race it is for youth. The knowledge of current affairs is considered a very, very important sign of academic excellence, so we set a test paper based on events in 2011 and asked Pappu to take a bash at it.

How are laws made in India?

It is very easy. You have to go and fast at either the Ramlila grounds, Azad Maidan or MMRDA grounds in Bandra Kurla Complex (if you can afford it) and demand a particular law.

Do you require a majority in parliament to pass a law?

No, you only need the majority support of the news media.

Who is Anna Hazare?

He is a man who wants Sharad Pawar slapped more than once. He does not like postmen and other Group C and D government servants. He is very powerful. He sits in the front seat of his car without a seat-belt on and no one challans him. He is a very bad blogger. TV cameras love him. His favourite word is niyyat.

What is Ralegan Siddhi?

It is a place like the Jindal Health farm or any Kerala Ayurveda centre. It is a place to go when you want to detox. You cannot drink alcohol there. There is no cable TV. Instead of masseurs, they have people who beat you with a stick.

Could you have passed this exam? Reuters

Who is Arvind Kejriwal?

He is an angry man.

Who is Kiran Bedi?

She is an angry woman.

Who is Prashant Bhushan?

He is an angry man.

Together, what are Kejriwal, Bedi and Bhushan?

They are a game, like Angry Birds. Their game is called Angry Core Committee. In their game, no one throws things at them, they throw things at politicians, especially from the Congress party.

What is FDI?

I think it is a car. The USA likes it, but the opposition parties in India do not like it. I think it is a car because it can be rolled back.

Who is Justice Katju?

A confused man. He thinks he has been appointed the conscience of the country when everyone knows that it is Medha Patkar. He also thinks he is an editor. He thinks he is the greatest editor in the country. He is also opposed to a Bharat Ratna for Sachin Tendulkar. He does not go to astrologers. He doesn’t like TV news channels, though he watches all of them 24X7.

Who is Jayalalithaa?


She is the Santa Claus of Tamil Nadu. She gives everyone free TVs, mixies, laptops and sewing machines.

Who pays for all these freebies? Are they made by elves?

No. There are no elves. The freebies are paid for by the citizens of Tamil Nadu.

What is Mullaiperiyar?

It is a piece required to play chess. My father says it’s a pawn in a game between Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

What is Radiagate?

It is a gadget that allows direct contact between industrialists and politicians instantly.

Who is Manmohan Singh?

I’m not sure. But I think he is the one Anna Hazaree copied the concept of maun-vrat from.

Who is the head of the government of India?

Someone called Ten Jan Path.

Who is Mayawati?

She is a statue. She is a statue with a handbag. Actually she is many statues with many handbags.

Who is Kalmadi?

He is a master magician. He can make anything 100 times more expensive in seconds. He can also make large sums of money disappear. However, he cannot disappear from jail.

Who is Raja?

He is also a master magician. He can also make large sums of money disappear. But he, too, cannot disappear from jail.

Who is Sunny Leone?

She is a very nice girl who is much misunderstood. Many people think she is a porn star when, in fact, she is just a very nice girl.

Why do so many people wear funny hats with ‘I am Anna’ written on it?

All these people are called Anna and all have memory deficiencies and, every now and then, they forget their own names. When they do, they look at the funny hats. They meet at Ramlila grounds, Azad Maidan and MMRDA grounds. When this happens, it is very confusing as there are hundreds of people, all called Anna. They all eat while another man called Anna does not eat.

What is the Food Security Act?

It is like the National Security Act. It won’t work.

Who is Kapil Sibal?

He is a man with no friends on Facebook. People on twitter laugh at him the whole day. He does not like people making fun of his real-life friends.

Lakshadweepa Islands, a scenic destination.

What a news ! I am going to the Lakshadweepa Islands...Yes, I was too excited on hearing it but the excitement took a turn when i was told to have a virtual look on the islands. And the media is Internet. This all came as a back end activity to hire around 50 Engineers in Lakshadweepa. Being away from the mainland we were in a dilemma how to do the resource deployment & I was asked to access the avenues available & the best way to approach. Then what , I jumped into the Arabian sea to find out what is there in the Island. Like the Arabian sea i swimmed through the Internet & got to know the history & geography about Lakshadweepa Islands. From Google to Wikipedia &amd from official websites to personal blogs i had to give it 3 days to find the details & the end result was good enough to comment on the beautiful island Union Territory of India.From the opportunities to the issues in islands & the development activities just opened a new window of exploring knowledge to the next state.

Take a look :-

        Lakshadwepa islands being the tiniest  UT of India is actually the only coral chain of India & consists of 36 islands, 12 atolls, 3 reefs and 5 submerged banks. Only 10 of these islands namely, Agatti, Amini, Andrott, Bitra, Chetlat, Kadmat, Kalpeni, Kavaratti, Kiltan and Minicoy are inhabited. Kavaratti is the Administrative Headquarters of the Union Territory & the entire lakshadweepa counts as one district.

With close to 64000 population , literacy rate here is over 92 %, Govt & the administration has put a significant focus in the Education sector.

Malayalam being the official language in the Lakshadweepa, the education system is in Malayalm & English.Apartr from Malayalam people speak a form om Tamil in Arabic version as well. (because of regular trade with the gulf countries)

With a growing demand for the professional education locally & to avoid the students going to the mainland for education which is a costlier business Govt. has have put focus on the building a better education infrastructure from time to time. However anybody who is willing to pursue higher education in specific technical or any other field Govt is helping them to do so by supporting them in terms of getting scholarships to funding the entire education as well.

Next to this as far as higher education is concerned Lakshdweepa has few options for the students. There are only 2 colleges that provide graduate & post graduate program & the colleges are as under.

• Government Jawaharlal Nehru College, Kadmat , Lakshadweepa
• MahatmaGandhi College , Andrott, Lakshadweep

Apart from this entire three is a medical college as well in the islands with 10 seats for the incumbents. People who want to pursue technical & higher education has to go the mainland & the govt takes care of the expanses in form of giving scholarships & funding the course.

Employment & Job Market in the Lakshdweepa

• With limited resources to explore Lakshdweepa people has lesser employment opportunities & head to the mainland for their earnings.
• Indian Navy & the govt administration make the major job opportunities for the locals. Apart from this coconut fibre & coir industry is the main industry set up in the islands wherein the Govt has put up 2 factories which employ moderate numbers on permanent basis. 
• With the scenic beauty of the islands Tourism has a major contribution in the employment. With presence of all majors from the hospitality industry it becomes one of the bet tourist destinations among people across the globe.
• With limited employment opportunities the old system of Recruitment via Employment exchange is still active there and the main employer is the Govt of India in various projects. With the rise of information technology the private sector too has grown but has not been able to employment opportunity in the islands because of its location & cost involved in the setting of plant & travel cost except the tourism industry where the Govt has to create more awareness activity to attract more tourists.
• With most of the people moving to the mainland for higher education & employment, most of the local population is employed in the nearest mainland state of Kerala.

Sources of Recruitment

Armed with all sort of tools in recruitment like the portals, Reference, Social & professional networking sites & headhunting you can do a better job but where Information Technology is a tough reach you need to hit the traditional base line to capture & attract the better available talent.

• The main source could be the locals from the nearest state of Kerala ( kochi & nearby places) who are ready to get to the islands for employment.
• To recruit local there in Lakshdweepa we have only one or two private portals or blogs where adds can be placed can be of help.
• Apart from other dailies like the Mathrubhumi & the Deepika there is the Lakshdweepa times run by the govt wherein advertisements can be useful for recruitment.
• There is always other ways to recruit as well but for this we need to reach the islands.

wishing someone "Happy Bithday" really works...

I never thought it would be welcomed in such a way...wondering ? Hold on its nothing but the response i got today when i wished My friend a Happy Birthday this morning. He was sad ; the reason being that nobody called & wished him Happy Birthday till I rang him up @ 12 noon today. He just flew few miles in emotion in thanking me a lot & sounded happy to be wished & born today 30 yrs back. I remember the days when we first met in a private tuition in my hometown, he used to be among the active & participating guys in every activity people of his age will participate in but in recent years he has just made him underground & been quite submissive. After he joined a private Dental college in Salem,Kerala he has changed a lot. In due course of his dental course which was extended for couple of years following his back papers it might happen that his colleagues & people in his circle have moved on in their lives. This friend of mine has been a great support to me and people around him & that is why i have always been tying to keep in touch with him in dark days as well. Today after the 10 minutes call I could hear his loneliness and eagerness to be around people.Human heart just needs a consoling shoulder every time you are said "NO" in any circumstances.There are stronger people & weaker people who has extraordinary mental strength to handle different situations & things. But when continuously you are said no then your morale goes down & the self belief too starts stumbling. Its like food for the mind. When you feed your mind with positive thoughts which obviously come from affirmative happenings & people with positive energy & encouraging nature, the grey matter grows better & works better. Perhaps my friend has not been so lucky to have company of good people & good things. I feel pity for him & would have been happier to meet him. Anyway i made him little easy today & tried to bring back the demon smile on his face. A birthday without cheers is not bad & at least it should be a happy birthday & then only wishing someone "Happy Bithday" really works...

May the almighty lord bless him with all happiness today..

Happy Birthday Umesh.    

Will it be Retail again...

      I remember the early 2000s when retail took out a hood in India out of the streets and many multi brand retail outlets opened up. the first ones were the Subiksha followed by Bigbazar,6 to10,Spencers,Vishal Megamart & many more.Following this the Biggies across the globe too landed here to bag their share of profit. Companies like Wallmart & carrefour landed in India but they were not able to find out a plan to work out as the govt dint allow FDI in multi brand retail.Even if they had the option to work with in the 51% single brand outlet which is not their core business they were finding a spot to pitch in India. But not loosing hope to get them allowed to have operating in India they had to settle in the single brand retail & to wait for the time when Govt allows it. And that is why my friend Mantu who got a job in Carrefour 3 yrs back was sticking to his basics and was mulling rhymes to open up retail outlets in India & we were laughing at him. But finally after yesterday's announcement he will have the last laugh. With many speculations the local traders across the country have started to oppose or observe band to protest the move. When my friends Boss is happy & posting in his tweeter account there are many who have started recalculating their plans for future. With the local traders & the local infrastructure unhappy with the move the govt is happy with the foreign treat. Lets wait to shop in wallmart & woo the street shop for not giving us credit....

शरद पवार को थप्पड़...

कल कृषि मंत्री महाशय शरद पवार के काले मोटे गाल पे एक युवक ने थप्पड़ जड़ दिया और पकडे जाने से पहले बोला " ये भ्रस्त है और मैं इनको चीर दूंगा". छानबीन से पता चला की ये सिख युवक जो एक ट्रक चालक है जो कुछ दिन पहले ही हरयाणा के पूरब मंत्री जी जो की घूसखोरी के एक मामले मैं ५ साल के लिए अन्दर हुए है, उन्हें भी यही थोफा दिया था.

पर क्या यह सही है...


कुछ दिन पहले नेताओं पे जूता फेकने वाली घटना फेशन मैं आया था और अम्रीका के प्रेसिडेंट से लेके परवेज़ मुशर्रफ पर भी जुटे पड़े. पर अब ये हट साफ़ करेवाला आईडिया कुछ ज्यादा कारगुजार साबित हो रहा है. वैसे तो हमारे यहाँ आम आदमी की पहंच नेताओं तक नहीं पहंचती ( सिक्यूरिटी के कारण) पर जब भी मौका मिलता लोग अब इसका इस्तेमाल भी करेंगे.

इस बात पे महान गांधीवादी नेता अन्ना हजारे का जवाब मुझे अच्छा लगा. जबुन्हें किसीने बताया के थप्पड़ पड़ा तो उनके जवाब था " थप्पड़ मारा ? एक ही मारा ??" ये गांधवादी का नेताजे वाला जवाब देखके तो यही लगता है के आम आदमी अब बोलने पे और जवाब देने पे तैयार हो गया है.. चाहे अपने कड़े तेवर हो या वोट हो अब सही फैसला करेगी....

Price rise & fare Hike in Tamil Nadu

It was a tired evening yesterday when i got down at the Chromepet railway station on my way back to home. It was something unusual as there was a mammoth crowd waiting for the public transport system to arrive. It was unusual because of the huge mass of crowd. Amid chaos 2 buses reached & within seconds got overcrowded as well. Next I could listen to arguments between people & the conductor ; the reason was the hiked fare. Till then I was unaware of what was going on , but in public & personal interest, on enquiry got to know that effective yesterday fare of certain item has been raised by the AIADMK govt. This include Bus fare, Milk Prices & a proposed hike in the power charges as well. This is in anomaly to the centres denial for a revenue demand of the state, the Tamil nadu govt which is running on huge revenue deficit Ms Jayalalitha has Finlay taken the bold steps to increase the price. Addressing the people of the state through her party TV channel, Jaya TV, she said the state was forced to increase the bus fares and milk prices to save the loss-making public sector undertakings from becoming dysfunctional. She said the state cabinet which met on 17th, discussed the present situation prevailing in the Transport and Electricity departments and their crisis run along with that of the State-owned Aavin, which meets the milk needs of the public.

Considering that the Centre was adopting step-motherly attitude by not sanctioning even a single pie to the state which was deep in financial crisis, Ms Jayalalithaa said the bus fares were hiked from the present 28 paise per km to 42 paise in mofussil areas and that of Express and Semi-deluxe buses from 32 p to 56 p. She said the fares of super-deluxe and Volvo buses were hiked from 38 p to 60 p and that of Ultra-deluxe suburban buses from 52 p to 70 p.

She said the cabinet had also decided to hike the mnimum bus fares in metros other than Chennai from Rs two to three and the maximum from Rs seven to 12. ''In Chennai, the minimum fare will go up from Rs two to three and the maximum fare will go up from Rs 12 to 14,'' Ms Jayalalithaa, said and added the despite the hike, the bus fare structure was far less when compared to other southern states.

Noting that the demand of milk producers seeking hike in procurement prices was justified, Ms Jayalalithaa said of the total 150 lakh litres of milk produced per day, the state-owned Aavin procures about 22 lakh litres. Conceding their demand, she said the procurement price of cow milk was hiked from Rs 18 to 20 and that of buffalo milk from Rs 26 to 28. Conseuquent to this, the toned milk sold to the public by Aavin through cards was increased from Rs 17.75 per litre to Rs 24 per litre.

So, now when everything is getting a good raise, we need to pull our pockets deeper ? All hopes are on facts like salary hike, job change & appraisals or a perk to satisfy the deficiancy .lets see what happens. Nevertheless these factors are not going to get you more, hence better be prepared for the worst time to come...

Pen pal , Penfriend & my friend ( Mayusha )

Its Mayu's Birthday today...& for the first time in the last 10 years of my communication to her i called her & wished her Happy Birthday. And the reaction from her was amazing. We both felt happy to talk to each other as I never wished her on her birthday. I generally forget dates & as i hate to remember dates, months & years, but this time i don't know how come it came into my mind that its 10th Nov & its her birthday. I called up her & wished a very happy birthday. She was back from her night shift & was answering all callers, we were talking how 10 years have passed on to our pen friendship. In today's world where mobile phones & Internet has replaced the snail mails the way our pen friendship has survived it just amazing. However we have shifted our communication base from writting letters to mobile phone messages & facebook scraps, e have come a long way in pen palship. 

The origin of this wonderful relationship goes way back to early 2000s when she was a 10+2 student & i was a fresh graduate. I was in Dharubedha,Rajasthan , a place nearly 30 - 40 kilometers from Gurgaon  wherein I was like a newborn in the chaotic northern state of India planning for my Management diploma. Before i could join a regular Management course i had 5-6 months time in hand and then  i was a quite lone soul there. I remember i was not even speaking a good Hindi ascent, forget about English.Coming from an Odia Background I knew only Odia & split Hindi. I was with my uncle there and once he is out for office then " main aur meri tanhayee.....aksar yee baatein karte rehte hain....ki koi hota jo meri sunta yar phir koi hota jise main apni sunata..." I was in this condition for more than 2 months & I was behaving like a half mad who broke out of the mental asylum. Suddenly i got hold of Indian Express one Friday & the supplement on youth  "the youth Express". One thing that caught my eyes was the Pen pal column. I then thought to have a pen pal to whom i can write & share views. what next ......I wrote it to the editor & luckily it got published in the next to next Week. And next to this, i had around 40+ responses to my ad I was excited enough to reply to each  everyone of them. And a journey started since then i passed on through many ups & downs in exchanging thoughts. I used to get responses maximum from southern region as the news paper is less circulated in the northern parts. Friends who wrote about their college fun activities to family issues & from career plans to marriage plans , the exchange of thoughts were full of humour & excitement for me. in time span of couple of years people started to part ways out but the one who struck with me was Mayusha; the vibrant killer from my very own state of Odisha. we started when she was in her 10+2 & when time passed on she did her graduation , then post graduation & now engaged in her job. From me shifting from Rajasthan to Delhi to Chennai , she too has made a good run from Bhanjanagar to Vizag to Hyderabad to Chennai to Bangalore Now. One thing that dint change was the communication between us. From sharing daily humour to me getting job changes & her brother's marriage we have come a long way. It looks like i am watching a movie but thank god its happeneing in the real world & I am a part of this.

On her birthday today...May the great Ganesha bless her with all happiness & good fortune.

Thank you so much Mayu for being with me for so long & I wish our friendship remains forever...

Ek ghadi ki kahani...

यह चेन्नई मैं मेरी पहली शर्दी है ... हलाकि मैं पिछले साल भी यहीं था मगर मैं शायद इस जलवायु मैं ठीक से अपने आप को ढाल नहीं पाया था. आज कल यहाँ सुबह की नींद बड़ी मजेदार लगती है और बिस्तर छोड़ने को मन नहीं करता.पर क्या करें सुबह सुबह ऑफिस भी तो जाना है ना तो उठाना पड़ता है.हाला की मेरे ऑफिस की कार्यकालिनी समय सुबह ९ बजे से लेके शाम के ६ बजे तक है मगर मैं क्या कहूँ मुझे अपनी आप पे शर्म अति है ये कहते हुए की मैं रोज़ १०- १०.३० से पहले ऑफिस नहीं पहंच पाता था.और क्यों की मैं खुद मानव संसाधन बिभाग मैं हूँ तो मुझे बड़ा अटपटा लगता था और शर्मिंदगी भी लगती थी. खैर एक दिन मेरे अन्दर का शेर जाग गया अचानक और मुझे बोला के बेटा अब उठ जा और कुछ जुगाड़ कर. तो मैंने पिछले रविवार को ही बाज़ार गया और एक अलार्म वाली घडी लेके आया.वैसे उसकी कुछ आबस्यक्ता  नहीं थी क्यों के मेरे घर के पास वाली चर्च से हर एक घंटे मैं अलार्म बजता रहता है. मगर क्या करें कुछ करना जो था, तो मैने एक बजने वाली घडी ले आया और उसे सबसे अधिक आवाज में चालू करके सो गया.  सुबह ६ बजे जैसे ही वो बजा मैं उठ खड़ा हुआ. सुबह की शांत बातावरण मैं मुझे ऐसा लगा की अभी मेरे अपार्टमेन्ट के सारे लोग मेरे घर आएंगे और मुझे उस घंटे की तरह बजायेंगे. कारण यह था की घडी बहत जोर से बजा ( Maximum Volume set). खैर कोई नहीं आया मगर मैंने आवाज़ थोड़ी कम कर दिया और उठके तयार हो गया और ऑफिस के लिए निकल पडा. मुझे बड़े दिनों के बाद टाइम से पहले अत देख सब चौंक गए और ये मुहे बड़ा अच्छा लगा. तबसे उस ५५० रुपये की घडी के खातीर मैं अब टाइम से उठके ऑफिस पहंच जाता हूँ ...

सारांश

- जब तक अन्दर का शेर नहीं जागता तब तक कोइ काम नहीं होता

- जब तक घंटा नहीं बजता नींद नहीं खुलती

- जब तक पैसे की चपत नहीं लगती तब तक दीमाग भी काम नहीं करता

खैर छोडियी ये सब पागल्पंती और फालतू बातें और बताईये आप तो ऑफिस टाइम से पहंच जाते हैं ना...?

Odia , Odisha & its people.

 After years I tried my hands in writing a letter in Odia and believe me it was difficult to write as the finger movement needed much to work on the paper to write the fonts. For your knowledge i should tell you that unlike English the letters in oriya are much complicated and need a better effort to write a good hand-writing. But let me tell you it was really tough to get something on paper,forget about the handwriting.But one thing is for sure my fingers remembered the letters so correctly that i was surprised at times when i wrote conjoint letters. It took me 20-30 minutes to write a full page letter expressing my thought at that time. I managed to get an average handwriting & one can only manage to read & understand what I wrote.
 
I remember my School Days when I used to speak , read & write in Odia only and read English as a subject in the class. When somebody spoke good English then, people used to admire him with great respect &considered English as a better language. Now I remember the poor Tripathy Sir who used to teach us ODIA was behind English and his love for the odia language was so intense that anyone who used to utter English in his class he used to punish him. But now when English has invaded everything and people with out a good ascent are considered as good for nothing , where are those Odia lovers.

I, being an Odia have travelled many parts of the country India.From North in Jammu where people speak Dogri to extreme south place like Trivendrum where people speak to Malayalam. But i have learned one thing that unlike people in Odisha people in all other parts of the country love their language and love to practice it. More strictly in you will not find signboards and hoardings in Andhra written in language other than Telugu. Down south the love for the language has risen to a level that people feel comfortable only when they speak to like spoken people. like say Mumbai if you adress people in public place in Marathi there is a better response from people. But in Odisha people feel degraded against people speak English & other languages. This is my feel that this could be a reason like we Odia's dint pick English Properly & our love for Odia has restricted to our school books. But one thing is that Odia is a great language and we people must respect our language and wear it in our hearts being an Odia by heart.

In continuation i wrote the letter to my father-in-law and he was more than happy to read it in odia. One thing I thing is for sure that till people like me are there & people like my father-in-laws are there odia will be there in our heart and we feel our chest expand by few meters in a thought that we are Odia...

I pray to the almighty lord that may Odisha bolster its voice in Odia everywhere and anywhere Odia people are there they shoud say it loud

Long live Odisha
Long live Odia
Long live the Odia Culture.
  

Mother in memory, son builds a Rs 5 crore memorial and plans

He is no Shah Jahan but the memorial for his mother will be no less than a Taj Mahal of a mughal emperor, atleast as his eyes will behold it.

Kumar, a businessman is the talk of his home town, Thuraiyur, as he supervises the construction of a grand 30,000 sq ft memorial in what must be one of the most expensive monuments to love in any part of the world.

 

You may call it a touch of madness, but there is as the bard said "a method in his madness". He is purposefully building the memorial at a notional cost of Rs five crore near a burial ground so that people would ponder over the true meaning of love and life, Kumar said. The memorial is equipped with a "seven star bathroom," for the convenience of people who come to bury their beloved nearby, and a hall that would be available free for any worthy community service.

A resident of Thuraiyur near Trichy, he pondered hard about how to enshrine his mother who passed away on Feburary 1, 2007. A Tamil proverb about the sacredness of mothers inspired him to spend a crore of rupees to make the point that mothers are priceless. But this memorial is to him worth much more, more like five crores of rupees to his mind. But money does not matter, it's the heart that does. He has already fixed February next for the consecration of the shrine, called in Tamil 'Kumbhabhisekham'.

For Kumar, the youngest of four sons born to the Chidambaram-Dhanapakkiam couple, his mother is the best human being in the entire globe, more valuable that all the treasures in the world.

He adheres to the tenets of another Tamil proverb that proclaims "Thaayikku pin thaaram" (mother above wife) and his wife Savithri is perfectly at ease with his splurging for the memory of his mother, though all the three older brothers are at variance with his extraordinary gesture.

Kumar admitted to TOI on Tuesday night that there was 10% selfishness in the whole activity of building a massive structure in memory of his mother who was 64 when she departed. In order to commemorate her 64 years of sojourn on this planet he has erected a 64 foot high stupa (pillar) within the 2.5 acres of land. The memorial would also house 64 portraits of his mother made of such things as broken pieces of bangles, matchstick, beads, and all fancy items. At the heart of the memorial would his mother's ashes mixed in the waters of all the Indian rivers, immersed under the ground at a depth of 64 feet beneath the bronze statue of his father Dhanapakkiyam. Sixty per cent of the deed is done out of pure love for his mother, and the rest is to make the villagers realize the importance of mother's unparalleled love.

Kumar who is a member of Lions Club has travelled across 12 countries and strongly believes that no son has done such a thing for his mother in the entire world. He would not want to discuss about the monetary aspects the structure, because "my love for my mother cannot measured in fiscal terms." But he takes pride in saying that it must be a "world record" and "I just want to leave behind traces of my matchless love for my mother on the sands of eternity." His wife Savithri said that there was opposition from some of the family members for such an "mindless extravaganza" but later they all relented after coming to understand the incomparable love of a son toward his mother.

Asked if it ever occurred to him that the money would have been worth spent had it been used for a worthy mundane cause like building an orphanage or a home for the aged in the relatively backward area, Kumar brushed aside people's rationale behind running orphanages or homes for the aged as being politically motivated and selfish in nature.

Source - The Times of india

Subh Diwali

May the festival of lights be the harbinger of joy and prosperity. As the holy occasion of Diwali is here and the atmosphere is filled with the spirit of mirth and love, here's hoping this festival of beauty brings your way, bright sparkles of contentment, that stay with you through the days ahead.

Best wishes on Diwali and New year.

This Diwali

May This Diwali be as bright as ever.
May this Diwali bring joy, health and wealth to you.
May the festival of lights brighten up you and your near and dear ones lives.
May this Diwali bring in u the most brightest and choicest happiness and love you have ever Wished for.
May this Diwali bring you the utmost in peace and prosperity.
May lights triumph over darkness.
May peace transcend the earth.
May the spirit of light illuminate the world.
May the light that we celebrate at Diwali show us the way and lead us together on the path of peace and social harmony

 

Let's celebrate the auspicious day of Diwali with fun and frolic. May this bright day bring Bountiful Bliss and Joy in your life

Stop Digging Jobs..

There is a strange thing in the media these days...the tales of Jobs. Its been more than a week the man has let earth but the media and the people across the globe are still in talk. Yes it might be his creations & contribution to technology in the form of innovations. But don't you think its too much to dig his grave now. After him its his biography is in talk now.It may be a tactics which help the I Phone to surpass the sales figure of Blackberry & it may be an idea to accelerate the volume sales of his biography now. But anyway everyday the news websites carrying another story about him, i don't like it at all. Like his India connection to his facebook opinion, it seems an Idea to visualise Jobs in people's mind & through it pump the sales.Anyway i have moved on after I have appreciated Jobs for his contributions.And I think the media should now focus on the core issues in India rather than following jobs in his grave.

Berhampur girl grabs gold in Commonwealth (youth) championship.

There are still people who dare to dream & make them true. With passion, determination & hard work its possible for anyone. Minati has proved the saying by winning gold in the 44 kilo category of weight lifting in the currently going on common wealth youth championship in Cape town. 

Following her mentor Mr. K Ravi Kumar, another weightlifter from Berhampur, Minati Das, brought fame to the state of Orissa as she won gold in the ongoing Commonwealth Youth Girls championship at cape town on Monday. Ravi, who had won the gold medal in the Commonwealth Games-2010, had also won the medal in the Commonwealth (youth) championships earlier.

Strategic Human Resource Management

Being an Hr person I keep learning by myself & with today's Internet savvy world when the Internet is catching you 24*7 via your mobile phone,laptop or I pad it has became an easy access to a sea of knowledge for enthusiastic executives.Many a times while i Interview any Hr candidate for a middle or senior management role i get to hear the word " Strategic HRM" very often and i wonder if the executive really understand & practice the same in his present organization. I have witnessed that hardly any executive is using the phrase in a right way & understands the real meaning of it.Hence lets just review the phrase.

Strategic HRM is a word or phrase widely used wherein the Hr Professional is required to discharge the role of a strategic partner in Business , is normally not so easy as understood. Int means to understand the real Business objective & functioning style & incorporate various means to connect the Hr capital to meet the business goal and ultimate objectives. In many companies the management is seen not even bothered to make Hr understand the real business and the objectives & are confined to hiring to firing activities. the ultimate aim of any business when lies in the financials it becomes a vital factor to get the HR strategies align with to reach the expected result. Strategic HRM is all about aligning the business strategies with HR Strategic interventions at each level so that HR helps to achieve the business plan through HR capital.As the corporate world becoming much competitive day by day HR has no way to adopt the Strategic approach in Hr practices to involve employees from the grass root level to get ahead of the competition with achieving business goals using HR capital. And in my views in doing this, the main challenge the Hr professionals is to make the business managers understand the business strategy , objectives & strategic path to involve employees in different verticals to achieve the business goal. companies those who have understood the concept & have adopted the Strategic HRM enjoy better competitive advantage and reach greater heights, however there are many who are yet to understand the concept & adopt it....

Hope i have made the point clear.

the happening weekend

Weekends is gone and it was much happening this weekend as things like Dushera, Annamania Vs Congreassia, Advanis's  another Rathyatra, BigBoss 5, Champions league and the much awaited long leave.

Today the morning started with the  news of CBI raid @ Maran brothers home & office in Chennai and a sad news of Jagjit singh' s demise followed by my bro's disqualification in an Interview. With a little worried about my brother's disqualification I plan him to bounce back with a bang.

The most amazing thing this week was the recently started Anti Congress movement by Anna Hazare & his supporters. Its being called as the next step to bring the Jan lokpal Bill Movement.Parties those object to the bill or dont want it to be in place will have to bear the Anna heat. As this month the Hisar By election is going to happen on 13th Oct for which Anna jee has asked the public not to vote congress as congress is not willing to bring the Lokpal bill. Fearing the agitation against its candidature the Congress party gave a clarification that the party is going to bring the bill in the winter session of the house. in another stir the MohanBhagwat from RSS told that the RSS participated in the lokpal movement @ Ramlila maidan giving tongue to Dickvijay to take a bite on the movement but Anna jee replied to it saying the movement to be a public movement  & RSS has no stake in the leadership. Results of this election may decide the congress fate in the next parliament election and 

All about Road Transport.

Beating the most happening things like the Anna movement, 2G, Bomb blast ,Osama Act & many others the festival season is back to woo us and as usual forgetting everything we are set to have some good time during the Ganesh utsav , Dushera Pooja & Diwali which will continue till christmas & new year. What a middle class corporate employee is in need? if i answer couple of days leave from work to relax & rejuvinate life i hope majority of people will agree to me. And for people like me festival means celebrating with parents @ home & spending quality time to remember later on. This time i was bit late as always to book tickets to home. But for a country like ours it becomes a tough job for lakhs of people who earn their living outside their homes to get back to home on festivals & the ticketing system however has gone online is not sufficient. After the screen displayed " not available", i turned to the road transport system as air travel is bit expansive for me now. 

For my surprise the bus operators are plenty in number and the service online is far better than the centrally operated Railways. Here are few options on road transport you too can use.

• Redbus ( www.redbus.in)

Redbus reflects the best example of enterprenuership which started in the year 2005 by few techies travellers from Bangalore when they did not get tickets from local counters, with an innovative idea to provide bus ticket booking online. they used technology, managed to get the bus operators linked to them and hence rolled on the redbus service. Now they operate in more than 350 routes and thousands of satisfied customers. the website is user friendly and you can book tickets via internet or by calling the customer care number or by visiting their counter. The customer service is far better than other tour operators & i am sure you will enjoy the ride.

• Andhra Pradesh Road Transport Corporation (www.apsrtc.in) 

This is the best govt run road transport system to book tickets online available today. The large number of routes to better option with variety of service provided to the m-chek facility is well defied there and I would rate this as the best in the state run transport system.

You need to register once to book tickets online @ http://apsrtconline.in/ 

• Karnataka Road transport Corporation ( http://www.ksrtc.in/site/ )

This again is a better technology used website where you can get tickets to major cities in south , west & central parts of the country.

• Kerla Road transport Corporation ( http://210.212.239.117:8080/KsrtcOnlineR/ )

This again is a better technology used website where you can get tickets to major cities in southern parts of the country.

• Tamil Nadu road Transport Corporation (http://www.tnstc.in/)

Recently it has been launched by the State government but the motive is not very clear as nobody else other than the regular agents in the reservation centre can book tickets as it needs a registration for once but the same is not available throughout the website. Being a hub for IT people i dint find the site very useful rather than a long speech by Amma ( Jayalalitha). Wherein you can book tickets at the 50 reservation counters.

Health Insurance Portability

I was happy to read this news this morning in a leading newspapers and i found subsequently all the leading newspapers too had covered it. I remember few months back the mobile number portability was rolled out wherein the same number could be retained in case the customer wants change the service provider. This led me to have a fair understanding of the portability concept. One thing is for sure that this will lead to better service delivery and will empower the customer to look beyond the network hospitals or the price or the easy availability but one step more to look for the service provided. Earlier the financial advisers were always in hurry in making a count on the features limited to price & the network but now the most important aspect would be added, the service delivery. This will surely set standards for companies selling health insurance and will definitely strengthen the customer voice for better service delivery...

Issues & the 2G drama

• Horrible earthquake in Manipur leaving thousands homeless & hundreds dead or missing
• Bomb blast in front of Delhi high court leaving the home ministry with no clues & a complete intelligence failure
• Flood in Odisha with thousand hector crop waste
• Everlasting ambush in J&K
• Heavy rains at many parts of the country
• Raise in fuel price petrol price ( Rs 70/ltr)
• Raise in REPO rate by RBI

But the government does not seem to have tackled any of the above issue significantly. Instead the elegant ministers are engaged in catfight among them selves in relation to the 2G note. And what a drama that ashamed the entire country for the past 3-4 days. Dada accusing Chidu of not taking action to prevent the scam & in reply chidu like a wild child denied to speak on the issue without speaking to the MMS & MMS was busy in an international conference giving words of wisdom with caution to both chidu & dada. In due course chidu even offered to resign to 10 janpath who is back from a surgery. Finally MMS is back accusing the opposition of conspiring of fresh election & took both the wild children to 10 Janpath to create a show to convince the media & saved the govt….it just looked as a family drama to me. But its not any child’s play bosses, its thousand crore of public money that has been looted & you have to give us the answer. But one thing is for sure that the next election people are going to do justice and this time my friend just get ready to vote in huge numbers & outcast everybody who is corrupt & incapable of performing his duty….

Lalbag ka raja ( Ganesh Utsav)