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

Moti n Me

Moti n Me