Never Give up: An inspiring Video

This ones a real inspiring video which i came across through one f my friends on Facebook.

Update's

Considering that i didn't post for long there are lotsssssssss... of updates.. Will try to be more regular on this blog so that could post the happenings then and there .. because as u can see it becomes really difficult to put them across in one go.. but anyways sparing a few almost all of the udpates have been a pleasant one..work wise its being a bit challenging, learning but yet pleasant time.

On personal note took couple of days off form office went to mumbai ( that was abt 2 weeks back)had some real nice time with my nephew and niece [miss them after coming to chennai :-(] , made a quick visit to kerala as well as my aunt took ill.. Apart frm that there there is somethings more to add hopefully should be able to post more about the same in coming weeks :-D

Chennai: Food Review..

This is my first post in almost three months. Current schedule of work is a bit uncompromising hence this irregularity in posting.. :-( But its good to be busy and continue learning specially in these market conditions ;-) ..

Well if u are somebody who know me, then u are aware of my dislikes for this city ;-).. but anyways won't use this post to crib.

Rather this might act as a insight for people who are new to Chennai.. In last 4 months I have eaten out at quite a few restaurants around. But this post I would use to review just three of them, Green Park in Vadapalani, The Residency in T Nagar and Savera in R K Salai. Among these i have went multiple times to Green park. Once opted for buffet and the next time for Al a Carte. This was one of the sumptous buffets i have had in recent times.. specially the deserts section had so much ..hmmmwahh.. :-) . For the al-a-carte it was just about ok.. nothing great..

The Resiency (old) T Nagar was a huge place as in the case of green park, even these people had multiple restaurants, each serving a different cuisine. Here the starters were awesome infact we were almost full by the time we finished all our starters. The main course though was quite disappointing and we had it just for the namesake..

Savera in Cathedral Road/ R K Salai... stood apart from either of the above restaurants because..they had a roof top restaurant.. the fact that this place is close to the beach .. made the roof top restaurant experience worth it. We had a very strong breeze blowing through out. But one disadvantage of this breeze was that, whatever was served became cool pretty quickly. That may be one of the reasons why I didn't like the starters. But the main course and the deserts(one among the better rasmalai's i have ever had in Chennai) were quite good. Another bad observation was the service. Though initially when there weren't many people the service was good, but once the crowd built up, there was absolute no service at times..We ended up asking for a bottle of water to almost 5 waiters before it actually arrived at our table. Having said all this I would say this is one among the very few places in Chennai where you should come, incase you are asking out somebody for a date in Chennai. The roof top experience is simply remarkable.

Price wise i found more or less all three of them to be pretty much on the same scale.. So i guess depending on which part of the 4 course meal you are interested in and with whom you are going out you may pick ur choice!! :-)

United Nations Online Volunterring

This is an initiative which I didn’t knew off, till some time back. Well incase you have a internet connection and some free time every week then this one’s for you. I myself have known quite a few people who though quite talented but aren’t in a position to travel to far off places and provide their services in a social cause. UN Online Volunteering provides a perfect platform for such people. As using this initiative you can play a very significant role and be a part of some project run by the United Nations Organization.

There is ofcourse a certain satisfaction that quite a few of us draw out of such an activity, but apart from that there are quite a few other benefits as well:

You get certificates from the UN accrediting the work that you have performed and also if lucky you might actually get an opportunity to work with people from different nationalities understand their style of working, which in itself is something very significant to gain.

So incase you as well want to be part of this or want to just browse through the projects/ opportunities in offering then the link to refer to is http://www.onlinevolunteering.org/en/vol/index.html

Well on my side I have applied for a project, let's see if my resumes gets through.

Any Given Sunday

This one's based on the cult like craze for American football. An excellent movie specially i would say because of the role played by Al Pacino. You must listen to the pre match motivational talk that Pacino renders during the course of the matches they play. Specially the one before the play off is really awesome. It's the one which probably the corporates should play during their team building sessions.
Loaded with lots of motivational dialogues and some crazy (american) football stunts this is a must watch movie.

IPL

Well guys.. just a quick one.. for the ones who don't have a TV but a net connection with a decent speed, you can watch the live streaming of IPL matches at IPL's official website.

http://www.iplt20.com/

Enjoi !!

Zoozoos : The Vodafone Creation

The Zoozoos.. This ones certainly on the verge of becoming among the most watched Videos (much like susan boyle's). This ad campaign with the characters called by its creators as zoozoos was launched by Vodafone during the second season of IPL (2009). The idea was to make vodafone's customer aware about the various Value Added Services offered by the company. Now as a senrior managment official of Vodafone puts across they have an huge customer base which is increasing at a rapid pace, but most of them are not even aware of VAS offered by Vodafone. Say for eg: their phone back up facility was launched two years back. Still most of us don't even know about it ( I am an vodafone customer, i wasn't aware of it).

Now coming back to the zoozoos roughly 22 such ads have been made and intially the plan was to launch one ad on each day of the IPL. But then this has it's own repurcursions, its very well possible that the customers might not be able to imbibe the ads at a pace at which the company's releasing it. So as of now around 7 ads have being released and they have been immensly successfull.

Now there's one more thing about this ad which i never knew untill i read an article. Those zoozoos that you see on the screen they are not animations, infact they are actual human beings, to be more precise they are women and in certain cases children. The reason for this being that zoozoos were designed to have thin arms and legs, with a dispropotionate head. So the zoozoos that u see on the screen are women wearing a costume/mask . The costume/mask is in two parts, one is for the head which is filled with foam to make it look bigger the other is for the remaining part of the boy.

Well, advertising sure is a proffession for the talented ones.

The Outsourced

The ones who had criticized danny boyle after seeing "Slumdog millionaire",

saying that it shows India's under belly .. well my dear friends then u should surely watch

"Outsourced" guess it was realeased some time in 2006.

I don't know but i feel that this one was equally open in potraying the slums of india.

But honestly when we are open to hear our appreciation for what ever good we have done,we 

should be equally honest and open to hear out the darker side of the story.

THough there wasn't anything great in this movie, but somehow i liked it a lot.

It depicted some practical issues and traditions which we follow and the perception

an outsider might have to those.

Pantaloon Femina Ms India World: A Touching Story

This is an article i came across in TOI the other day. A real motivaing one. Here's the article about Pooja Chopra(Pantaloon Femina Ms India World) :

Neera Chopra( Pooja's Mother) lived through abuse, poverty and some tough choices to make her once-unwanted girl child, Pooja Chopra, the Pantaloons Femina Miss


I don’t know where to begin... they were terrible times. My husband was well-placed, but the marriage had begun to sink almost as soon as it began. Like most women do, I tried to work against all the odds . My in-laws insisted everything would be alright if I had a son. My first child was a daughter, and that didn’t do me any good... but I couldn’t walk out. I had lost my father, my brother was in a not-so-senior position in Bata. I didn’t want to be a burden on my family and continued to live in my marital home in Kolkata.
Also read Pooja Chopra’s Blog I looked after my mother-inlaw, who was suffering from cancer, and while bathing her, I would tell myself she would bless me and put things right. I don’t know how I tolerated it all. The least a man can do, if he must philander, is to not flaunt his women in his wife’s face. Then began the manhandling. I still wanted my marriage to survive. I was a pure vegetarian and learnt to cook non-vegetarian delicacies thinking it would please him. Then, I was pregnant again. When Pooja was eight months in my womb, my husband brought a girl to the house and announced he would marry her. I thought of killing myself. I hung on the slight hope that if the baby was a boy, my marriage could be saved. When Pooja was born a girl, for three days, nobody came to the hospital. There was a squadron leader’s wife on the opposite bed, who was kind enough to give me baby clothes for Pooja to wear. When she was 20 days old, I had to make a choice. I left the house with my girls — Pooja and Shubra, who was seven then. I haven’t seen my husband since. I promised myself, even if we had just one roti, we would share it, but together. I began life in Mumbai with the support of my mother, brother, who was by then married. It wasn’t the ideal situation, especially when he had children — space, money, everything was short. I began work at the Taj Colaba and got my own place. How did I manage? Truth be told, I would put a chatai on the floor, leave two glasses of milk and some food, and bolt the door from outside before going to work. I would leave the key with the neighbours and tell the kids to shout out to them when it was time to leave for school. Their tiny hands would do homework on their own, feed themselves on days that I worked late. My elder daughter Shubhra would make Pooja do her corrections... This is how they grew up. At a birthday party, Pooja would not eat her piece of cake, but pack it and bring it home to share with her sister. When Shubhra started working, she would skip lunch and pack a chicken sandwich that she would slip in her sister’s lunchbox the next day. I used to pray, “God, punish me for my karma, but not my innocent little kids. Please let me provide them the basics.” I used to struggle for shoes, socks, uniforms. I was living in Bangur Nagar, Goregaon. Pooja would walk four bus stops down to the St Thomas Academy. Then, too little to cross the road, she would ask a passerby to help her. I had to save the bus money to be able to put some milk in their bodies. Life began to change when I got a job for Rs 6,000 at the then Goa Penta. Mr Chhabra, the owner, and his wife, were kind enough to provide a loan for me. I sent my daughters to my sister’s house in Pune, with my mother as support. I spent four years working in Goa while I saved to buy a small one-bedroom house in Pune (where the family still lives). I would work 16-18 hours a day, not even taking weekly offs to accumulate leave and visit my daughters three or four times a year. Once I bought my house and found a job in Pune, life began to settle. I worked in Hotel Blue Diamond for a year and then finally joined Mainland China — which changed my life. The consideration of the team and management brought me the stability to bring them up, despite late hours and the travelling a hotelier must do. Shubhra got a job in Hotel Blue Diamond, being the youngest employee there while still in college, and managed to finish her Masters in commerce and her BBM. Today, she is married to a sweet Catholic boy who is in the Merchant Navy and has a sweet daughter. I continue to finish my day job and come home and take tuitions, as I have done for all these years. I also do all my household chores myself. Through the years, Shubhra has been my anchor and Pooja, the rock. Pooja’s tiny hands have wiped away my tears when I broke down. She has stood up for me, when I couldn’t speak for myself. Academically brilliant, she participated in all extra-curricular activities. When she needed high heels to model in, she did odd shows and bought them for herself. When I saw Pooja give her speech on TV, I knew it came from her heart. I could see the twinkle in her eye. And I thought to myself as she won “My God, this is my little girl.” God was trying to tell me something. Today, I’ve no regrets. I believe every cloud has a silver lining. As a mother, I’ve done nothing great. ‘I won due to my mother’s karma’ Pantaloons Femina Miss India Pooja Chopra’s mother promised ‘One day, this girl will make me proud’. Pooja speaks on fulfilling that promise... When I was 20 days old, my mother was asked to make a choice. It was either me — a girl child, or her husband. She chose me. As she walked out she turned around and told her husband, ‘One day, this girl will make me proud’. That day has come. Her husband went on to marry a woman who gave him two sons. Today, as I stand here a Miss India, I don’t even know if my father knows that it is me, his daughter, who has set out to conquer the world, a crown on my head. Our lives have not been easy, least so for my mother. Financially, emotionally, she struggled to stay afloat, to keep her job and yet allow us to be the best that we could be. I was given only one condition when I started modelling — my grades wouldn’t drop. All the girls in the pageant worked hard, but my edge was my mother’s sacrifice, her karma. Today, when people call to congratulate me, it’s not me they pay tribute to, but to her life and her struggle. She’s the true Woman of Substance. She is my light, my mentor, my driving force. My win was merely God’s way of compensating her.

The IPL Extravaganza

This year the IPL is in the news for all the wrong reasons. Firstly there are immense controversy about the venue and the very sustenance of the tournament was questioned. But then our BCCI stalwart Mr.Modi saw the tournament though the thick and thins and ensured that it happened.

I have hardly been able to follow the match on the television though I guess interests picks once we reach the lateral rounds of the tournament.

Another controversy doing rounds this year is that of the blog called as fake IPL player. Now there has been lots of discussion as to whether he is actually a player with the KKR or is he a attention seeking sports journalist or somebody who might be looking to create some controversy or add spice to the entire event.

Further today I was a bit saddened when I was reading an article in TOI, it was about one of the most prolific batsmen of yester years. One who I believe would have been apt for a event like IPL, its Lance Klusener. Known for his bit hits in the 50 over version today Klusener doesn’t fit in the scheme of things for CSA. The only reason for this.. well he is part of the rebel cricket league ICL. Just a sad example of how politics & power in sports can deprive some genuine talents of their opportunity.

Just for the records

Well, as i said this one's just for the records :-) Finally I am going to buy new phone tomorrow.. and bid farewell to my old (really old) communicator which now has lots and lots of issues.
The bad thing about me is that I am bit too careless as far as gadgets are concerned, and hence mobile has stayed safe in my hands for more than two years :-( . I hope i could set the record straight with this new one.
And as one could guess my knowledge abt these gadgets as well is not so great.. hence though i have few shortlist but still i don't know which is the one that I might go for.

P.S.: The update is that i bought an Nokia E63

Elections 2009 !!

The dream of being a prime minister has brought some of the big wigs
of Indian politics together (the Third Front). Everybody remembers how I K Gujral and Deve Gowda had their short but memorable stint at the helm and supposedly that's what is making everybody try their hands. But historically such third front alliances have not been
a success in Indian politics. Before the elections they might show extreme unity but once
the government is formed then there is a tussle at every step, be it the decision on
cabinet ministers or important policy decisions.
Specially in these testing times where on one hand we have disturbed neighbourhood and
on the other we have financial turmoil, I would have loved to see a government which could
be ready to take some decisions on its own rather than doing something which will
be in line with the pol manifesto of all the alliance parties. :-(

Bloggers can be nailed for their views

Today a news item featured in the TOI which mentioned about the case of a 19 year old blogger against whom a case was filed by a political party. His mistake: he started a group against that party and lots of people posted their hatred filled thoughts under that group. Though this guy had moved the supreme court to quash the criminal proceedings against him, but it didn't work in his favor as the honourable court upheld the proceedings against him.
I am sure this is going to be an debatable event in the blogging community, more so because we Indian's believe it to be our fundamental right to express our thoughts freely and blogging being one of the mediums to do so. Already i could see many sympathizers posting their comments on the TOI website. Whatever be the ulitmate ruling in this case it would be a path breaking one and would surely impact the blogging community in a considerable way.

Polarization Of News

Its quite surprising to see the extent to which news channels polarize the news depending on the region where this news is read. One of the best examples of this being " Slum dog Millionaire" the most talked about movie in the recent times. Today when Slum dog bagged 8 Oscars out of the 10 nominations it had received, i decided to check on two news websites just to see how they put across this news.

BBC news: Stated the headlines as "British Movie Slum dog Millionaire" sweeps the
Oscars.

On the Other hand IBN Live puts it across as " India based movie " slum dog bags 8 Oscars. Though neither of the news items are wrong as slum dog is an India based movie directed and produced by British citizens, but then the impact that the two news items leaves on the mind of the readers are quite different.

Say for e.g.: an Indian would be more happy to read the IBN live version of the story and for a British BBC's news might sound music to his ears.

Traveogue: Elliot's Beach

After spending my last weekend in Kerala, this time I decided to explore chennai. Subsequent to a awesome chicken curry that we (me and my room mate) prepared we went to the Beasant Nagar Beach also called as the Elliot's Beach. This is supposed to be among the more cleaner beaches of chennai. 

From Porur we got an A/C bus ( one of the few in chennai) quite a comfortable journey to Saidapet with just two stops in between. I wish there were more such buses in chennai. From Saidapet it took us another 20 odd mins to reach Beasant Nagar beach. To my surprise as my friends had told me it was quiet a clean beach. Since we were not carrying any spare clothes we didn't actually venture into the sea, rather enjoyed the cool breeze from the shore. Considering that it was a weekend the place was quite crowded.  

To my surprise lots of well known brand’s retail outlets are there  around Elliot’s beach. Infact I managed to have my first vada pav in 4 months from a small shop out here, though it didn’t match the taste of a typical Mumbaiya vada pav, but then considering the fact that I was having this vada pav in one of the most conservative cities of southern India gave me immense pleasure. 

Out an out it was a nice weekend cooked a delicious meal and visited a nice place, hopefully the subsequent weekends would as well be equally good. By the way the next weekend we are supposed to go to ECR road, for a Go-karting competition .. J

Life @chennai

Its been precisely a month since I ventured out of my home once again to a new place altogether to start things from scratch. Further retrospection tells me that in the last 10 years I have been to quite a few places like Jabalpur, Kottayam, Palakkad, Mumbai, Pune, Dubai, Singapore and now in Chennai and have stayed at these places for a period varying from 6 months to 4 years. Guess that’s some achievement of sorts ;-) .

Anyways this wasn’t supposed to be a self boosting blog. So coming to the point now I am put up at one of the oldest metro’s of southern India. The last time I came to Chennai was about 14 years back and that was just for couple of days. Since then I have never had any ecstatic feelings about this place, unfortunately then the memories that I took back home was that of long queues of vessels in front of the pump waiting for water to come, petty fights over water and the extremely crowded buses. Infact I used to feel pity for people who used to work in Chennai. Well what can I say what goes around comes around. So here I am in a altogether new place where everything we eat starts with some form of rice and coconut. People speak different languages like Tamil, Tamil and Tamil ;-). The best part are the autowalla’s, their’s nothing called a meter that the auto guys out here make use of. But I must say the auto drivers out here enjoy tremendous unity they are all united as far as stating a fare is concerned, you ask for a 2 km distance and they would add two zeros to that and state a bill of Rs.200 ( a bit exaggerated u see). But believe me this month I have dared to take an auto ( not the share auto) only once and that was the first trip that I took out here.

Having said all these not so good things I would say that my preconceived notions made me expect more bad things in Chennai than I actually did. Things in Chennai are certainly changing but there is a lot too be done on the infrastructure side. Though they have developed an IT park but this place is an panchayat which means although the government gains in terms of taxes and employment but then there is much that they can do, but since supposedly the budget of panchayats are not good enough to undertake major infrastructure projects. So many places along the way I see water clogging which seems to be a very big problem in this vicinity. Public transport is pretty decent infact its much much better than a city like Bangalore, but mostly its crowded.

So out and out I have got very mixed feelings for this city with a bit of an inclination towards the negative side. I believe there are some basic things which the government can do in here which would improve the life of the local people immensely. Well the worst test for me would be during the summers and the rainy season, so keeping my fingers crossed and hoping for the best