Slice of Chennai # 5 - Elliots Beach

Sunrise - Elliots Beach

I took a few shots during our weekly run through Elliots Beach. Generally, we do not stop at Elliots Beach, but this time I took a few to take a few shots..


Elliots Beach was busy but not crowded like other times of the day. I was able to catch sunrise in all its glory. From nowhere to now here, Sun appeared from the horizon in about 5 - 10 minutes. It was a wonderful scene to watch..

Enjoying the sunrise

Sun is out and its time for me to get going.. with my running..


These stalls will be busy in a few hours..


A man and the landmark. This dilapidated landmark can be seen in many Tamil Movies. I don't know what it is, but is now being used an 'open' Toilet.

Back to Dial-Up

It has been a while since I used dial-up to access Internet..

But, I am in Turin / Torino, Italy now and is forced to use dial-up. Why? Because, I am staying in this hotel and they charge EUR 10 per hour for wi-fi access. Outrageous..

Podcast: Chat with Karti P Chidambaram - Part # 3

In this concluding part, Karti P Chidambaram talks about Globalization, Foreign affairs and dynastic politics

Please listen in


MP3 File

Related Links
Ram Viswanathan talks to Karti Chidambaram - Part # 1
Ram Viswanathan talks to Karti Chidambaram - Part # 2

Podcast: Chat with Karti P Chidambaram - Part # 2

In this section, Karti Chidambaram talks about affirmative action and its need. He also puts forth and new ideas about creamy layer definition

Please listen in..


MP3 File

Part # 3 - In the final and concluding section, Karti talks about Foreign affairs and globalization. He also addresses dynastic politics briefly..

Related Links
Ram Viswanathan talks to Karti Chidambaram - Part # 1

Podcast: Chat with Karti P Chidambaram - Part # 1

I met up with Karti P Chidambaram in his office in Nungambakkam for a very interesting conversation. He is young, ambitious and comes from a influential family. But most importantly he has vision and talent. We will be hearing lot more about Karti Chidambaram in the coming days at state and national level.

We had good discussion on a range topics from Local Politics to Foreign Affairs to Globalization and many things in between. He didn't mince words in answering questions and he readily said 'don't know' for questions he didn't have an answer..

In the first edition of the 3 part series, we talk about local & national politics and also about cola controversy.

Please listen in..


MP3 File


MP3 File

In part # 2 - We talk about affirmative action in India and his ideas to fix some glaring deficiencies.

Chennai Chutney

IBNLive is running a series called Chennai Chutney covering everything from culture to cinema.. Please check it out..

The Complete Book Of Running

By Jim Fixx

My colleague introduced me to this book (The Complete Book Of Running) today. I dug around the net and found interesting juice about Jim and his book. He started running in 60s and became a running sensation. He created a large following in US and his book became one of the best selling. Jim is cited to be one of the reasons for marathon becoming popular in US.

Written by Jim Fixx in 1977, this book is virtually an encyclopedia of running, covering every aspect. It includes training, racing, selecting gear, diet, getting thin, and much, much more.

I am going to get hold of this book soon.. Hoping to gain some more insights to long distance running..

Ironically, Jim died at the age of 52 while running due to a massive heart attack.

On related to note, 2007 Mumbai Marathon registration is now open.. However, with just less than a month to go, there is still no information on Bangalore Marathon.

What Good Is FREE?

If no one can connect.. I am talking about the FREE wi-fi service by BSNL in Chennai Airport.

I have tried to connect to the FREE wi-fi service by BSNL at the Chennai Domestic Airport numerous times and don't remember ever being successful. My latest attempt was yesterday as I was heading to Bangalore.

Initially, I thought it was my wi-fi driver and stuff.. So went out and updated all the required paraphernalia for wi-fi. While that solved few other problems I had with lap top hibernation, I am still not able to connect to this FREE wi-fi spot in Chennai Airport. And I must say, I have been able to connect at most other hotspots in all kinds of places. Even this post is via a wi-fi connection.

What good is FREE if no one can use it? Have you been successful using this FREE wi-fi service?

What's your Blog Worth?

Check this out for what its worth to know you your blog's worth.

What is a Blog?

Interesting discussion going on in the BlogSphere as to what constitutes a Blog? Are there various categories of Blogs? Public, Private (Corporate & Personal)?.. If its a private Blog, then is it a Blog? Is there a officially accepted definition?

Robert Scoble sets out the following criteria which Jeff Sandquist disagrees.

1) Easy to do reverse-chronological content display. Type in a box and hit publish. New stuff goes at the top of the page. Old stuff moves down.
2) Discoverable. Through search engines
3) Social. I can track when you link to me from another domain, either through search engines, through trackbacks, or through my referrer logs.
4) Permalinkable. I can send you a link directly to a post.
5) Syndicatable. I can use a news aggregator to read your content, which lets me read a lot more Blogs.

My two cents:
Whether it is open or restricted, A Blog is something that exhibits the above characteristics.

Now, what do you call private blogs? (ie., public Blogs that are restricted)? That seems to be the point of contention between Jeff & Robert.

What's your take?

Need A Partition Memorial

Photo Courtesy: BBC.com
This and many more pictures on the horrors of partition taken by Margaret Bourke-White, hitherto unseen have come to light with the republication of Kushwant Singh's Train to Pakistan. (Please note that some images may be disconcerting)

In a land of memorials where there is something for somebody and anybody,there is no memorial for countless who perished in the largest mass migration in human history immediately after partition and independence.

partition agony is one of the vital components of Indian history and it should be kept alive lest history might repeat itself.

Via: Balaji

Blogger - A Journalist?

A federal judge in San Francisco disagreed and jailed a blogger for refusing to part with raw video footage.

Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna

Photo Courtesy: yahoo.com

Saw Kabhi Alvida Na Kehana (KANK) in Sathyam Cinemas yesterday. Ticket purchase was a snap through online, no crowded line, no ‘no change’ problem.. I was even able to order my popcorn online have it delivered to our seat. Overall, Sathyam Cinemas has done a wonderful job in making the movie going experience pleasant, Now if they could just make their parking and accessibility little bit more easier.. then it will be all more fun..

OK, Now over to KANK

KANK is not your run-of-the-mill Bolloywood movie. Unlike other movies were the the portrayal is black & white, there is no bad guy in this movie and all main characters have some flaw and it’s the grey area that makes the story different in this one. Karan Johar has stepped out of his ‘feel good’ movie genre and has addressed a sensitive subject like marriage and infidelity.

Dev (Shah Rukh Khan) and Maya (Rani Mukherjee) falling love with each other as their own marriages were falling apart. What unravels after they tell their spouses may be disconcerting to some viewers, but that’s probably one of the reasons why the movie is based out of NYC and not in India.

The real stars of the movie were dialogue & music. I am not very good in Hindi, even with that handicap, enjoyed the dialogues. Niranjan Iyengar’s dialogues were crisp, direct (yet diplomatic) and forceful. I particularly enjoyed Amitabh’s speech where he talks about ‘waqt’ is ‘abhi’. “If you love some one go tell them now about your love.. just hold their hands are give them a hug. If you have hurt someone, go say sorry now.. as there is nothing more important in life than love and be loved.”.

Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy music is one of the clear strengths of the movie. The score is a perfect mix of western and Indian tunes. All songs are situational and furthers the movie with my favorite one being ‘Mitwaa’.

But, I did find the movie lengthy, stretching past over 3 hours. Also, lots of NYC scenes were kind of repetitive in nature. Particularly, couple of shots taken at the railway station seems to have been taken in the same schedule with the same props.

Overall, the movie is enjoyable and worth the watch..

Ratings
Direction B+ for good story telling
Acting B+ for being the character
Music A for the melodious tunes by Shankar-Ehasaan-Loy
Dialogue A for crisp, direct & forceful script
Art & Location B for repetitive scenes..

Overall B+ for an enjoyable / thought provoking movie

Bottom Line Watch it

ps: I had a double header movie outing this weekend. I also saw Adam Sandler’s Click, but it is just passé and doesn’t qualify for a post.

Travelog # 3 - Macau

Last December (Dec 2005), I went to Macau for a short business visit and was able to squeeze one half day of touristy stuff. Here are some sights from that trip..

Macau was a Portuguese colony till 1999 and was transferred to China as one of the two special administrative region (other one being Hong Kong). Even though it has its own currency pegged to Chinese Yuan (CNY), Hong Kong and Chinese currencies are also widely accepted in all places.

Macau is touted as the Las Vegas of east and it does seem to live up to its tag (for good or bad). Several large casinos attract large amount of tourists via Hong Kong and main-land China. One drive across Macau would reveal a frenzy of construction activity. Our guide told us that few more bigggg casinos are coming with they are adding 10,000+ hotel rooms.

Macau is just a boat hop away from Hong Kong. In fact, we flew in to Hong Kong and took this boat right from the Hong Kong Airport jetty for a 40 minute ride.


Macau Tower the most visible and most visited place in Macau.


Macau Tower by night from the ground. We had some kind of a private party organized for us and had the Tower all for us exclusively for an evening.


A glass floor at the observatory point.. Seen similar stuff in CN Tower, Toronto as well.


Chinese 'Poikkal Guthirai' and artists


Ruins for St. Paul's Cathedral is a major tourist attraction


Chinese temple with giant incense coils..


Statute of Christ Mother Mary (thanks to Patrick) in front of a old Portuguese Church


Old Portuguese house/s now a tourist spot


More photos in flickr

Who Won ? Israel or Hezbollah

Neither..

Israel invaded Lebanon with an explicit goal to destroy Hezbollah and to retrieve two of its soldiers. After several weeks of fighting, a fragile ceasefire is in place now and Lebanese Army and International Peace Keeping force have started moving in to Southern Lebanon. After a month of death and destruction, are there any real winner?

Both Israel and Hezbollah are claiming victory. Israel, because there is now a buffer zone inspected International Peace Keeping Force and Hezbollah, because it still there. But in the real sense, it is unclear as to who gained what. Consider this, Israel had a buffer zone till year 2000 and it voluntarily withdrew as part of the overall peace initiative. And, Hezbollah may have survived this elimination attempt but at what cost?

One thing is clear though that the weeks of death and destruction is not not going to resolve the real Israeli problem which is the Palestine imbroglio. Unless and until the primary Palestine problem is resolved, these kinds of secondary issues will continue to distract Israel and the world.

The genesis of the recent conflict was the abduction of two Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah and there is still no sign of them. In fact, there is no sign of the third Israeli soldier abducted by Hamas in Gaza.

Israel mounted a massive land and air attack to drive Hezbollah out of Lebanon and retrieve its 2 abducted soldiers. Even after weeks of bombing and destruction, Hezbollah may have been weakened but its organizational infrastructure seems to be still in tact.

After the ceasefire, Hezbollah is back in action, spearheading relief activities in the war ravaged areas. Even though they are the reason for the war in the first place, Hezbollah seems to be gaining in stature with its relentless relief work and being the first one provide support to Lebanese as they trickle back home.

Hezbollah, with its strong support from Syria and Iran is a state in itself. As Professor Amal Saad-Ghorayeb puts it (to NYTimes) "Hezbollah is not a state within a state, but rather a state within a nonstate. By being there quickly and providing real relief, Hezbollah is filling in the vaccum left by the official state and acting as a quasi state, very much like LeT & LTTE.

And that is the challenge countries like Israel, India & Sri Lanka are facing. They are not in war with a state but with organizations that has multiple faces. How does countries fight militant organizations like Hezbollah, Hamas, LeT and LTTE that operate on several fronts. On one side they have armed wing that is brutal and goes to any extent to silence its opponents. On the other side, they have excellent grass-root level network that runs hospitals, schools and charitable organizations?

In a war where the enemy is 'faceless' and does not adhere to known battle conventions, it is impossible to totally eliminate them. From Jaffna to Kashmir, our recent history is replete with lessons.

The only recourse to these issues dialog and eventual political settlement but then, there are no takers for that at this juncture.

Google: Blanket Chennai With Wi-Fi

Google : Come to Chennai and blanket it with wi-fi coverage like you did for Mountain View.

I am tired of BSNL broadband dropping every other day and even more tired of their help desk. Many a times, the call doesn't get through after long waits and even after that, the response and attitude of the operators is far from professional.

India is becoming the help desk of the world but domestic call centers leave much to be desired. Why is that ? If India could provide world-class service to the rest of the world, why can't Indians have the same level of service?

I guess, it has to do with money and lack of service culture.

While the BPO operations bring in money and the quality / service culture is strictly monitored, Indian companies serving domestic market don't really pay attention to service and give it a shoddy treatment.

Its probably is going to take more competition to shake things up to get some focus on service. Now, every company is growing like crazy and they don't really pay attention to customer after they have been acquired.

Finally..

Photo Courtesy: CNN.com

JonBenet Ramsey was murdered the day after Christmas in 1996 in her own home. An arrest eluded the case for a long time. Finally, Boulder Police seem to have cracked the case, they have arrested a suspect, 41 year old ex-school teacher in Thailand. If John Mark Karr is the real culprit then he deserves to be locked up for life.

It has taken a decade for this arrest and the case may be finally coming to a close. I am glad Boulder Police stuck to the case and seem to have cracked it.. finally.

Related Links
Case History

Have A Question for Karti Chidambaram ?

Have a question for Karti Chidambaram?

First.. thanks to Nithya for making this interview possible..



Though from a popular family, Karti Chidambaram stands on his own. He is in to multitude of things.. He is a politician and runs a legal management consulting firm. Also, he floated a online forum recently along with Ms. Kanimozhi which attracted lot of press. He is constantly on the move and keeps a busy schedule.

Karti Chidambarm did his schooling in Chennai and went to US & UK for his higher studies. He did his under graduation from UT, Austin and degree in law from Cambridge University.

I plan to talk to him next week. If you have questions for him.. then you know what to do..

25 Sites We Can't Live Without..

Time magazine published a list of 25 sites we can't live without..

I took a look at this list to see how many I touch on a regular basis.. I counted 13.. How about you..?

My blog isn't one of them yet..

Go Girl..

This person has made Chennai proud.. Now, let's see how she tackles the cola controversy in India..

Congratulations Indira Nooyi for becoming the next CEO of Pepsi

Independence

India got its independence from British this day 59 years ago but we are shackled by many other ills that is slowly eating the fabric of the society.

Some of these shackles are new and some are age old.. Nevertheless, India needs independence from:

• Terrorism: India celebrated its independence from British amidst unprecedented security. Delhi was brought under complete security blanket about a week ago and closer to home, Kalpakkam security was handed to over to Army, which declared curfew and passed shoot at sight orders to protect the nuclear installation. India continues to bleed in this low intensity war with no end in sight. We need independence from terrorism.
  
• Corruption: I don't know the history of corruption in India, but this cancer is in its advanced stages. There seems to be rate for everything from license to medical care to school admission to jobs. Why, Indians have to bribe even after death. Extra money has to change hands for receiving body from Government mortuary and there is a rate for even burning bodies at funeral grounds. India desperately needs independence from corruption.
  
• Caste/religious considerations: On one side there is loud cry for equality but that seems to be just lip service, as caste / religion plays a big part every walk of life in India. From temple priest to seats of higher learning, caste matters. Equality cannot be attained by perpetuating caste in all spheres of life. India needs independence from caste.
  
• Women Enslavement: While politicians of all hue and cry crave for more reservation, they seem to be hesitant to consider some quota for women. No society can afford to enslave half of its population and yet aspire to be great. Women of India have made great strides in the last 59 years yet the scales are still tilted against her and that needs to change. For that, India needs independence from women enslavement.
  
• Child Labor: By some statistics, India's population is the youngest in the world and has the largest network of schools and colleges. Yet, countless children toil in hotels, factories and other places to bring succor to their family. There may be laws against child labor, but they seem to be hardly enforced. Child labor is clearly visible in cities like hotel and construction industries. A kid's place is school and play ground and NOT factories and food outlets. To eradicate this, India needs independence from Child Labor.
• Any other independence ..?
  

Happy birthday PC

Belated Happy Birthday Wishes to PC.. PC is turned 25 few days back..(Aug 11, 06)



IBM introduced the venerable PC on 8/11/1981, some 25 years back and changed the way we live and communicate. The PC and the humans have come a long way in the last 25 years. The first PC was priced around USD 1600 and came with a green screen Disk Operating System (DOS) from a company called startup Microsoft. There was no web or email then, why the PCs didn't even have a modem or a sound card.

Looking back, for the better part of my life, I have been associated with PC / Computers in some shape or fashion.. Here are some firsts in the Cheran's ஞயாபகம் வருதே style.

First
PC Contact (1983): I was first introduced to PC in 1983 when 8085 / 8088 were in vogue. I remember playing around with Basic and PC Assembler at that time.
My Own PC(1992): I bought my first PC in 1992. I bought it from my friend in DC, who was moonlighting in PC assembly at that time. I paid around USD 1800 for a machine with 64k (or 128?) memory and a color monitor, but no modem or external speakers.
Modem / email (1993): I first connected my PC to the outside world in 1993 through a 2.4 bps modem. I bought the modem to connect to OSU to access my email. I remember struggling with VI commands just to access my mail. The other motivation was to be able to read India news digest which used to be sent by a professor (Mr. Rao?) in Bowling Green State University.
Word Processing: Word Star (1983): It was the first user friendly software at that time. It had cool features that were accessible only through short cuts (combination key strokes) and I reveled in mastering them.
Spread Sheet: Visi Calc (1985) Again in the DOS days.
GUI OS - MS Windows 3.0 (1992): I learnt the 'three finger salute / ctrl-alt-delete' trick then, and it still comes handy even now.
Browser - Mozilla (1994): Used it access The Hindu news digest from OSU.
LapTop - IBM Thinkpad 720 (1996): It was a monochrome machine with OS2 on it.

Some things that have come and gone in the last 25..
Floppy Drive: Yeah, 3.5 inch floppies are still around but they are a relic of the past, I can't remember when I last used it. In fact, in the latest laptops, floppy drive has become an optional device. The first floppys were 11 inch in size and susceptible for easy corruption.
Modem: Again, this may still be around, but hasn't used it in a while. In the world of broadband, modem's may not be around for long.
Word Star / Word Perfect: WP was the market leader in the word processing market for quite some time. It has been wiped out of the map by MS Word. You may also add Lotus Word Pro to this list.
Visi Calc / Lotus 123: Lotus invented / popularized the spreadsheet segment but has tamely ceded it to MS Excel.
Borland Products: I used to like the usability aspect of Borland products. Does anyone know there whereabouts?
OS2: How many of you have even heard of it?

Just as the PC we know of today is radically different from the first one, the PC of 2016 will be different from today. Here is where you come in.. Take out your crystal ball and tell us what you see as the PC of 2016..

Here is what I see..

1. Desk top would have given way to Lap Tops
2. End user client OS will become irrelevant and there might not even be a need for it.
   
3. Mobile devices would dominate and would be used to access Internet more than the PCs.
4. Data would be centrally stored giving raise to lot of privacy issues.
   
5. As Sun says.. Network will truly become the PC. We would go back to thin client / dumb terminals days but with a minor difference.. Now the terminals would be GUI & Audio enabled.
6. Userid / Pwds will continue to proliferate and we would increasingly find it difficult to manage them.
   
7. Internet would truly become pervasive and would be available in most places.
   
8. Software pricing model will change from CLA / CPU based to usage/consumption based.
   
9. You fill in the rest...
   

India: Land Of Vegetarians

If you thought India is a land of vegetarians... think again..

Overall, only 31 per cent individuals prefer vegetarian food and 60 per cent others have shown a definite preference for non-vegetarian food. (CNN-IBN)

Slice of Chennai # 4 - Shankar Mahadevan

Shankar Mahadevan performed @ Gollapudi Srinivas Memorial Foundation Function in Chennai on Aug 12, 2006

Shankar Mahadevan was simply awesome. He connected with the audience very well and had them eating out of his hand.

Aamir Khan was also there and brought cola controversy with him.

Here are a few clips I took at the function. Just a word caution: audio isn't that good.. as I was taking these clips from a distance...

India In Numbers

The latest issue of India Today is full of numbers about India and its people.

Don't have a clue as to how they came up these numbers.. Lots of comparison with US & China.. but thats like comparing Apples and Oranges.


Some numbers:
Median Age of Indians- 24.9 : By some accounts, India has the youngest work force and that is one of its BIG asset.
86% have access to clean water: I guess we need to better how the 'access to clean water' is defined. But I find it difficult to believe that this number is correct.
India held 301 elections: Democracy is the backbone of India.. Though at time it feels India has too many of those noisy elections.

And lot more in the magazine..

R2I # 5 - New Home

In the continuing series on R2I, we focus on finding a new home in this post.

If you are moving back to city where you grew up and have a place to stay (that you like) then congratulations then you are half-way there already. This, provided you have good school for your kids close to the property you own. One of our friend moved back to Bangalore where he owned a place in Indira Nagar and was able to get his kids in to the same school he went. But, most of us are not that lucky.

Traffic is increasingly becoming a nightmare in most of the Indian metropolis, so it is important to strike a balance between the triangle of home, work & kids' school. In fact, I would go further and say find a house that is close to kids' school. This would resolve lot of issues around commuting for the kids. (Most of you will know this already, but just in case.. There is no concept of school district/s like US, so you are basically on your own when it comes to finding good schools).

Like anything else about R2I, finding a good rental property will take time. Rental market is buzzing with activity now, but it is rather loose knitted and still works via age-old networking and 'word of mouth'. There is no comprehensive online system/s that will give a complete view of the residential rental property market. There are neighborhood papers that carry lot of rental advertisements, but you have to basically work the phone and hit the road. So, start early and keep looking. There are lot of agents / brokers out there, but I found them very reactive and unresponsive.

I suggest giving 6 -9 months for the search after you have finalized the school. That means, you basically will have to start looking by fall for a house in summer.

It is preferable to do the search with someone on the ground who can be your foot soldier, as you will end up seeing several places before finding the home of your choice.

Even after extensive search, it is possible that you may not like the place you move in. So, go in for a 12 month lease initially and be prepared to move again. This will give you an opportunity to really understand the place, neighborhood and stuff. In our case, we didn't like the place we first moved, so we started looking soon after and found another place after some extensive search through this service.

Where to Rent?
As for as Chennai goes, South Chennai seems to be the preferred destination for many R2Is. There are plenty of good schools and close to IT corridor & ECR. From our perspective, we know only South Chennai, so we moved back to that place when we returned.

How much Rent?
Due to IT and general economic boom, rental market is now HOT everywhere. I understand from my friends in Bangalore that the market is so hot there, people negotiate rent in USD.

The range varies widely in Chennai from INR 10 - INR 30 per sqft depending on the location, accessibility and stuff. It is possible to find a 1700 sq.ft, 3 BR apartment for around INR 25K - 35K in Mylapore / T.Nagar area. It gets higher as you zoom in to Adyar, Valmiki Nagar, Kalashethra Colony and the likes. The rent flies in to Stratosphere if you are looking to rent in the Boat Club area.

How much Advance?
The norm in Chennai is ten month rent. However, some folks have negotiated it down to six months. This is basically an interest free loan to the house owner and mostly unavoidable.

Rent Vs. Buy
I would suggest renting initially and then buying. It takes time to understand and study various localities regardless of your familiarity with the city. With so much happening, every city has changed and you would do well to have a fresh read before committing to a big investment.

Future Posts on this subject.
I am thinking doing of the following posts in the coming weeks (Say one a week).. What do you think? Add - Change - Delete..? Feel free..

• R2I # 6 - Schools
• R2I # 7 - Job
  
• R2I # 8 - Finance
• R2I # 9 - Immigration / Work Permit
• R2I # 10 - Settling down
• R2I # 11 - Right Decision
• R2I # 12 - Chat with an R2I
• R2I # 13 - Chat with an R2US
  

So Google, What Next?

Hosted Web Sites?

Moving beyond Gmail, Google is providing free hosted email service. Kiruba has a post on this today. This is great not only individuals who want their own email address/es in their own domain name (I got ram@viswanathan.in last week) but also to SMB organizations. In fact this feature will be a definite money saver for small to medium companies. Now they can 'outsource' their entire email infrastructure to Google for free. Each mail box will get 2gb space and more importantly chat and calendaring facility. Can't beat that..

It will be interesting to see what it does to email products like MS Outlook and Lotus Notes and to email hosted service providers.

So What next from Google?
Google can offer to host web sites for free. As usual, the catch being its 'targeted advertisements', which is actually the mainstay for Google.

Two companies stand out when it comes to innovation.. One is Google for.. Can you guess the other one? It is NOT what you may be thinking..

Slice of Chennai # 3 - Old Is Gold

Particularly, if it is a MGR Movie...

MGR's 50 year old movie Nadodi Mannan re-released in Chennai last week seems to be doing well in box office with few more to come. Is it MGR or the movie or his message ? Probably a combination of all three...

"MGR is truly a legend; he is the only actor who can enthral the audience so many years after his demise. The nearly 50-year-old `Nadodi Mannan' had a collection of 85 to 90 per cent during its opening weekend and the crowd consisted of mostly youngsters and some MGR fans. We are now planning to re-release a few more MGR classics such as `Adimai Penn' and `Ulagam Sutrum Valiban'."

Which One Is Doctored?

Which One is Doctored?

Courtesy: nytimes.com

Which of the above two pictures is doctored? If you pointed to the one on the left then you are right on the money.

This doctoring (and one more) got a Reuters photographer in trouble. Adnan Hajj was a freelance photographer for Reuters in Beirut and has submitted over 40 images since July about the ensuing Israeli - Hezbollah conflict. But, he apparently manipulated at least two of them and Reuters ended its relationship with him immediately. It also withdrew over 900+ of photos from its database as an extreme act of caution.

What is even more interesting is how and the speed with which the whole thing unfolded. Reuters first ran this picture on Saturday (Aug 5), a blogger calls fake almost immediately and Reuters fired the photographer on Sunday (Aug 6).

Privacy
While on the technology subject check this out on Search and privacy. Search providers know lot more about us than we realize and it is scary.

AOL published some 20 million search queries on its website and that led to indentification of Thelma Arnold. People started mining the search queries and mapped AOL searcher # 4417749 to Ms. Arnold along the way revealing everything she searched for 3 months.

AOL did subsequently apologize to Ms. Arnold and took down the search query data but then the damage was already done. This incident highlights how much of our information is actually out there in the form of bits and bytes. In the digital world, whatever we touch it has our finger prints on it.

R2I # 4 - Moving

R2I - Moving
I am continuing this series after a long gap. Here comes my fourth post in the R2I series. You can access my previous posts on this subject here here & here.

Moving is never easy, so be prepared for the usual grunt work and more. Moving across the continent requires more effort than just the back breaking packing and moving work. Several things have to be considered if you are moving lock, stock and barrel.

When to Move?
This must be decided well in advance. If kids are involved in the move then that might dictate the move dates. If you are moving from US then you might consider after the school closes in June. One thing to consider though, school year starts in India around June first week and that no summer break. So, be considerate and give them sometime to adjust before making them start their school year in India. First few weeks will be challenging for the kids, so that must be taken in to account as well when deciding 'when' to move.

What to Move?
Everything you have been using and is part of the household can be moved. However, I would avoid shipping stuff like car,refrigerator, lawn mower, freezer & washing machine etc.,. These items can be made to work in India but generally not worth the hassle, particularly if you are moving from US. Customs duty on cars is prohibitively expensive in India and one of my friend who did bring the car felt that he could have gotten a new car for that money. Also, due to left / right side driving issues, this imported car is just sitting in the garage.

The amount of stuff to be moved will depend on the family, length of stay and the amount of accumulated junk. This is also a great opportunity to get rid off unwanted stuff. There are charities on either side that would love to hear from you on this. So, give yourself ample time and start sifting through your stuff well ahead of the move date. We started 3 months prior to the actual move and to sort, pack and inventory the stuff. We first did it over the weekends and spread the work load over a period of time. This gave us an opportunity to gauge the workload and assess what we really needed to move.

As you decide on things to move, start packing them as well. I suggest buying boxes in bulk (from Sam's Club or Costco?) and start packing and labeling the stuff that can be put away. You might also consider taking digital snaps of the items packed and creating some tags. This might help you search through stack of boxes at the other end.

As you start packing, pay attention to the stuff your kids are using now and the stuff you would need immediately after landing in India. You might consider bringing them with you as the container (assuming you go that route) will take several weeks to get to India by ship.

How to Move?
There are numerous movers available all through US, who can provide end-2-end service. Look for a mover who provides total service rather than engaging several of them who might just provide point services. The customs clearance process in India is cumbersome, so it is important to engage someone who can help in this process also.

The only realistic option for moving all your household stuff via ship. So, look to engage a 20' or 40' container which can be brought to you door step by the mover. Some sub-divisions / cities might restrict the duration of having such big containers in a residential area. So, know your local regulations and act accordingly. I was able to load all my stuff in a 20' container under 6 hours.

Where to Store?
This might be a problem if you are moving ALL your stuff to India. Depending on where you are moving to, you might have to rent a temporary place to store all the stuff as the living quarters in India tend to be smaller than the ones you had at your 'other place'. In my case, I had to basically forego one large bed room in the house to stack all the stuff and we sorted out things over a period of 6 months, till then the bed room became a store room.

Next Post on R2I - New Home

Slice of Chennai # 2 - Chennai Runners

Chennai Runners, a bunch of enthusiastic runners gather every Sunday around 5:00 AM near Dimensionss on CP Ramaswamy Road and go for a spin. Most of the weeks, we do around 15 kms but last Sunday we stretched ourselves did around 26+ kms. We wanted to run till Kovalam but actually ran only till Muttukadu. I took my camera along for the ride and here comes few snaps from that wonderful run..


Our starting point in CP Ramaswamy Road - All quiet @ 5:00 AM


Near Thiruvanmiyur Bus Terminus (7 kms) around 6:00 AM. This place will get busy with all kinds of movable and immovable things pretty soon and will stay that way till late in the evening.


Ajendra was the first one to reach VGP (15 kms) with ample time to take a 'nap' before we caught on with him.


Ajendra, Srinivas & Ram on the move ... near VGP


KK & Srinivas crawling towards Mayajaal (21 kms).. but they didn't call it quits. In fact, both of them motivated both of us to push till Muttukadu, our next pit stop. (Ajendra & I were actually getting ready to indulge at Arusuvai Arasu Restaurant @ Mayajaal..)


Hey!!!! We successfully made it to Muttukadu. We considered running till Kovalam Beach for a brief moment (1 second) and dropped the idea as we were all running on empty tank by now.


So, he we are finally at Kovalam Beach after about 5 hours. We got here from Muttukadu in a 'Share Auto'.

In all it was a great ride.. If you are interested in joining us for the weekly spin, do drop us note here.

More photos in flickr

Slice of Chennai # 1 - City Center Mall

Chennai City Center Mall is the newest kid o the block with few more to follow the suit. It has been 'officially' open for a few months now, yet construction is still going on. This mall is the Dr. Radhakrishnan Salai closer to the beach.

Only two anchor stores, Landmark and Lifestyle are open now with few other smaller stores set open in the coming months.

Chennai City Center has a large atrium and has a few fast food restaurants in the open space. The aroma of the food pretty much filled the entire mall. I wonder what it would do the garments sold in the mall. The problem is with the ventilation system or the absence of it.

Chennai City Center Mall - Atrium. This is the only snap I could take before was asked NOT to take pictures.

With the organized retail industry is set to for big investments in the coming years, Chennai and other Indian cities are bound to have more malls like this one changing the landscape forever.

Podcast: Chat with Chinmayi - Part # 2

This is the second and final installment of my chat with Chinmayi. In this episode, she talks about her company blue elephant and a lot about herself.



Please listen in


MP3 File

Travelog # 2 - Bangalore Autos

Chennaites might appreciate this post better. We go through the harrowing experience of having to deal with unruly Auto Guys on a daily basis.

I was in Bangalore early this week and found Autos much easier to engage and ply. They generally ply by meter do not haggle much. This is a welcome relief after all the stuff one goes through Chennai. I heard from the local guys that due to increasing demand, Bangalore Auto guys are also starting to become like their Chennai counterparts.

I heard that Chennai is going to revise the Auto fare upwards. It's high time they did that as the last revision was done some 6+ years ago. But what is equally important is enforcement of the revised fare table and ensuring meters work and are not rigged.


I engaged this Auto at the Bangalore Airport. All I had to do was go to the Auto line and engage one through the Police Officer stationed there (The fare basis is INR 6 per KM). Compare this is to Chennai, where no such concept exist and the arriving passengers are left to the touts hanging out to fleece.


I saw this display on all Bangalore Autos. This is certificate given by the local police allowing the m to operate. Again, comparing to Chennai, there is no proper account of Autos and it is not uncommon to hear that significant number of them ply without any authorization and are owned by influential / Police folks.

Several Lives

Fidel Castro must have several lives for him to survive so many attempts on his life. He simply must be the most targetted guy anywhere in the world. I guess, it comes with the territory as he has been at the helm for 47+ years.

According to this report in Guardian and reproduced in The Hindu, CIA tried to bump off Fidel Castro several times and still couldn't. The report says, CIA tried to get him 638 ways and still was not successful with the last known attempt being in 2000.

So, what does it tell us? Either of the two things..

1. Fidel Castro's security is fool proof and nothing could touch him. Not even the long arm of US.
2. Effectiveness of the much vaunted CIA. Given some of those 638 tries never left the drawing board and was spread over 47 years. Even assuming 50% of the 638 were actually executed, it is still too many attempts and speaks volumes.
   

Podcast: Chat With Chinmayi (Part # 1)

Chinmayi and I finally connected yesterday and good discussion about various roles she plays. In the first of the two part interview, we talk about her latest avatar as a talent search host and her experience as a playback singer.

Please listen in..


MP3 File

Why CEOs Don't Blog?

Even though several companies encourage their employees to blog, none of the fortune 500 CEOs blog with a sole exception of Sun's Jonathan Schwartz. Why is that?

1. Is it because they don't have time?
2. Is it because they are used to 'ghost' writers?
3. Is it because they need to be extra careful with what they say lest their posts reveal some confidential stuff about the company?
4. Is it because they need to be extra vigilant about customer service / support related issues?

I am not sure what it is but none of the above really make sense. On one side there is lot of noise on corporate blogging but on the other side most of the top guys don't. Blogs are a great tool to communicate constantly and directly with their customers. It also gives them an avenue to solicit direct feedback.

My take is, as blogs grow and evolve over the next few years, CEOs can't afford not to blog. What's your take?

Change Of Guard In Cuba

Albeit Temporarily

Finally, Fidel Castro handed over the reins of power to his brother due to a medical condition... (Dynastic politics in a communist country as well?)

Fidel Castro has been President of Cuba for 47 longgggggg years and is the only known leader for several generations of Cubans.

Cuba is one the last few remaining bastions of communism and it would be interesting to see what comes off of this power transfer. For anyone to rule the country for this long is quite unthinkable in this day and age. He might simply be the longest surviving political leader in power in anywhere in the world period.

I hope this change of guard brings Cuba out of isolation. That is badly needed for a country that has been isolated from the global economy for long.

Trying Times With Podcast

I have just started doing podcast interviews but I can relate to this. Being a rookie in the Podcast business, I have been stood-up a few times already.

What I am finding most difficult is to get my interviewees to committ to a time schedule. I ain't calling it quits yet, but when I saw someone else going through similar pangs, I couldn't resist comparing.

BTW, I like the way Walt Mossberg handled my request for a podcast interiview. He immediately responded with a simple no.