Meeting the Legend

Human worship towards people in cine industry is always bit embarrassing especially when your in laws are around. But end of the day we are what we are and I just couldn’t control my exhilaration meeting the legend and my all time favorite Raja sir. In fact given a chance I would like to take pictures with many celebrities but ones I always want to take was with Raja sir and Actor Sivakumar. Before me talking about meeting the legend let me go over the Music concert. Actually this was the second Raja sir concert I attended and was definitely looking forward. It really didn’t matter who were the singers since Orchestration is the main ingredient in a Raja sir concert but we were lucky to have Chitra ji, Sadahana sargam, Mano, Karthik, Yuvan as singers. Typical of Indian concerts to start late but who cares since the excitement is still floating in the air but the concern was would a delayed start mean we would listen to less number of songs ? I bet a hard core fan must have had this question in mind. Then came the man with white dhoti onto the stage when the crowd was on their feet welcoming the legend. It was startling to see another devotional song sung by local priests before the man delivered his standard ‘Janani song’. When Chitra chechi sang her first song Raja sir showed a piece of paper where the notes was written way back in 1981. I was wondering the paper and myself belong to the same age and it is weird how the same pulp used to make paper can be used for music composition of Raja sir song as well as a tissue paper; So basically ‘Beauty lies in the eyes of beholder’; What stand aparts in a Raja sir concert is the Orchestration team –No minimizing the team for cost cutting reasons and basically sound coming from the instruments is retained from the original composition. Also the chorus part is something you see often in Raja sir concerts since the chorus brings the real flavor of the song’s lyrics. Three plus hours flew just like that and then came the climax song from Nayagan with a different lyrics only to appreciate and thank the man more and more. Concert was great and our seating spots were just what the doctor ordered only to enrich our overall experience. At age 73, I am not sure how many more concerts he will tour internationally but feel totally blessed and money well spent on attending this concert.

  Coming out of the concert myself and my father in law decided to have dinner in a nearby Indian restaurant. As I was munching my szechuan fried rice around 9.34 pm I got a call from a friend asking whether I am interested to meet Raja sir next day morning around 7am. This is similar to asking a woman whether she wants to have a Kalamkari saree with handpainted flowers and peacock (I developed interest in Sarees since 2009 for reasons known) . I was delighted to say ‘Yes’ over the phone and I was all pumped up. We reached home and I already started dreaming about next day morning. I wrote couple of lines about Raja sir what I would call my way of thanksgiving to the legend. Around 12, I hit the bed keeping an alarm for 6am, 6.05 am on top of the usual 6.30am alarm; Believe me I am not sure how many times but for sure hurried to look into the clock atleast twice in the night to see whether its 6am already. Skandan rolling over and szechuan fried rice previous night did no good to my sleeping at all. Finally around 6am I got up and was getting ready to meet the man I cherish every single calendar day. I also had my father in law write down the lines I scribbled previous night into a piece of paper and left home like a child who got 4 lolli pops. I was bit concern whether elden street lights would delay my commute but I was given a royal welcome ..Thanks to all the green lights in Elden street. According to AT&T time I reached Worldgate Marriott lobby in Herndon around 6.59 am; We were a group of friends sitting in the lobby all waiting to see the man. Sir gave consent to meet us through one of the coordinators and we took the elevator to reach the respective floor. Though I do not take vallarai tablets for memory power I am going to try to remember as far as I can of what happened next.

 We entered the room and saw the man ..Yes I saw the man and I couldn’t imagine I was few millimetres away from the man. He was all dressed up in western attire ready to take the flight back home in couple of hours but still had vibudhi and kumkum ..maybe he just had his morning prayers before we stepped in. He greeted all of us and all of us touched his feet to get blessings. I said it is still not sure whether whats happening is a reality….Then we all sat in the sofa and common friend introduced all of us and explained how much we all love his music. Raja sir was asking about the water tank seen from one of his windows which he was not sure what it was. When your mind is occupied I am not sure you will respond to a question ….Then I mentioned to him we missed hearing ‘Naan thedum sevanthi poovidhu’ song from the concert yesterday and he said it was part of the list but was missed ..I said when there is so much to choose obviously 3 hours will allow you to sing only so many ..he acknowledged what I said …Then I took out the green card from my pocket and gave him the lines I wrote. He did not read but am happy he took and placed it in the table nearby. Now its time to take Photographs ..we took a group picture. When we see a sign 75 MPH we get excited and wish we could drive in 80MPH and that’s what happened …after taking group picture we took individual pictures one by one ….Thanks to the type of books I read ..a senior inside me pops out at times and I said following words in tamil “Though it’s a selfish desire please take care of your health since we want you to do more music by that way my son, grandson should listen to your music’; He smiled and all of us again touched his feet and said good bye. I came out of the room ecstatically and we also met Yuvan in the hallway and I congratulated for his fatherhood and took a picture with him. Modern brain is programmed in such a way that anything like this happens the next thing we do is turn towards social media. I was very particular I should arrest this temptation and wait for couple of weeks before I share something on Facebook and I am happy I won the battle.

So what’s special about Raja sir? After all he is also a Human being and does his work as a Musician..whats the big deal? Well for me personally Raja sir plays an integral part of my life. A fifteen minutes commute to the nearest Metro demands I turn on Ilayaraja music in the radio, my coast to coast trips would have been like traveling to next continent if not for his music, running in the Treadmill would have been a nightmare without his music, all of my hard drives has a dedicated folder called ‘Ilayaraja’. Let me give you few example of how his music lifts the spirits ..
1) Song ‘Sangeetha Thirunaal’ from the movie ‘Kadaluku Mariyadhai’ has lots of chorus and in my community during the marriages around 3-5 pm normally bride bids adieu to her parents/relatives and leaves to her in laws place and this is normally the emotional part of the wedding. Most of the studios insert this song in the background at this juncture or during any part of the wedding. Just listen to the song with the context and you will emotionally connect.
2) Listen to ‘Mandam vandha’ song from a guy’s perspective who is willing to forget the past and want to focus on future.
3) There is no song which portrays love,war, pain and longing of the couple like how ‘Sundari kanaal oru sedhi’ does, the way violin and flute is used mesmerizes a music lover.
4) Violin part in the start of the song ‘Kalyana Maalai’ is good enough to bring a smile to any music lover.
5) If we start talking about BGM score then my list will go endless ..but even if one doesn’t understand the language I am sure when you watch Apoo Kamal being rejected in love in movie ‘Apoorva sagotharargal’ you will see the pain ….BGM score in movies like Poovae puchudava and Varusham 16 created so much impact that you cannot imagine such movies without the BGM score.
This is what the man does …he advocates the musical instruments through his orchestration according to the context. In Trichy Ayyappan temple a place with lot of difference they have a wall with ‘Amma Endrazhaikaatha’ song lyrics and so many people come and play the song and do a sashtang namaskaram towards the lyrics. Thiruvasagam reached more public through his work and even now when I want to put Skandan to sleep I play ‘Lali lali’ song from Sipikul Muthu. Thank you Panchu sir, Raja sir family for sacrificing time, Directors who got the best out of Raja, Producers who made it all possible, singers, lyricists and his core orchestration team for all the songs we audience treasure in our lifetime. Raja sir is beyond music for me personally and September 26th is always a special day since it is my amma’s birthday and September 26th 2016 will be more special since I met a person whom I have lots of respect.

Raja rasigan

Hmmm ...Expectation - Is it good ?

      Assume it is a Monday morning and at 6.30 alarm starts shouting good enough for you to come out of bed; You get ready to go to work and you just realized your better half hasn’t ironed your shirt as she promised previous day evening since you had to entertain the guests over the weekend. So it’s a small piece of incident happened against your expectations. Now you drive your car to work and as a courtesy you gave enough time for the pedestrians to cross over the road at the cost of you missing a traffic signal. Though you did out of your own interest still you kinda expected a gentle Thank you by means of waving the hand from atleast one of the string of people walking across the road. So once again a small piece of incident happened against your expectations. At work let us assume after an intriguing brainstorming session you go for your lunch and on your way realized that you forgot your car keys inside the conference room. Upon rushing back to the conference room you are shocked not to see the keys but glad to know that keys are kept at your desk by your colleague. Instead of thanking your colleague your reaction is “Why did my colleague not inform me right away rather than coming to know from HR” ? Again things happen against your expectations. Finally after an exhaustive day at work you return home and expect your kids to carry out the daily errands like checking the mailbox and emptying the trash bins. Again things go against your expectation and you are left pondering over all the small incidents that took place over the course of the day.

     So expecting something to happen and when reality is other way round it turns out to be disappointment.  Expecting is ‘Conditional’ and not expecting anything is ‘Unconditional’ and that is why they say mother’s love is always unconditional in nature. As we move on in life the less we expect from it and just follow the principle of taking things as they come will make us at peace. If a day without expectations can avoid disappointments don’t you agree life without expectations will make you more merrier.

K-A-B-A-L-I

     Well I was waiting for the dust to settle ..Pronouncing the word 'Kabali' brings in lot of exhilaration !! In the last two weeks the term I searched most in Google as well as Youtube was ‘Kabali’; For no movie I have read so many articles and I thoroughly enjoyed reading everything since I got to know what each one things from their own perspective. First I would like to talk about the businessman called ‘Thanu’ ..Man …this is how brand marketing should be The awareness it created which both a software engineer as well as milk man can relate to. I came to know that people in North did Case study on his marketing skills.  Basically it had to start from the grass root level and one of his interviews I came to know that Thanu travels with poster man to supervise placement of posters. His hunger and patience to do a Rajini film is very well seen as he had to wait 30 plus years to produce a Rajini movie and when he got a chance he made use of all possible ways to showcase his publicity skills. This is commendable since if you look at any tamil speaking human being (atleast 8 out of 10) around the globe during July 21-25 timeframe either they talked about Kabali or listened to people talking about Kabali.

    Let us talk about Economics..It was released in record number of screens with many showing premiere shows too, we had Air asia as airline partner, Amazon as online partner, VS hospitals as Hospital partner, Muthoot finance group, PVR cinemas as multiplex partner, Airtel as telecom partner, Cadbury as food and beverage partner etc., All the media (Satellite channels, paper,online) had tremendous readership/viewership during Kabali release time and also they earn lot of moolah through advertisements. Right from guy who sells Rajini embossed T-shirt, parking vendor, canteen vendors, Toilet cleaners, poster boys everyone get to earn more money around release of Rajini movie and this time it just got bit more.

It was my very first experience watching the movie First day First show (FDFS) and was definitely looking forward for the movie. The expectations the teaser has set and the hype that surrounded the movie on top of the new technicians that was invloved made me sketch a completely different picture. Once the movie ended I felt the movie was average. It was great move for Rajinikanth to move away from his cliché mass masala movies and give a break to a promising team – a director who is two films old, an upcoming music director, relatively new stunt master, cinematographer, editor etc., He even came out of his sentiment of having SPB sing the intro song, no larger than life scenes, no scope for BGM score, no duets with heroines, no comedian etc., All these are welcome changes and thus shows the confidence he has on the director and his team.

On the downside screenplay is very predictable and the plot was neither cinematic nor realistic and it fell in between which was the major problem. With so many shootings it is hard to imagine how come the movie is given ‘U/A’ certificate and I am curious to know the norm for censor certification. Also dialogues are not very power packed for the audience to feel the emotional quotient and also I felt atleast one song could have been shot in a racy way to fill the thirst of rajini fans. Well super star tried an animation movie and also went back to ace director in the likes of K.S Ravikumar and since both those attempts did not give him favorable results he had no choice but to go back to a promising new comer like P.Ranjith. There is a notion that foreign locates, blazers, action scenes fetches more moolah and often times story is overlooked. Also I believe there is a law which says only so many number of shows to be played on a weekday with exception being on festival days like Diwali or Pongal and also there are restrictions as far as ticket prices but we all know how much was the tickets sold by theatres and also how many shows they ran during the opening weekend (tickets sold at black market is a different story). Well I am just pointing out this to reiterate the fact when all rules are broken then obviously all records are to be broken. It is true we spend 20 or 25$ to watch the movie but this is mere greedyness making use of the charisma and demand. Just imagine top hollywood films are sold 15$ per head on the opening day where they have spent more money on the making of the movie. In the end people may argue we buy the tickets anyway but all I mean to say is that is not the right way to make money and boast about the phenomenal box office records. Rajini film both help cinema industry as well as kill small film producers since a new Rajini movie means theatres pull off movies running on the theatre though it may do good business.

    Logistics of how a Rajini movie business work should change ..when Rajini offers a production house to do a project they take this as a once in a lifetime opportunity and do everything to make it grand and do business based on his previous release..this is where problem starts …Greedyness takes over and people pay much more than how much it is worth for …ok now people may ask how to determine ‘worth’ of a movie since sky is the limit for Rajini movie …well there is no certain formula to come up with a number but if Rajinikanth does movies based on his age and open to character roles where story takes precedence then craze for Rajini movie will be  at optimum level and everyone involved in the supply chain will stand to gain.

    Also one other thing I noticed in Kabali was clash of opinions …Everyone had an opinion and what is discouraging is when people voice out non favorable reviews then fans get angry ..well this act is very childish and even makers of the movie when they get appreciation from 99% of the crowd it is very natural to get 1% negative reviews and I personally feel they should be open about that since it is nothing but law of nature. I believe the fans get angry because they love the person more than the movie and that is the problem ..the review is just about the movie and not about the man. Who else in this earth can roam around in a street with a headset when the entire Tamil speaking community is going mad over his movie. In my entire blog I have talked about the movie but not about the man ..Yes after all I am a fan of superstar too …மகிழ்ச்சி

Humanity wins !!

  Chennai floods that occurred this time made quite a bit of impact on the Imdian population across the globe. First my prayers to the families who have lost the dear ones ..it is definitely a big loss to the family and my sincere prayers for the departed souls to rest in peace. For people who were admitted to hospital and people in medically critical condition these floods are definitely bad timing. Looking into the Chennai floods I am touched about the humanity being exposed. It even makes me to think that almighty wanted to give a break to the so called ‘Busy’ people to look into life’s perspective even closer. There was a lovely posts in social media which said one has house but not able to live, one has car but not able to drive, one has money in ATM but not able to spend etc.,It is not the material that counts but it is the humaity that wins over.

   Mother nature wants attention of the general public and hence created floods of this magnitude and brought people closer. Look into the number of people who pitched in, how many non profit organizations came in for relief, how many celebrites shed their image and wanted to help, how many companies agreed to sponsor money, amount of prayers that occurred during this tenure, even poor and needy who were not affected by the floods did their part, people from low income did their best, rehabilitation efforts occurred, list goes on and on. But to summarize there was so much positivity in the air and people wanted to do their share of help to help the affected people. This is what makes human beings special ..Religious events brings the same spirit and it was absolutely fantastic to witness same kind a spirit during a natural calamity.

  People also have the tendency to point fingers and blame one another …I don’t think any government will be prepared for this calamity since the way system works in India. It is rights of every citizen to come and bring a change and that is exactly what happened in chennai. Youth poured in and proved they just don’t stop with  dance clubs but given a chance they also can help for a social cause.

  This could very well be a beginning of a new era ..people helping each other is the solace for any problem beyond medical advancements and technologies. The basic bonding that connects us is more important than religion, caste, etc., I just hope and pray that once the holiday season is over people still continue to help each other in rehabilitation efforts. End of the day Humanity wins !!!!

Ooru rendu patta koothadikku kondattam

  There is a proverb in tamil which says “Ooru rendu patta koothadikku kondattam” which means if there is a fight between two brothers it becomes an entertainment for others. As we grow and get to meet many different people and situations in life I am just wondering how true is this proverb. It could be the intensity of the fight or could be the way both parties are completely pre-occupied and one thing people don’t realize is this is a paisa vasool for people surrounding you. I would like to pen this blog to express my thoughts over this topic.

   In this modern world everyone is equipped with so much of information for the simple reason all of us are literates and more than that we are exposed to the outside world compared to previous generations. Here comes the difference of opinion since opinion always matters and opinions always differs from one another; At this juncture if there is a give and take between parties and no ego then things take a different route, if not we all know what happens. This is where things start to get worsen with news spreading around. It could be either people reached out to their peers for help or it could rumour mills spreading around. In one way or the other it gives so much of fodder for the ever hungry folks.

   Recently in Tamil Nadu there were elections for the Nadigar sangam for the first time and there were so much animosity between two teams and war of words was becoming a trend in kollywood. Aaccording to me media were the ultimate winners since it gave them so much footage to highlight their cover pages and definitely they made hay while the sun was shining. If we look back in our life there could be many such incidents.

   One thing which we have to be more careful is trust the people whom we share our personal things. Also it would be best to handle the situation directly with the person whom you are confronting rather than having third party involved. Last but not the least make sure nobody takes this as an oppurtunity to bring down both of you because that could be a major blow than the little flight that it all started with. 

Miscommunication

  In this modern era communication is made very simple – Big thanks to social media!! Information is passed much faster than velocity of sound. But are all the parties involved in a communication thread in the same page? Unfortunately answer is ‘No’. Communication and miscommunication are directly proportional to each other. The more social media we are accustomed to the more we become anti-social . In this blog I would like to barely touch the surface on the topic ‘Miscommunication’

  Interpretation: How a message is conceived by parties involved in a communication can sometimes lead to miscommunication. Many have the habit of beating round the bush when it comes to passing on unpleasant things. In such cases the other person can understand the meaning in many different ways and it just happens that nine out of 10 times he misunderstood what the person intend to say.

  Passing the secret: The game ‘Passing the secret’ is a real funny one in how the message gets personified. Likewise rather than hearing from trusted sources, message gets through many ears and when it eventually comes it is multiplied manifolds. This again leads to miscommunication between principal parties involved.

  Making assumptions: People are normally over-optimistic and assume things. Assuming things for granted can lead to disappointment as well as miscommunication.  

  Above are some of the causes of miscommunication and all it needs is an open talk either in person or over a phone line between parties involved. This would put a full stop to baseless rumors and would settle down things in an amicable manner. Also remember someone has to take the initiative to talk to the other person directly. 

Deforestation

     Now that my wife is doing her Master’s in Public health I am forced to know some of the environmental impacts that is causes around the globe. One of the key concerns for future is ‘Deforestation’; In simple words Deforestation is nothing but permanent demolition of forests in order to make the land available for other uses. Main reasons of deforestation is to have land used for housing & urbanization and also use land for agricultural plantations. Now if we all think through this for a while this is quite a big concern for our future generation; It’s not just enough to have them a good education and a career it is equally important to have them live in a nice environment.

   Greed is a main reason in which human beings are never satisfied with what they have. Back in India with absolutely no qualification but by sheer luck and good public relations real estate merchants are born every day; As soon as they spot a barren land they convert into a commercial building and attach a price tag; All they promise is the place is about to appreciate in near future; If we just demolish all trees then the air we breathe has quite a bit of carbon dioxide. Its concrete all the way and people consider that full potential of the land is not made use of if they allocate certain space for garden.

   By cutting down trees we also cause soil erosion since tree roots anchor the soil. It is also believed trees are important for water cycle since they absorb rain water and produce water vapor that is released into the atmosphere. Also loss of plant and animal species is one of the main effects of deforestation. Also by emitting more CO2 the overall quality of life style is disturbed.

   It is high time world leaders and many bodies around the world take measures and get to an agreement to protect the environment and make the world a better place to live. Finally it all boils down to every individual how he/she wants to take care of the environment, since the time we get up in the morning till we hit the bed just imagine how many tissues of paper you have consumed, think about the energy costs revolving around you in a single calendar day. Let us all do our share of work to make the environment better place to live for our future generations. 

Salute to APJ sir ....

    APJ Abdul Kalaam …One name every Indian will remember in their lifetime. Every time his image flashes in your mind it brightens our face and enlightens our mind. As came in one of the media we have not lived during Gandhi, Nehru times but we can be proud we lived in APJ Kalaam era. No other politician or a public figure created this much of disturbance in the minds of the public. Any Indian should pay tribute to this man who dedicated his life to our nation..an artist drew paintings to pay his tribute ..TV channels dedicated programs to pay their tribute ….Bus companies offered free trips to rameswaram …I feel a small blog to the humble man will be my true tribute ….

  

  First and foremost I am indebted to APJ sir on a personal level since during my early days to cultivate reading habit I bought one of his famous books ‘Wings of fire’. This is where I started to enjoy autobiographies. There should be something struck in his mind which is why he loves Mother India so much and how lucky the nation is to have such a person dwell all through his life. He is one of the rare Indians who was born in India, brought up in India, worked for India all through his life. His accomplishments are just recognitions but his biggest contribution is towards the youth of the nation by creating a positive impact. He could have converted his talents into Euros, dollars or any currency but rupee is the currency he cherished.

    

 One of the amazing traits of APJ sir was he earned so much of good will and not even an iota of enmity; When you are the president of the nation there would have arisen number of occasions where you are forced to do something against your wish, on interview with media sometimes questions get tricky and the way it gets published would be with lots of twists and turns, when you are a scientist some tough decisions had to be taken keeping the bigger picture in mind, pressure from political parties is also one must go through. So it is never easy to please everyone when you are public figure like APJ sir and it is a daunting task to come out clean from all of this. Has APJ earned one enemy? Has he earned any betrayal? Has he earned any enmity with his peers? Even a kid can answer any of these questions.

    Now look at the house of APJ sir, his relatives, his wealth etc., It is difficult to believe how a human being can be so humble and simple. He gets only books as gifts, earned his living from his salary and patents, donated quite a bit of his wealth to charity. When the society is running behind Apple vs Samsung there are also human beings who doesn’t own a mobile. Every single politician should be embarrassed looking into APJ sir’s life. HE doesn’t even want a national holiday on his death instead he wanted people to work. Because he didn’t have any enmity he was able to address public gathering more freely without worrying about security protocols. His gesture to talk to Jawaan since he was standing in the gypsy as part of the security protocol touched me. He wanted his last breadth to be while teaching and naturally with no suffering whatsoever when he was addressing the students he collapsed and bid adieu to whole world. One of his wishes is to celebrate his brother's 100th birthday next year and hope his dream comes true. 

    My next visit to Rameswaram I will visit the temple and also definitely visit his burial place and pay my respects. Any recognition we do for this man like a national holiday on honor of his birthday, stamp release, having his face embedded on indian rupee, Museum dedicated towards his work for nation etc., will not be sufficient. His dream was to make our nation superpower and if the nation can work towards that goal especially the Youth then I am sure he will be a happy man. May his soul rest in peace and am sure heaven is much more glorified now upon his entry. 

Disclaimer !!

     Disclaimer basically means “a statement that denies something, especially responsibility.” These days disclaimers are very prominent be it an event, movies, official documents, agreements, contracts, bills etc., Since awareness has become more common these days disclaimers are getting very common too – big thanks to social media and Google for the amount of awareness people are abreast these days. Sometimes disclaimers are lawfully enforced and sometimes it is just informational.

      I am just wondering what is the use of disclaimers when the message is purely informational and not creating any impact…for example let us say we get an email from an official ID and there is a disclaimer written at the bottom saying computer viruses may be transmitted through email. Well the sender is adhering to the rules of the organization and hence keeping the disclaimer in the email communication but the receiver from his/her end also may be compliant by proper maintenance with the PC. So if a virus is transmitted by any chance who is held accountable?

    I am trying to think it through how can disclaimers create a positive impact; May be along with the disclaimers have a link to download a piece of software which can do a quick scan to your PC. There are statutory warning messages in the films which appear whenever the hero is in toxic mode. This is becoming more of a formality rather I would increase the price of cigars exorbitantly high on bringing more control to the whole process by linking smoking habits with driver license renewals etc., In contracts, Terms/agreements the wordings are very clever in such a way people either overlook or misunderstand – maybe a quick video giving more awareness to what people are signing for may be a quick first step.

    All being said I would like to see Disclaimers creating more impact than what it is doing in current world. Any change which has to evolve needs its sweet time to get settled and it needs a conscious effort from everyone to be more informed because end of the day information is wealth. 

IBCN 2015: It is "Bahubali - The beginning"

    I was always waiting for a kick ass event to happen by that way I can pen my thoughts and here comes IBCN 2015 which according to me will go in the annals of Nagarathar events. First what does ‘IBCN’ stand for? It stands for ‘International business conference for Nagarathars”; What is the objective of the meet? It is to promote entrepreneurship. It started in Singapore in 2013 and group of individuals from Coimbatore who attended the conference in Singapore got enthused and wanted to take it over to Coimbatore for the next two years. Group of Coimbatore Nagarathars have something called as NEU which stands for Nagarathars Entrepreneurs Union and they are the one who took over IBCN 2014-15 term under the eminent leadership of PL.K Palaniappan annan. Ok that’s some basic background information. Now being a person passionate about Cinema let me bring one example …All of us must have seen the move Minnalae directed by Gowtham vasudev menon …it was a nice movie and Vivek’s comedy was one of the major highlights..now the director’s second directorial venture everyone in the cine industry as well as audience must have expected a nice meaty role for actor Vivek ..but the director did not even cast Vivek and did an action movie ‘Kaaka Kaaka’ which was a runaway hit….I just want to bring this small example to elucidate when people expect something from you but you change gears and bring something extraordinary it will just mesmerize everyone. When IBCN 2013 was a roaring success the Coimbatore team took over IBCN and produced cracker of an event on July 25th and 26th 2015 which is going to be remembered for a very long time. These days when so much of importance are given to Culturals and some petty things arise out of those performances this event is a trendsetter in how people can envision and look beyond.

Every time we grumble about Technology …I have even written couple of blogs highlighting negative side of excess use of technology but now I would like to thank technology for being able to see the live telecast of the IBCN 2015 event sitting at my house ….Though I did not attend the event in person I cherished the following which caught my attention from speeches as well as my reflections on the two days conference: 

v  Organizers juggled delegates in the seating arrangement by that way people get to network as much as possible

v  Youth were given front row seating  - beautiful sight to see them writing notes when delegates speak; They were also given 2 hours workshop session by Murugappa group

v  Topics – the range of topics like TED X talks, panel discussions, resolving conflicts in family business, how to take care of sweetheart, follow your passion, plunge into business, beyond the borders, Career choice in 21^st century, Funding your business etc., were truly inspiring

v  Personalities – we saw people from religious front like Jaggi vasudev, politicians like Nirmala Sethuraman, K.Shanmugam, Pal.Karupaiah, Industrialists like Karumuttu Kannan, Murugappan, Entreprenurs like Dato Palan, K.Pandia rajan, Manikam Ramasami etc., Since all these people are very well established they were crystal clear in what they had to offer to delegates

v  Selfie time – No pictures but selfie time to digest information and pen your thoughts in a notebook for the audience

v  CD with all contact information – Everyone attended were given CD with all contact details of speakers to ask questions about the session

v  No Ponnaadai, sandana maalai – welcome relief !!! Absolutely no waste of time on these stuff to please guests ..rather they were given memontos after they came down the dias which saves time

v  MCs – Hats off for picking two wonderful M.Cs …these days in many events MCs get carried away by grabbing so much attention  but here were two people who talked in pure tamil as well as English. Their intro about the guests as well as announcements were short and sweet

v  Time management – Everyone should take a leaf out of their book …whole 2 days is driven by speakers and hence time management is of paramount importance and the way time was managed was exemplary ..they made feel every minute count …

v  PPT presentation – This was in alignment with every speaker and set the mood for the discussion; The detailing was evident on this front as technical glitches is one thing which spoils the momentum in many meetings

v  Entertainment – Thank god there were no overdose of entertainment …it was just there to relax the environment during awards distribution ….it was planned in such a way that there were one standup comedy, one dance and one singing performance …

v  Live Telecast – Oh boy ..the company who did live telecast deserve over payment …..it was very professional  and made people like me enjoy the coverage …

v  Awards function – This definitely was one of the major highlights of the event. The way the whole awards selection process worked is so meticulously planned to every inch of detail. There was a protocol in place, open application to public, selection panel to interview folks, video footage of respective shops and announcing the awards during the function. Any organization who wants to present awards can do a case study now on how IBCN team went about the process. Also icing on the cake was one of the awards ‘Women entrepreneur’ award was given to my Mother in law

v  BPC – Nagarathar event hosting business plan competition on a public event …just to hear this makes me feel proud ..well executed show by the three finalists

    Whomsoever I had a conversation who attended the event had one thing to say in common –it was very professionally organized; Many speakers who spoke also had high praise about the organizers for the amount of detailing that went into the making of the 2 days event. Basically value of time was honored considering the fact people flew from as many as 9 countries on top of everyone taking time off from their busy schedules. Also the team introduced lots of new initiatives in their term and one amongst them is the EOTW (Entrepreneur of the week) award presented every week ..This is very well received from people across the globe since it made everyone realize that Nagarathars are into all walks of life and not just struck with one industry sector …

 

   The NEU team did some great marketing ….many promotional events by touring many cities, inauguration event and also made full use of social media …when content is average and marketing is good it is like simple interest calculation..but when content is great backed with great marketing then that is like compound interest calculation which is exactly where IBCN 2015 falls under …

   When so much is talked about the event we definitely have to talk about the Team …Any good organization will function well based on the visionary of its leader ..and PL.K Palaniappan who is a jewel among our Nagarathar community showcased an outstanding event with his dedicated and passionate team who have worked tirelessly. The team deserve big round of applause for coming up with an event that is one of its kind as it was promised during the promotional events.

   Now after all this what is the motto of the conference – it is “Inspire to succeed”; Without any doubt whoever attended the conference or even catched glimpse of the event must have got inspired. So the team did what was expected from them and that alone deserves a standing ovation. Verdict of  'Blockbuster' was already out even before the event concluded ... Well done NEU team …you have set the standards very high now for the UAE team who are already promising …..