Naveena Chanakyan

 My favorite topics include 'Food', 'Cinema' and 'Religious aspects' and 2021 is the year where 'Politics' and 'Economics' have joined my list of favorites. I have written quite a lot of blogs on Politics and still yet to make my debut on Economics. Reason why I started liking these two topics would mainly attribute to two personalities - Prashanth Kishore and P.T.R Palanivel Rajan respectively. I have simply admired both of them and they have kindled my interest to great extent on these topics. When I saw RJ Balaji's L.K.G there was a character who act as a political strategist and make individuals win polls and at that time I hardly knew who Prashanth Kishore was but then after knowing about him and his organization I am completely flabbergasted on the talent he brings onto the table. 

Now before getting into Mr.Prashanth Kishore let us understand on the Indian political climate; BJP is literally going from strength to strength and its opposition Congress party is becoming like a villain in recent Thalaivar movies; As such India is going through a massive transformation in terms of Industrialization, Governance, Infrastructure and Corporate affairs and if results are to be believed India will soon become third biggest economy in the world. I would say two things are playing a crucial role in India's glorious run - (a) Stable government which is into its 7th year @ Centre (b) Revenue generation through GST. Stability plays a major role on governance and with BJP government on its seventh year is going from strength to strength and Mr.Modi has created something like 'Brand India'; GST is another factor which is generating huge amounts of money for both central and state governments and this is getting translated to lot of infrastructure changes across the country. Now that I gave a brief overview about Indian political scenario let me jump into Mr.Prashanth Kishore. 

Who is Mr.Prashanth Kishore? What role did he play in Indian politics? What contributions did he make ? Prashanth Kishore is an Indian political strategist and tactician. He has been trained in political strategy and has eight years of experience in United Nations working as Political strategist for various international politicians. Prashanth initially created CAG (Citizens for accountable governance) and then later regrouped as I-PAC (Indian political action committee). Basically Prashanth wants to create a platform for youngsters to participate and make meaningful contribution in political affairs and governance of the country without necessarily being part of the political party. Prashanth wants to make sure there is a citizen-centric agenda and partners with politicians to conceptualize and implement the most effective methods of taking it to the public. Let me list out some of his contributions :

1) Success in helping BJP win 2012 Gujarat legislative assembly election

2) Success in helping BJP win 2014 Indian general election 

3) Success in helping JD(U) win 2015 Bihar legislative assembly election

4) Success in helping INC win 2017 Punjab legislative assembly election

5) Success in helping YSRCP win 2019 Andhra pradesh legislative assembly election

2) Success in helping AAP win 2020 Delhi legislative assembly election

3) Success in helping DMK win 2021 Tamil Nadu legislative assembly election

4) Success in helping TMC win 2021 West Bengal legislative assembly election

That's just WOW ......It is incredible because he was a driving force in how political parties carried out campaigns, what electoral promises to make, how to address challenges, how to tackle opposition etc., If you look into some of the directors of I-PAC they are from premium educational institutions like IIT and what they are good is getting as much DATA as possible and mining information from the data retrieved. You need to understand the constitution, rules of the land, laws and regulations and then devise your strategies. Prashanth just marshalls his resources to come up with a perfect strategy for each individual and the results are for everyone to see but there is plenty of information being carried out in the background. DATA plays a super duper role and prashanth collects as much data as possible before getting his hands dirty. I am going to walk you through some of the fascinating tactics Prashanth deployed during political campaigns which brought him so much of laurels

[1] 'Manthan' initiative: Prashanth realized out of 130 crore indian population 62 crores + of voters were under the age of 25 and realized a huge potential for indian youth to engage in political affairs and wanted to come up with a nation wide movement to bring the youth together and that is how 'Manthan' was born - he came up with a nation wide contest for resolving top 14 issues of the nation. This initiative saw 5 lakh youth participating and presenting their idea on the roadmap of India to a spectrum of leaders across party lines. Guess what the impact was so huge that some of the things like 12 special courts for fast track delivery of cases against politicians, 1.53 trillion rupees worth of loan released for small businesses under MUDRA yojana scheme, 17000 crore budget for seperate skill development ministry were made by Prime Minister to the nation and the idea was from Manthan initiative

[2] 'Captain's Nau Nukte' initiative in Punjab: Prashanth and his team devised a campaign called 'Captain's Nau Nukte' which focuses on nine point agenda bringing back the lost glory of Punjab and he executed the campaign through a large door to door campaign led by 1500 volunteers and reaching 1.2 crore people. This initiative had huge impact in the state of Punjab as it brought 35% women reservation in government jobs, 1500 crore debt waiver to 5.6 lakh farmers and special task force to control smuggling, peddling and consumption of drugs. 

[3] NAVARATNALU initiative in Andhra pradesh: AP was going through a bad phase with corruption charges and bad governance and YSR Jagan mohan reddy teamed up with Prashanth and released nine promises to people of AP. Following footsteps of his dad in 341 days, he walked more than 3648 kilometres meeting citizens directly in person to get an understanding of their problem and what would it take for his new government to resolve the problems. With over 5 lakh party workers, 90k volunteers, 70k influencers, 600 professionals getting connected through 35 online and offline campaigns, people of AP gave YSRCP a landslide victory. YSR acted swiftly on his electoral promises and NAVARATNALU was soon a reality with 55 lakh loan waiver promised to farmers, 15000 annually for every school going kid, 1.5 lakhs students promised reimbursement for accommodation etc., 

[4] KEJRIWAL KI 10 Guarantee in Delhi: Prashanth devised a strategy which consist of an extensive exercise to collect feedback on government's performance in the last 5 years through a door to door campaign reaching 35 lakh households in Delhi. Across Delhi, People were invited to townhalls with the CM and they became part of the discourse for coming up with the agenda for the next 5 years. People's voice, suggestions and feedback culminated into a 10 point agenda and once Kejriwal came to office some of the agenda items were executed like - Revolutionary education reform, Healthcare for all scheme by ensuring network oh Mohalla clinics and advanced government hospitals, 24/7 clean drinking water available to public, 7 million women has access to no cost transport etc., 

[5] DIDI 'R 10 ONGIKAR, BANGLAR GORBO MAMATA: With Congress in no form and J Jayalalitha no more BJP realized their only threat in the nation was Mamata Banerjee so they went all guns blazing and made elections in phased out approach and pulled lot of ministers from TMC to BJP. Prashanth and his team really had to work very hard to get things right as they faced stiff competition from BJP. Once again Prashanth introduced flagship campaigns to reaffirm faith in didi's leadership. Multiple citizen participatory campaigns were designed and individual concerns were addressed. Once Didi came to power 'Universal income support' that of offering 500 and 1000 per month to female heads of SC/ST community, student credit cards for limit upto 10 lakhs for all eligible students, free doorstep delivery of ration goods for 1.5 crore households, 10000/acre for 68 lakh small and medium farmers were introduced

[6] STALININ 7 URUDHIMOLIGAL: Tamil Nadu was merely remote controlled by centre and with stalwarts like Karuna and JJ out of picture state was going through a bad phase with lot of misgovernance. Upon working closely with Prashanth and his team Stalin came up with a '10 year vision document' which focused on revamping areas in seven sectors such as Agriculture, Water management, Health Urban  development, Education, Rural infrastructure, Social injustice, Economy etc., Stalin also had over 500 election promises which was made fun by the entire state but close to 50% of the promises were fulfilled is the reality. Finance minister selection raised eyebrows and for the first time we saw an well educated smart youngster given Finance portfolio, opposition party were treated with dignity, Tea party was hosted by CM which were attended by politicians across party lines. With just over six months DMK has literally had a glorious run and overall functioning of the state, handling of pandemic, governance has simply been outstanding and brought heaps of praise and appreciation from all over the country. 

I have just pointed out some of the things Mr.Prashanth did and he did a whole lot of things which is opening a new chapter in Indian politics. If you take a closer look almost all of his initiatives involved interacting with people to know and understand their problems from grassroot level since Prashanth believes only when you understand from close quarters you can come up with a solution. Modi's ever famous 'Chai par charcha' campaign where he had a chai and interacted with public and Stalin's Grama sabbhas before TN election to sit with people and talk to them all not just won praises but also respective elections for BJP and DMK respectively. If you look at BJP it has taken some of the boldest decisions in Citizens amendment act, decision to revoke Article 370, law related to Triple talaq, decision to make Jammu, kashmir and ladakh union territories etc., When a dynamic, young and revolutionary architect in the form of Prashanth Kishor come to the equation it augurs good for Indian Politics as it changes the grammar of how a political party should be run.

Next topic: Perspective

P.S: I wish all my readers a very happy and prosperous new year; Readership for my blog has gone ten times more and thank all of you for your time and thanks for sending me your feedback and healthy debates over Whatsapp. 

How Drahma Unfolds !!

 Staging a drama doesn't happen just on stage instead it happens in different contexts on various matters in India. I am going to list some of those based on my experience in the past. There is always a motive for people to stage a drama - sometimes it could be for monetary reasons whereas sometimes it could be to win over people, some occasions to gain sympathy, so on and so forth etc., 

[1] Drahma at Road side: If mass shootings is a concern in US then road accidents is a concern in India and sometimes road accidents are enacted through a drama too. Along with my family I was on my way to Vaitheeswaran Temple and of course this happened before Corona made its debut, once you cross Kumbakonam roads are narrow and it gets congested as population is dense in those areas. I was comfortable driving but I had to be very watchful since I could see bicycles, cows, dogs, suddenly making its appearance just like how elakai makes its presence when we enjoy the yummy biriyani. But I was moving along and at one spot and couldn't recollect the exact location I heard a big noise back of my car and I was very confident me and my car had nothing to do with the collision that happened for a two wheeler against one of the moving vehicles on the road. I looked into the mirror and saw people gathering in big numbers and since I had nothing to do with the accident I moved along. One person from the spot rushed towards me and parked his bike in front of my car and asked me to get down from the car. I obliged and got down and he said I was the one responsible for the accident and had to come to the spot immediately .....I said this is absolutely false and I cannot take responsibility for accidents taking place on road ...he was adamant that I had to come to the spot so I had no other choice but to rush towards the spot. First and foremost I am going to visit a temple so if I commit a mistake and then offer my prayers I am aware almighty is not going to listen to my prayers so I was confident lord will take care and gathered courage to face the crowd. People were furious at me and some even pointed fingers that I was responsible for the lady who fell down from the two wheeler; Guy who drove the two wheeler said I dashed him which made him and the lady fall ....I said to the crowd ...first let us all try to understand what happened .....I asked the guy to explain in detail ...I questioned him just like how Surya did in Jai Bhim ....Right from the direction he came, side of my car which seem to hit him etc., I also asked the crowd to look into my car whether it had any scratches or paint removal like how the guy explained ...I also spotted a Security Camera in one of the shops nearby but unfortunately shop was closed but I asked the crowd let us call the show owner and get footage of what happened ....Crowd listened to me ..they looked into my car which had my entire family waiting in patience. At this point of time crowd was convinced this guy is enacting a drama and was confident on the way I carried myself ....I even asked the crowd if I am proven wrong I can take care of any medical treatment and any expense that incurs for the boy but I cannot be fooled around. I gave all of my identity proofs in case they want to contact me further. I am pretty sure this guy basically wanted to enact a drama and get cash from me and he gathered sympathy by pulling the crowd and the lady and ambulance are all character roles in his play. God knows the truth but I realized once you are confident and truthful you need to FACE the challenge by yourself and my attitude was the saving grace on the incident and I thank lord Vaitheeswaran for giving me the strength to face the situation. 

[2] Third person make merry: When two people have misunderstandings the worst thing that happen is third person take advantage of the situation. In any Business when two generations work together it is super natural to have difference of opinion of various day to day operations. Best thing to do is for the two to iron out the differences and settle things amicably but at this juncture third party and in this case the employees in the same organization take advantage of the situation. Since older generation is lenient on lot of things they tend to get arguments with the new generation person and employees slowly but surely make more inroads on the rift between older and new generation. This is sort of a drama people undertake in every organization and I would strongly say reasons for family feuds are more of internal in nature rather than from external forces. This can be frustrating but one day truth will triumph. 

[3] Video leak: This one is not my personal experience but just my observation. High profile movie shooting may be in progress and all of a sudden some video footage may be leaked from the film's shooting. News spread all over the state and fans start to rejoice the content and start sharing virally on social media. Some people just want to get a glimpse of the video due to curiosity factor ...Overall this has been a paisa vasool marketing for the movie. If you take a deep look this whole thing could be a drahma ....when you release a video as a teaser it may generate 1 million views whereas you term it has 'leak' it may generate 2 million views ...This is like stolen mangoes are more tastier than mangoes bought. 

I have just listed few but there are whole lot more which I could keep writing; I feel there is always a motto behind every drama that has been enacted. People choose the characters, script and stage for the drama but whatever drama one does end of the day people are responsible for their own wrongdoings through the Paavam-Punya Kanaku just like Credit and debit entries in Journal Book. 

Next Blog:  Naveena Chanakyan 

Annathae, Rajini and Next steps

 Annatha was Thalaivar's latest flick and it was very disappointing and the disturbing factor for me was Thalaivar had to rely on so much emotional quotient to make his movie a Box office success.  In my community when someone reaches 70, Beema radha santhi is celebrated and it is time to increase dosage for Metformin, Amlodopine and Rosuvastatin ...but looking at Thalaivar he is still on the ground fighting it out when his counterparts like Vijayakanth, Sathyaraj, Chiranjeevi, Mohan babu all have either retired or doing character driven roles. You have to give credits to the man for pulling this feat. But before we get into Annatha would like to go over some of Thalaivar's strengths which I would personally like to term as his success strategies.

1) Almost Nil endorsements for commercials: Apart from the Polio campaign have you ever seen Thalaivar endorsing any campaigns? Have you seen him as a celebrity endorsing any FMCG product? Apart from the cut outs and hoardings during his releases have you seen his advertisement during any other time ? He played it very smart by limiting his public appearances and that translates to Freshness factor in Cine world. When you endorse for a FMCG product the company plays the advertisement multiple times in televisions and people tend to see your face 'n' number of times and this psychologically brings down the curiosity when audience tend to see a mass hero in big screen. Now you may understand how actors like Vijay, Chiranjeevi are mass heroes whereas actors like Surya who chooses good scripts can never become a mass hero. 

2) Limited public appearance: Getting invites is pretty common and just imagine for Thalaivar how many invites he would receive in a calendar year to attend for functions (wedding, cine related) etc., If Thalaivar attends everything he would hog limelight but once again that will translate to bringing down the curiosity factor when people see him in big screen. He has always maintained low profile - attend very few functions, skip cine functions for most part, minimum participation for any protests etc., One other significant thing which Thalaivar does is he does not participate in Film promotions even for his own films other than Audio functions (2.0 was an exception as he had to oblige Zee networks since Zee procured satellite rights for 2.0 and Endhiran at the time of release was an expensive movie so he gave interview with Sun TV as SUN network acquired satellite rights); On a similar note I see that people who are super duper talented like Ilayaraja, AR Rahman, Mani Ratnam focus less on marketing and instead focus on their respective work to  do all the talking. This particular strategy of Thalivar pays rich dividends as he always keeps the freshness factor and when people see him in celluloid after one or two years they go mad to catch glimpse of him. 

3) Family audience: These days film's fate is decided in the first 10 days but if you look into the past silver jubilee films run for 25 weeks (175 days) and if you deep look first 30 days belongs to hard core Thalaivar fans who consists of Auto drivers, rickshaw man, Milk vendor, vegetable vendor, lorry drivers etc., and then once the film crosses 30 days mark that's when Thaikulam come into theatres and they take the kids along with them. Thalaivar has this uncanny habit of attracting kids through his movies - the graphics song in Raja chinna Roja may look amateurish in today's world but it was considered cult classic at those times which attracted kids, Thalaivar's body language of catching Snake in Annamalai and murmuring 'Kaduvulae Kadavulae' will make kids laugh like anything, flipping of sun glasses/cigars all attracted kids. Can you name one movie of Thalaivar which is considered very glamourous and embarrass family audience ? Consider two songs - "Adikudhu Kuliru" from Mannan and "Siva Rathiri" from MMKR and nature of both the songs is same that of heroine trying to woo hero and director's intention is to make the song look sensuous. But such was the choreography and picturization that Adikudhu kuliru brought out the intention of the song merely through the tone and kudos to Thalaivar for making his movies family friendly in nature. I am not saying he doesn't have glamourous songs in his movies but he has always kept family audience in his mind whereas his arch rival Kamal Ji is considered to be kadhal mannan. 

Now that I have gone through some of Thalaivar's success strategies I would like to point out his current state of mind. Some of the biggest directors in 90's were K.S Ravi kumar, Mani Ratnam, Shankar, P. Vasu etc., After Linga bombed and Jaggubhai didn't take off it was curtains down for K.S Ravikumar. P.Vasu pulled off a miracle for Chandramukhi but then Kuselan was absolute disaster and the movie was completely written off so P.Vasu was out of equation too. Shankar made Sivaji, Endhiran and 2.0 and problem with Shankar's movies are like it takes whole lot of time apart from demanding huge budget. There are rarely any producer who could afford to produce Shankar movie on top of casting Thalaivar as hero so Shankar was out of question too. Mani Ratnam is still an option but believe both Thalaivar and Mani ratnam want to keep their everlasting record of Thalapathi intact and don't want to create any mishapenings in their combination. Thalaivar tried his luck with his daughter on giving audience an absolute new experience in the form of 3D Avatar by doing Kochadaiyaan but unfortunately audience did not like the movie very much though it was a novel attempt. Now Thalaivar sat back got his act together and realized new comers are the future and that was when movie 'Madras' was both critically acclaimed as well as huge box office success. Thalaivar surprised everyone in the industry by giving PA.Ranjith to direct his next movie. Movie was produced by marketing wizard Kalaipuli Thanu sir and there was almost feverish pitch as far as marketing was concerned and the scenario in Tamil Nadu was like if you haven't watched Kabali you have wasted your life. Movie released and though it was different from many of Thalaivar's past movies I personally did not like the movie as there was excessive violence and gun shots were used like "Potu vedi"; I watched the movie with hard core Thalaivar fans and enjoyed every bit of the experience. Movie was declared box office success and Rajini handed over next movie to Ranjith for 'Kaala'. 

  Kaala was an average flick and the movies didn't fare well at Box Office and Rajini moved onto Karthik Subburaj, a hard core Thalaivar veriyan for PETTA and the movie by far was the best of thalaivar's movies retaining the vintage Thalaivar factor as well as coming up with a good script for a mass hero. Personally apart from the flashback which was not at all convincing overall movie was very good. Now Rajini moved onto AR Murugadoss for Darbar and the movie happened to be an above average flick. Now Rajini saw Viswasam and blown over by the movie gave Director Siva a chance to direct his next movie and that is how Annatha happened. You cannot blame Thalaivar as he had to trust his instincts and give someone a chance to direct. But Annatha relied way too much on emotional quotient and villain was like a puppet. Movie must have run in villages and Tier 2 cities but overall movie disappointed many including hard core fans. 

Now that he is out of Politics TN People are not going to make him retire so it is always going to be LIGHTS - CAMERA - ACTION ...I think he should work on following as next steps

1) Thalaivar has to bring on board a strong Antagonist to rub his shoulders on screen.....Antony of Baadsha and Neelambari of Padayappa is still fresh amongst audience. There has to be lot of screen space for villain ..in short we no longer need Mighty Australia vs docile Zimbabwe on field rather we need nail biting India vs Pakistan matches of 1990's ...

2) Focus on Character driven roles: I think problem with Industry is they want Thalaivar to be the hero for economics to work out ....if he does Guest roles it affects Business hence Thalaivar is forced to be commercial hero. I think he is coming to a point he has crossed threashold of a mainstream commercial hero rather do roles pertaining to the age and what story demands. Dhruvangal 16 was a classic movie and if Thalaivar does what Rahman did it might still work out because there is a good actor inside thalaivar which no one really extracts. I would personally like to see two releases every year and roles can be character driven. 

3) Please stop the romance: Nayantara and Thalaivar's daughters should be of same age and it is absolutely awkward to see him romance, run behind the trees, slow motion shots trying to attract girls. If it is delicate for us to see I cannot imagine how Thalaivar acts because am sure it would be very embarassing to act on romantic scenes where his grand son is already a teenager. 

4) Bring back the scenes to tickle your bones: Action scenes are fine but too much violence through gun shots is definitely not cup of tea for Thalaivar rather go back to his strength of including scenes which invokes laughter. Kids adore him, Fans worship him, Thai kulam like him and he shouldn't let these go as these are the building blocks for his growth. 

As a politician I have never supported Rajinikanth because I feel he is not qualified to be a politician but as an entertainer I like him and want him to do more movies. He sees a movie and if he likes a movie very much he gives a chance and that is how Ranjith, Karthik Subbhu raj and Siva got chances. I am pretty sure after seeing Maanadu he might consider Venkat Prabhu, people like Lokesh Kanagaraj, Vetri maaran, Pandiraj, Karthik Naren, Mari selvaraj, Nalan Kumarasamy all stand a chance to direct him in future. I hope directors acknowledge his age and give him nice character driven roles which both extracts his acting talent as well as give audience meaningful cinema. End of the day we love Thalaivar as an entertainer and we want to see him on big screen time and again and enjoy all the euphoria and excitement for many more years to come. 

Next Blog: How Drahma Unfolds !! 

T & C

   T & C stands for Terms and conditions and I am just going to pen my thoughts based on some of my observations. There is a survey which says close to 90% of the people don't read terms and conditions and the percentage is even higher with youth population. Every organization or entity when they sell a commodity or a service are bound to provide you with terms and conditions and as a buyer you are supposed to read and endorse them acknowledging that you are aware of everything you sign up. In a world where people find emails to be lengthy imagine the fate of 'Terms and conditions' which runs over few pages with font size as small as kutty kamal in apoorva sagodhargal; Sometimes language is so complex that you tend to think whether these were drafted by Christopher Nolan and proof read by Kamalhaasan. At times content is so very generic and you cannot make out what is the intention of the conditions something similar to Bala sir movies where movie is over all of a sudden with wordings "A film by Bala" which then makes you leave the cinema hall realizing movie is over. 

I would like to go over few examples of T&C :

Social media & Privacy: One of social media's giant says in its terms and conditions that they use the data provided by consumers to improve the overall experience of the consumer. Such a sentence is very generic and we can interpret it in multiple ways and we have no clue whether the data is used for commercial purpose. EU comes up with their own set of ground rules on how they want to to govern the data posted in social media by their public. By coming up with their own standard they stand a chance of pulling the company to their respective court in case of any violations rather than relying law and order to be enforced by the country of the parent organization. Consumer data privacy is the next big thing since any of your posts, pictures you post can be used for commercial or various other purposes and the only catch for us is to 'Disagree' on the Terms & conditions.

E-commerce & rules: Post Corona E-commerce has picked up big time and number of shoppers grew in huge numbers for online shopping. Imagine you are about to buy a brand new scientific calculator online which belongs to an electronic product. Normally electronic products comes with a warranty period  and strict return policies. If you see the terms and conditions there would be a point which would state any tampering of sticker or screws violates the return policy. Due to some carelessness of the buyer or logistics person you may receive the product where sticker or screws may be misplaced and unfortunately the buyer has little room for negotiation since he/she has already signed the terms and conditions regarding the product. 

Health Insurance & rules:  When people sign up for Health insurance there is a tendency amongst people not to disclose pre-existing diseases like Diabetes, Hyper tension etc., When people switch from Insurance A to Insurance B some tend to provide coverage for pre-existing illnesses whereas some companies has a waiting period which is clearly mentioned in terms and conditions. People overlook this clause and finally when a claim is processed this clause haunts them big time since as per Insurance company the waiting period may be far from over. 

  Terms & Conditions are the talking point once we get into an incident/accident - no one pays attention unless we get our hands dirty. Organizations cleverly phrase the wordings in such a way when a problem arises they use the lawyer to work terms and conditions to their advantage. Consumer related issues will be on the rise in future and terms and conditions will play a prominent role. 

Next: Annathae, Rajini and next steps 

  

KKP KKP TVM

Let me abbreviate my blog heading "KKP KKP TVM" - கண்ணால் காண்பதும் பொய், காதால் கேட்பதும் பொய், தீர விசாரிப்பதே மெய்! This is such a lovely proverb that our ancestors have come up with and only during the course of life you are able to relate to the true meaning to this proverb. I am going to come up with two examples to illustrate this proverb and examples are taken from real life incidents with little bit of fictional elements but the core content is ORIGINAL. 

Example One - Anti-social elements role in Politics

    Assume DMK is holding a mega protest against the ruling BJP government citing the hike of prices for Petrol, Diesel, LPG Gas etc., Not all protests are bad in fact I would recommend protesting for your basic rights. Protests is planned in all major districts and DMK's district administrators plan the protest. They come up with a plan where to protest, timing of the protest, agenda for the meetings, any traffic diversions needed, permission from local bodies like consent from collector office, help from Police, Traffic police etc., Obviously DMK may protest against BJP since BJP is the government coming up with the new prices. Now ADMK is the principal opponent party of DMK in the state and alliances of ADMK may also be against the ruling DMK since they come under ADMK. The so called anti social elements who may neither belong to ADMK, ADMK alliances, BJP may form a group and disrupt the protest thereby causing damage of public property and injury to public. Chaotic atmosphere may prevail and innocent public become victims to these protests and DMK may complain it was BJP/ADMK who disrupted the peaceful protests whereas BJP/ADMK may complain DMK has to take the blame as a ruling party for the law and order mess in the state. But the ugly secret is there could be some inside forces within DMK who could initiate the protests or it could be a ploy from a neighboring state who wanted to tarnish the image of the ruling party for political mileage. It could even be people outside the scope of politics who may sponsor the whole protests thereby quenching the thirst of taking revenge due to some personal feud in the past. You never know who is the culprit unless there is a full time investigation of the whole matter. Meanwhile SUN News /JAYA News/ NDTV come up with FLASH NEWS blaming one another ....This is where proverb comes into picture. 

Example Two - Bride & Groom match making

Match making is a big challenging task for parents in current generation. There are N number of factors to be accounted before a final decision can be made. Now consider there is a marriage proposal for a boy and a girl ......It is natural for both the sides to enquire about the bride and the groom respectively .....Let me summarize some of the findings 

(a) Girl's side looks into Boy's biodata in Social media and finds Boy has lot of girl friends 

(b) Boy's side look into Girl's biodata in Social media and finds Girl is bold as far as dressing sense

(c) Girl's side upon enquiring Boy's parents comes to know that they have lots of liabilities 

(d) Boy's side upon enquiring Girl's parents comes to know that they are against couple settling abroad

Now if you look into the facts for each of these:

(a) Girl's side looks into Boy's biodata in Social media and finds Boy has lot of girl friends  - Nowadays every IT company engages its employees on team bonding and on one such occasion it so happened that boy happened to be trapped on a particular fun game and team took a group pic with the boy surrounded by all girls ...since one of his friends tagged that pic this caught attention of the girl's side

(b) Boy's side look into Girl's biodata in Social media and finds Girl is bold as far as dressing sense - Though we talk about Biotechnology on one side there is still mega serials running successfully in TV ....Girl just happened to visit Miami,FL on a vacation and you cannot expect girl to wear Nalli Samudrika Silk saree in Miami beach ....Unfortunately the mega serial aunty mistook the sleaveless shirt and shorts as 'Bold' ...BTW India is the only country where you can gauge boldness of a person through your attire

(c) Girl's side upon enquiring Boy's parents comes to know that they have lots of liabilities - One thing I realized is though many people have funds to purchase an asset they still finance and prefer loan payments ....Unfortunately one loan assignment is tongue twisted as liabilities since the intermediate whom people made enquiry passed what he heard ...just like how passing the secret game goes on info is completely fabricated ...

(d) Boy's side upon enquiring Girl's parents comes to know that they are against couple settling abroad - Sometimes when people have one daughter they prefer daughter to be geographically closer and this may just be a preference. Once again the so called intermediates fabricate the info and portray in such a way as if girl's parents are completely against couple settling abroad. 

As you can see information is Fabricated/twisted/misinterpreted and just shows importance of the proverb. Some Naysayers deliberately want to pull some families down hence kind of politely spread false information something similar to poking needle into a Banana. It is becoming even more important to make your enquiries right since what we see and what we hear may no longer hold true. 

Next Blog: T & C

Vasanth & Co

People who hail from Tamilnadu are very well versed with the brand name "Vasanth & CO" since the brand occupies some part of your home in the form of an appliance. When you hear the term two things come to your mind - a pleasant smile of the owner Mr. Vasanta Kumar and his loyalism to Congress party by having a towel symbolizing Congress party on his shoulders. Interesting thing is firm is a trader and still they were able to build a brand which breaks the conventional formula that you have to be a Manufacturer to build your brand. Vasanth & co generates over 500 crores and has close to 3000 employees spread across the country in as many as one hundred stores (approximately). Beyond numbers they have touched lives of many especially the economically backward through their business model. They are pioneers in coming up with EMI model for Home appliances and what was a dream for many turned into reality through Vasanth & Co; One can easily say to control one's desires especially materialistic fantasies but some things such as Television, Fridge, Grinder and mixie has fallen into ordinary category from luxury category; What is wrong in owning a television and wanting to see your favorite programme after a hard day's work for a Carpenter/Mason ..What is wrong for a Bank clerk who gets pay of 10 K/month in owning a fridge to safeguard her food ? This is where Vasanth & Co stepped in and revolutionized the entire Home appliances industry. They buy in huge volumes from Manufacturer (multiple brands) and translate the same to the end user on top of offering payments in installments. For example they allowed people to pay 50% upfront and setup monthly payments for the rest of the amount and take the goods with them. "After sales service" is one phenomenon which is given great importance nowadays but then in the past it was one area which was overlooked and Vasanth & co established centralized after sales support through their network thereby being a liaison between the manufacturer and the end customer. They won not just the customer but also the market. 

Apart from the points mentioned above there are few other reasons that I love about the man Mr.Vasantha kumar and want to list them below (personal point of view)

1) Loyalty to your affiliation: As an Entrepreneur he always has a suit and as a politician he wears white and white with a towel representing congress party; He has never been shy portraying him as a member of Congress party and he is rightly called as Mr.clean for his ethics in political journey. Now let us assume we have an interview and it is natural for us to have a vibudhi in our forehead but our mind tends to think like 'what if the interviewer is a christian/Muslim so better go with plain forehead' ...This is all very natural since we just don't want to take any chances. Just look at Mr.Vasanthakumar sir ....running a Business there is every reason for him to believe business may be affected if he leans towards one major political party rather be neutral in your appearance. Just imagine do you think hard core BJP folks would patronize his business especially in a country like India where politics is interlinked with anything and everything ? This is where his loyalty comes into picture and he endorsed congress party no matter what consequences he had to face. He was MLA from Nanguneri constituency and then later went on to become MP of Kanyakumarai lok sabha constituency. 

2)  Relation with his Staff: His staff calls him 'Annachi' and he has a wonderful relationship with his employees. Firing employees is considered to be a shortcut to bring back the company's financial fortunes but many do not realize that practice kills the goodwill that is built between employer and employee thereby causing a dent in their relationship. Mr.Vasantha kumar never fires his employees and always made sure he protects their livelihood. He mingles with them so freely that at times you can even see his hand over a shoulder of an autorickshaw driver. His employees wept for his demise and 

3)Competitors paying their condolences: One thing which tempted me to come up with this blog is a Newspaper ad from all of his competitors informing about his death and paying their condolences ..wow ....when your competitors mourn for your death and speak high regards about you after you left this world that talks about your character. I was moved and recently happened to have a chat with an Entrepreneur who is doing big time business in Home appliances in Trichy area and the moment I said Mr.Vasantha kumar, he started pouring accolades and said he is a legend and helped the entire industry scale great heights. Right from PM Modi ji, Congress president Sonia Gandhi, CM of TN, opposition leader of TN, political bigwigs in both Congress and BJP conveyed their condolence to the bereaved family. I would rate myself as a good reader than a listener but few days back happened to listen to a gentleman's wonderful speech about Death. He said birth certificate and death certificate are pretty much the same with the death certificate holding an extra green signature (from an government official) and no matter how many titles you hold in your personal/professional/social life nothing is going to appear on your death certificate. Good deeds will be remembered by people and when you have touched many people's lives they are going to remember you. In that sense Mr.VasanthaKumar has lived a great life touching many lives thereby earning a rich legacy and reserving a place in Heaven. I have paid my tribute to this gentleman through my blog. 

Next Blog: KPP KKP TVM

Mistakes made in buying Medications !!

  Being part of the Health care sector, I am seeing the end to end cycle of a medical drug; I have learnt quite a bit of this supply chain from close quarters since we are one of the leading Distributor for many MNC based pharma companies primarily focusing in and around Trichy area. I see quite a lot of mishaps happening in the supply chain and would like to point out some major flaws that is happening and this can be useful information for kids who are away from their parents. 

   First and foremost let us know the common practice followed in India. "Health Checkup" is considered a bad omen and many skip this fearing that it will open can of worms. People normally has a family doctor and preference is always given to doctors who speak friendly. If a doctor whose qualification and education may be far superior compared to his counterparts still people has a soft corner for doctors with 'Friendly' nature. Once medications are prescribed patients take that medicine and have a practice of keeping one or two month stock in hand. Once they have consumed the medications they have a habit of giving the used strip to either their driver/maid or a care taker to buy medicines on their behalf in case they are not able to go themselves. Some people who are Tech savvy use apps to order online and in some cases kids do the purchase on behalf of their parents. These are some of the common practices followed in India. 

   Let us try to understand how Retail medical shops work. Normally a retail shop may have license to sell quite a large pool of medicines which includes but may not be limited to Oral drugs, syrups, capsules, sachets, Diapers, Consumables like paste, powder, creams, soaps etc., Based on the location they open from 9 am or 10 am in the morning and work as late as 9 or 10 pm in the night. They may have two shift of workers to cover their schedule and overlap of workers to cover up peak hours. Ideally hiring a Pharmacist would be the best and this is what followed in all western countries but this is where I see a major blunder happening in India where most of the workforce have very little knowledge on pharma industry. Obviously you may see experienced folks but that is merely to inject some knowledge to new folks but guys are hired and fired as and when needed. The problem is these guys wear Doctor's hat and disrupt the whole efficacy in the process. Companies promote their brands in popular retail outlets and representatives take a commission based on sales and these representatives canvass retail stores to sell their product and meet the target. 

  High Blood pressure in India is as common as a stunt sequence in a mass masala movie; Diabetes is even more common and can be compared to number of people visiting Renganathan street on a particular day. When people start taking medications they just have to continue for a long time. When doctor prescribes a medicine they usually buy it from the same store. Problem happens when they switch medicines which can happen either due to miscommunication or carelessness from people who buy the medicines. Let us assume you take Aspirin regularly which lowers chance of heart attacks as it works by preventing platelets from sticking together which decreases formation of harmful blood clots. Acetaminophen is a medical composition which is used relieve pain from headache, muscle ache, tooth ache etc., Normally people who take Aspirin should not take drugs containing Acetaminophen since combination of both can sometimes lead to fatal events. But unless you have an educated Pharmacist how do you expect an employee to know information regarding medications. Some medications are restricted to take aftyer intake of Alcohol, pregnancy women should avoid certain medication, lactating mothers should avoid some, if people take steriods then some medications are restricted. There are several Ifs and But's and only a Doctor (who has a reason why he/she got a degree) should be consulted before you take medications. 

   Now coming to the second mistake people make while taking medications - Wrong strength of the dose. People forget to miss dose for one day or one course (AM/PM) and then decide to take double dose which may not go well with the body. Let us see an example ...Alprazolam is a common medical composition which many people take to treat anxiety which relaxes nerves, calms brain activity giving way to good night's sleep. But excessive dose of alprazolam can cause coma, respiratory depression and death. Similarly people take over dose of medications for Chronic diseases like Diabetes, Blood Pressure etc., without realizing consequences of their actions. Once again it is always advisable to consult a physician before making any small decision regarding your medications. 

  Now coming to the next mistake people make in taking medications - Take medicines which are contradictory to each other thereby making the overall process ineffective. For example if a young lady takes contraceptives to prevent unplanned pregnancy but at the same time takes anti-seizure drug phenytoin which stimulates excessive production of  an enzyme that metabolizes estradiol which is nothing but a component of low dose contraceptives. Contraceptives are cleared more rapidly in women taking phenytoin thereby increasing risk of unplanned pregnancy. 

Let me conclude some key takeaways:

1) Change of a brand and change of a composition are two different things 

2) Be cautious when you have someone procure medicines on your behalf

3) Never go by friend's advice on medications since every case is different - what works for ABC may not work for XYZ

4) Don't get carried away seeing the flash offers in retail outlets which may prompt you to change medications

5) Do not decide on the strength of the dose by yourself

6) Be informed on contradictory medications 

7) It is high time you start trusting your physician before making any small decision on medications. 

Next Blog: Vasanth & Co

Influencer No.4

 One of my earlier blog (Dada,Thala,Cho) written on May 4,2020 I wrote on some of the names who have an influence in my life. Sarcasm,Nakkal,self destructive humor and talking with some substance are some of the traits I love from Cho; Leadership, Guts are some of the characteristics I like from dada and finally speaking your heart out and being humble are the characteristics I like from Thala. I mentioned there is one other person but may need one full blog to go over him and he is none other than Actor Sivakumar sir. If someone challenges me to get on debate with Rangaraj pandey or Gopinath I don't think I have any issues provided I am given some time to prepare but if people request me to go and talk to a bride who has just tied her knot and about to bid goodbye to her parents before moving with her husband and in-laws then let me admit frankly that I will not be able to accept the request. It is such a big moment for every girl (change of her surname from her dad to husband) and when she is running with lots of emotions I don't think I can talk facing her eyes. It is Rosa-poo-chinna-rosapoo- sort of a  moment and I realized my emotional quotient is quite high when I read Actor Sivakumar's autobiographies. Around 2008 timeframe when I was a bachelor I used to read quite a lot of books and one of the best decisions I did was picking sir's "Idhu Rajapaatai alla" (autobiography of Actor Sivakumar) I should say this book had a profound impact in my life especially since I read it in my late twenties. The book may not inspire you but rather influence you to be more human since there are so many anecdotes where you will cherish the incidents and appreciate the humbleness. 

 Would the world believe sir is 80 years old? Just look at him and he is absolutely stunning at this age. Sir does not consume caffeine and does yoga pretty regularly. Cine industry is known for late night parties but sir defined discipline though belonging to an industry which exbibits glitz and glamour. He wouldn't allow wine shops to open beyond certain time in T nagar since he had two boys. He had an illustrious career acting around 190 movies as lead as well as supporting roles. He has also ventured into public speaking on topics like Ramayana and Mahabaratha on various forums and has got good appreciation. Sir is a great artist and had drawn numerous portraits of various celebrities and sir is also ambidextrous (one who can use both right and left hand equally well). Sir also acted in some mega blockbuster serials like Chithi and Annamalai. Have I met him and talked to him? No, I am not blessed enough to have met him but once I read his autobiography I started to follow him. Sir has a big influence on how to be a 'Human' in this materialistic world. When he wrote the book around 2007-08 timeframe he could have easily added a chapter on Suriya and Jothika and that would have been good enough for the publication to sell copies like hot cakes rather there was absolutely nothing written about his star kids - Suriya and Karthi. He said even after acting over 100 films his bank balance was pretty nominal which explains his character. Once after our marriage in 2009 I wanted to make a small donation to Agaram foundation run by Suriya and along with Minu we visited the office in T nagar and handed over the check for a very meager amount and when I was back to US I came to know that foundation did not encash my check rather they returned back to Trichy address citing they did want to take anonymous donations.  

  In the book sir talks about his village, death of his brother, shares fond memories about his friends Eswaran, Thangamuthu, Krishnaswamy, mannin mainthan Marappa Gounder, his admiration towards AVM chettiar and Sivaji ganesan; his childwood experience of climbing tree, shares his hardships and agony, his reverence towards Velumani ammal and Chinappa devar; his cinematic experience with his colleagues like Aruldoss, Ravichandran, Srikanth, Gemini ganesan, Director Sridhar, Gentleman Muthuraman, Comedy king Nagesh, Bold and elegant JJ, Bishmar KB, Achi Manorama, Kalaignar, Cho, Kavignar Vaali etc., Once you read the incidents it will definitely have a positive impact since these are narrated on how a 'Human' should behave. Given his current position would you believe that he was considered unlucky child when he was born in Kasigoundanputhur, a village 20 kms away from coimbatore. He was very determined to prove that was wrong. With his dad passing away very early it was his mom who stoically withstood the circumstances and managed to send him to school. He recollects that his mom used to say Diwali,Pongal are all only for rich people but for people like us we will get two pairs of shirts and shorts and even if that is torn we may have to stich and be happy with what we have. Sir recollects his dad's close friend Chinna Thambi Gounder who used to elaborate all the good traits about sivakumar's dad and also recollects how one of his friend named Raman used to watch all his films for 40 years from the income he earned through daily wages. When MGR and Sivagi was at their peak Siva kumar couldn't get meaty roles since both Sivaji and MGR were ruling the roost and when MGR was inclining towards politics and Sivaji started to slow down then came Rajini and Kamal as next set of superstars. Sivakumar couldn't hog the limelight once again but with his talent and hard work he was able to sustain his position in the industry. 

 KB once said if Sivaji Ganesan is role model in acting then actor Sivakumar is role model for how an actor should behave. Not even a single gossip about him just reiterates the fact he is very disciplined. It is to be noted that Idhu Raja paatai alla was included in the 91-92 curriculum of Loyola college. Though I do not follow many of his good habits but still sir has been a great influence in my life. 

Next Blog: Perils of buying Medicines 

Does Luck matter ?

  Discussions on Luck is one of those areas which is subjective in nature and it differs from person to person. I would like to go over some examples I have observed and give my perspective on Luck. Luck knowingly or unknowingly would have played a role in one's life which we may not have realized. Sometimes outcome of a cricket match is decided by Toss and we call the captain lucky to have got his toss right. When you are about to step inside an examination hall or attend a Job interview many would wish you 'Best of luck' and few 'All the very best'. Google defines 'Luck' as success that happens by chance. Now let us look into few examples

9/11 lucky fellas: 9/11 is one day no one can easily forget what happened in New York, one of those deadliest terrorist attacks which took away close to 3000 lives. There are few lucky guys who escaped and one of them was called George Keith who drove his brand new BMV on Sept 10,2001 and got it repaired. He got an appointment next day Sept 11,2001 at 7am with hopes of returning to work at 8am but the mechanics refused to work till 8 am and it took them just three minutes to fix the car and by the time the car was fixed and George was rushing back to work plane already crashed WTC, the place where he was heading for work. Kim John-Burns was another person who was three months pregnant and instead of having breakfast with her colleagues at Company's canteen @ 72nd floor she was lazy and decided to have quick breakfast at sixth floor canteen. She said this decision saved her life. In both the cases had the mechanics come earlier or Kim decided to have breakfast at 72nd floor it would have ended both their lives. 

Home price and Luck factor: There is a system in place to fix a price of a house in US and factors such as Schools, proximity to malls, highways, airports, train stations, crime ratio, foreclosures, neighborhood sales determine to fix a price of a house. House is sent for appraisal and appraiser comes up with a value of the house. Assume one particular house comes for sale and the house is pretty red hot in the market since it has way too many advantages. Unfortunately the couple who own the house are planning to end their relation and heading towards divorce, they want to quickly close the deal and willing to settle for lot lesser. Their aim is to part ways sooner by expediting the settlement process. Guy who buys the house gets a good deal but the sad part are the neighbors who are planning to sell their houses. Couple's personal matters which has got nothing to do with the market trend pretty much skews the price and brings down the value of neighborhood homes by some extent. 

MK Stalin and Luck factor: MK Stalin has been in public life for 40-45 years and had to wait a very long time before he became chief minister of the state. He had every thing to his advantage - son of one of India's senior politician, political heir of Karunanidhi, MLA multiple times, Mayor of chennai, Opposition party leader, Minister of Rural development etc., Now state is witnessing one of the best governance in its history and though it is way to early to comment on the government but the news from all round the state is he is doing a wonderful job as CM of the state. Until Karunanidhi was alive he was always 'Thunai Mudhalamaichar' and he carried that tag for a long time and he was insulted many times from many different people and people always felt Stalin will never be the CM of the state. When it comes to qualification I don't believe there is any better person than Stalin since he has come from very basic levels and slowly climbed up the ladder. He was also president of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and as a Mayor he was instrumental in significant growth of Chennai city. Having everything in his kitty still he had to wait till his chance finally came up in 2021 (he was 68 when he took over as CM). People like EPS took the coveted post from nowhere but luck never favored Stalin. 

Luck and Cinema: Since my last blog was on Apples vs Oranges, I want to make sure I pick examples from similar background. Sivakarthikeyan and Actor Prasanna both had humble background and both hail from Trichy and one made it big in Kollywood whereas other is not able to make a mark. If you take Sivakarthikeyan, Vijay TV was his trump card and he capitalized on Family audience particularly women and kids and translated into Box office successes by picking simple and commercial scripts suiting his image. Most of Sivakarthikeyan's movies would be average but they tasted success. Actor Prasanna is pretty good looking and his movies like Kasturi maan and Kanda naal mudhal are decent ones and his acting was good too. Unfortunately he didn't have anyone to groom and with lack of glossy factors like Anirudh's music he couldn't make it big and move on to next level. Actor Rahman is absolutely dashing and acts well but he is better known as AR Rahman's co-brother; If Ilayaraja has endorsed someone then I don't think anything can get better than that but still Karthik Raja couldn't make it big on Kollywood. I love his music in Ullasam, Dum Dum Dum, Ullam Kollai Poguthae etc., I feel Actor Prasanna, Rahman, Music director Karthik Raja all were unlucky. What would you call Mike Mohan ? There was times where many of his movies were superhits and thanks to Raja sir music and SPB voice which fitted him very well and he himself said in an interview that he was at the right place at the right time. 

As you can see Luck plays a role in one's life. It would not be wise to say that one has to rely on luck to grow further but all it takes is some luck to push you attain greater heights. If India has crappy reservation system which favors some castes on education/jobs then US has crappy Immigration system which overlooks deserving candidates thereby favoring individuals based on nationality. But if you are at the right place at the right time then even these so called crappy systems can do a huge favor. 

Next Blog: Influencer No.4 

Apples vs Oranges !!

 There is a tendency amongst people of comparing two extremes and this happens very
naturally. When I say people it includes “me” since I make this mistake often too. The idiom
“Apple vs Orange” rightly captures the essence. Two siblings would have straight opposite
characteristics though they inherit same genes, two students learning the art from the same
teacher may prove to be completely different from one another. End of the day each individual
is different or unique and each situation/context is different from one another, people seldom
understand this or I should rather say they don’t make an attempt to understand.

Covid crisis in India during Second wave:
India was literally devastated during end of April and May in the form of second wave and
personally it was very chaotic environment; I received calls from all round the globe asking for
Remdesivir and Tocilizumab; Opening Whatsapp was getting scary because there were steady
flow of condolence messages. Worst thing was India was running short of Vaccine; Bed and
oxygen availability were the talking points and hospitals were overloaded with Covid patients
and watching Ambulance was becoming more and more common sight. No vaccine, No O2
beds, limited supply of oxygen and no availability of life saving drugs made the equation as
challenging as possible. World media literally torn India’s image to low levels and COVID
situation in India was highlighted is many dailies of some of the world famous print media. One
thing which many forgot was India’s fight against COVID-19 was bigger than many nations put
together. Population of Madhya Pradesh is equal to Germany, population of Rajasthan is equal
to UK, Maharashtra’s population is equal to Japan, Telangana’s population is equal to Saudi
Arabia. USA’s population is 33 crores and Tamilnadu’s population is 8 crores (roughly 1/4 th ) so it
all boils down to Population. Social distancing is said to be a vital criteria to stop spread of virus
but population density plays a vital role in following this restriction. India stands at 403 people
per square kilometer whereas if you take developed nations like US it is 34, Russia is 8, Canada
is 4, and Australia is 4; In lay man terms I have seen many homes around 800-1000 square feet
in India where four people live and that is roughly the amount of space used for car garages in
US. When it comes to Literacy rate, Germany stands at Rank 8 in the world, US at 7, Australia at
16, Japan at 32 and India at 128 th rank with roughly 75% of the population being literates. When
people don’t have the fundamental basics in the form of education how will we communicate
importance of washing hands, social distancing and wearing masks especially when it is turning
out to be a herculean task to communicate the same to so called "educated people". Considering
India’s population, population density and Literacy rate I would say India did exceedingly well in
crisis – it exposed the healthcare system and made Governments work like hell, made people
realize the proverb ‘Health is wealth’ is no longer a whatsapp forward, made India major
powerhouse in Pharma Industry and finally small businesses no longer treat expenses 
related to hygiene as an overhead expense. So bottom-line when people or media compares India's covid situation with other nations they should understand the basics. 

Price of a Juice:
For anything and everything there are always different sets of audience and Business try to lure
audience from all walks of life. I love having fresh juices but many a times I find myself
disappointed with the way juices are prepared. Now let me go over with an example –
Assuming one kg of Chiku (Sapota) is 80 rupees and let us assume you get 10 pieces for one kg
which makes it literally 8rs/piece; In order to prepare a fresh juice for 200ml you need to
squeeze at least 5-6 pieces, along with sugar and other overhead expenses fixed costs easily
comes out to 60-65 rupees and with profit margin included is sold for 80 rupees; Problem with
people (7 out of 10 atleast ) is they feel 80 rupees is on the higher end for a 200ml juice and this
is why most of the juice shops add milk to bring down the costs to 40; I hate adding milk to juice
especially when I know that I am having a fresh juice and not a shake. Problem is we are mixing
up with apples and oranges – "definition of juice" if different for different sets of people. 

Language vs Knowledge:

Main aim of an Indian parent who lives abroad is to see their kids talk/sing/read in their respective mother tongue and if their kids does so especially in their relative circle during their India trips then the glow you see from mom's face is enough to lit up MA Chidambaram cricket stadium; If you take Indian parents then their number one aim is to make their kids cousins of William Shakesphere; They want their kids to talk like Macbeth characters whereas they watch vadivelu memes. In summary parents give paramount importance to language which is fine but they interchange between language and knowledge. An teacher can teach well but her linguistic skills may be poor and parents make the mistake of judging the teachers through language. Comparing language and knowledge is definitely like comparing apples and oranges. 

 As human tendency we tend to compare two different contexts but if we dig deeper both may be two extremes. As long as people acknowledge the fact that we are comparing apples and oranges it should be fine. 

Next Blog: Does Luck matter ?

Opposition is critical !!

 Opposing one another is nothing new in today’s world and opposing happens in every single field:

(a)   Husband opposes wife and vice versa

(b)   Coach opposes players

(c)    Manager opposes workers

(d)   People oppose government

(e)   Home maker opposes maid 

(f)     Traffic inspector opposes Violators

People have a wrong impression about ‘Opposing’, so before I get into actual examples I would like to come up with a silly example of a conversation between husband and wife in today’s world. 

 Mitta Mirasu[Husband]: What are you going to make for breakfast?

Neelambari[Wife]: Cereal is in the shelf and milk is in the fridge ..so help yourself

 

Mitta Mirasu: It’s Sunday ..why can’t you make Poori and potato curry?

Neelambari: Its Sunday for you ..not for me ..every day I have been toiling in the kitchen and no holiday for us

 

Mitta Mirasu: Stop your cliché dialogues ..you have been spoilt by mega serials ..see our neighbor Swapna ..she makes yummy dishes and there is always nice smell emanating from their chimney …my colleague’s wife Anitha prepares awesome dishes and my colleague always open his tiffin box with pride ……

Neelambari:  How dare you compare me with our neighbor Swapna ? Her husband is like a swiggy employee who often buys food from outside ….I heard through our maid that her husband bought her a chain with peacock pendant for their anniversary and this is on top of the lotus pendant she had before ….Don’t even talk to me about Anitha ..She couldn’t even smile at me at the birthday party last week and she is full of attitude because she owns a Business and the food coming from her house is always cooked by her Maid Amutha who happens to be our maid’s first cousin

 Mitta Mirasu: Amma swamy ..I don’t want your Poori …..even upma will do ..sorry I will have bread and Jam …..

Neelambari: We can have Poori but need help from you. Boil the potatoes, peel the skin and smash it; Take two cups of wheat flour, some salt and add water and prepare the dough. Finally add some oil and knead lightly to smoothen the ball.

Mitta Mirasu: Follows all the instructions and finally family is able to enjoy awesome pooris by collective effort.

 Bottom line opposing or healthy arguments between two parties brings the best of results as the conversations give room for more productive results. Now that I have gone through the silly example let’s get into business by real world examples.

 

  Issue No.1: Central Government of India refuses to procure Covid Vaccines on

  Behalf of the states and tells state governments to procure Vaccine themselves

 

       What happened next: State governments started to raise global tenders to procure  

       vaccines and realized there were no takers; Kerala Chief Minister Pinrayi wrote a  

       letter to all Non BJP states chief ministers that they should get their act together

       and pressurize central government to procure vaccines. Supreme Court got involved

       and questioned Central government on rationale behind spending 35000 crore

       rupees allocated for vaccines and asked explanation by a certain date. This is when

       Central government intervened and suddenly announced vaccine rollout plan

       Thereby taking responsibility of vaccine distribution to states. So opposition from 

       the states was the key on determining the final outcome which turned out to be the

       best solution.

 

Issue No.2:  India Backs out of RCEP agreement after opposition from Congress

 What happened next: Let me go over RCEP (Regional Economic Comprehensive Partnership)  .      RCEP is one of those Free Trade agreements covering almost one third of global population and  includes members like China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Newzealand and 10 members of the  South east Asian nations (ASEAN). India was about to sign RCEP but Congress  opposed it          citing that Indian farmers and MSME sector had genuine unaddressed concerns on Circumvention on rules of origin to dump chinese goods due to reduced customs  duty thereby increase the massive trade deficit. Finally India backed out and BJP said decision was taken considering national interests. 

Issue No.3: Jallikattu protest that shook the entire Nation

What happened next: No one in the wildest of dreams would have expected such a protest in Marina Beach ..what started as a small protest gained momentum and slowly but surely became mother of all protests. The chief  motivation of the protest was against the Supreme court's order to ban Jallikattu which is traditionally a bull taming sport held during Pongal season. One of the demands was to declare  an ordinance to remove Bulls from list of performing animals as per the PCA (Prevention of cruelty to Animals) act. Protests were so huge and literally attracted entire nation and finally Tamil nadu government passed a bill that overturned the supreme court ban on bull taming sport Jallikattu. 

    

      Above examples show when you oppose with substance you yield results. I am sure many may think the word 'Oppose' may not be morally correct instead terms like healthy conversations can be used to bring out the desired results. See I am a person who call a spade a spade and sometimes reality takes precedence over diplomacy. It would be absolutely foolish to Oppose for every damn thing but when you see something wrong and have gathered enough proof to defend your stance then I would definitely oppose no matter who the other person is. Eight out of ten times when someone is opposed the party who is being opposed look into 'Who' is opposing rather than 'What' he is being opposed for. If you look into any leader (can be Career or Non profit organization) one who handles opposition in a matured manner is the one who will be able to survive and sustain his role. Opposition plays a vital role in a democracy and for a Ruling party to offer best governance and not take things for granted we need a good opposition party. 

Next Blog: Apples vs Oranges 

Bay Area

 Bay area is a part of California State in US and rightly called as Silicon Valley. Pretty
much all the tech giants like Google, Apple, Face book has their HQ in Bay area. If you
have happened to live in Bay area for a while trust me it is extremely difficult to move
somewhere. So what is special about the area? I am going to walk you through some of
the highlights about Bay area from my personal experience. God has been kind with me
by giving few contract assignments in Bay area but at the same time rude by not having them
convert to full time assignments. I have worked for Tesla Motors in 2008 (Unfortunate
that my stint was before Obama took office and Tesla became altogether a different
company once Obama became president) and Applied Materials in 2014 -15. To give you
an anomaly of how does it feel when you leave Bay Area after living for quite some time
– An independent girl enjoying all the freedom with her parents is suddenly married and
asked to settle down with her Mother in law and co sister(s) all in one roof. That being
said let me go over Bay area from my experience where first three are common features and last
three areas are from personal perspective.

Techy Freaks !!
If tamil folks meet for lunch there are sure shot four topics – Thala vs Thalapathy rivalry,
Whistle podu CSK’s form and Dhoni factor, Vadivelu’s latest memes and Television’s
happening show like Big boss/ Cook with Komali / Airtel Super singer; Bay Area is one
place on earth where suddenly the same old guy who had Oothappam in his childwood
suddenly talk high funda stuff and use terms like ‘Startups’, ‘Bootstrapping’, ‘Venture
Capitalists’, ‘Prototype’, ‘Dry run’, ‘Penny stock’, ‘IPO’ etc., Jokes apart the work culture
is amazing in Tech companies; I took a tour of Google through my friend and it was
amazing to see facilities to take power nap, pool , board games next to your cubicles
etc., On top of providing healthy meals, laundry and fitness facilities company also has
generous paid parental leave and on-site childcare. Best thing I liked was 80% of the
work you do what company requires you to do and remaining 20% you choose what you
do for the company. This is how the creativity is tapped in each individual and would
you believe the median age of Google employee is around 30-32 years!! Most of my
friends who work in Bay Area wake up late and go to office only around 10 or 11am and
they take Brunch straightaway and it is great sight to see folks take their Bicycles for
work and Google infact encourages bike riders by that way it reduces the crazy traffic
and also promotes green revolution. There are big time startups companies in Bay Area
where guys put very long hours sometimes even to the extent of sleeping at office. The
success percentage of startups is around 2% but if you are part of a STARTUP team, that
experience during infant stage can take you places because your whole learning has
been expedited. Innovation, out of the box thinking, likeminded people, venture
capitalists all make Bay Area a paradise for people in IT industry. If a building has 5 floors pretty much any floor you get down from an elevator you will see an IT company with Indian folks. 

Nature & Tourist attractions !!

Bay Area is one place on Earth where you open your bedroom curtains you may get to view the beautiful Mountains. Some of my friends have alarm pretty early in the morning just to shoot the sunrise. People who love trekking, hiking and Biking I don't think you will find a better place than Bay area. Seeing the interest amongst public some Indian restaurants even open for Breakfast on weekends - trekking for 10 miles and having sambar idly is an awesome feel. Golden gate is a must see attraction especially for Indian couples who try to find exact location where Suriya romanced Sameera in Varanam Aayiram through Google coordinates. Fisherman's wharf in San Francisco is a great place to hang out since place is always happening. Napa valley is another attraction that will please tourists and be close to nature. If you can watch couple of Balu mahendra movies then you do have patience and that makes you eligible to visit Yosemite national park and enjoy Nature; Half moon Bay, Santa Cruz Boardwalk, Gorgeous 17 mile drive are all so beautiful and you realize only when your memory card runs out of space. Apart from this taking a tour of Googleplex, visit to Lombard street, visit to Standford university, Intel museum, Facebook HQ and visit to Tesla Motors can just create great memories. 

Travel & Bay Area:

When you live in Bay Area it makes travel look very easy (road trips in particular); Southwest has a flight between Bay Area and Los Angeles on Friday evening and trust me CEO of Southwest airlines may seriously consider changing its name to Desi airlines ....you will find all the spouses working in Bay area travel to LA for weekend and vice versa. Not just that Bay Area is located in such a way where it is mandate to take parents from India to Las Vegas and Arizona which makes it a triangular trip. The long road trips would mean that you catch up on the old stories with your parents on what happened to coconut tree of your Indian neighbor. Also to make things politically correct the same trip has to be repeated for your wife's side too thereby making you a seasoned tourist guide in Las vegas and Arizona. Lake Tahoe can be a day trip too from Bay area and a lovely place for tons of activities. You can even drive to places like Los angeles from Bay area through Highway 1 and am sure that drive will top all of your drives in your entire life. Crater lake is another tourist attraction you can drive from Bay Area and if you have enough Raja sir songs then I don't think you will mind the drive. 

Above three can be applicable to anyone and following three are my personal preferences

Temples & Bay Area:

Obviously I visit temples wherever I go and Bay Area is no exception. Right from early days I used to visit Vidhya Ganapati temple in San Jose. In the year 2009 I called my friend whether we can visit this temple, he said yes but then he got some work and we couldn't go on that day and both of us went next day. It so happened the day we went was Thai poosam and both of us were asked to carry Kavadi inside the temple ...its just a coincidence that our names happen to be Saravana and Karthik and guess what both of us got married within the next few months. I just love this temple and there is great positive vibration and it is always nice when you can do abhishekham to lingam through your own hands. Concord Murugan Temple is very famous for its padhayatra during Thai pusam and once such year I happened to be local and decided to participate in the yatra temple organized. It was so very well organized and such a great experience that my spirits were high all throughout the day. After coming home I couldn't sleep because of the excess caffeine I took on that day and decided to write a blog on my Padhayatra experience and named it "Thai Poosam - Amazing experience" and blog became viral and I started to take blogging seriously. Shirdi Sai Darbar in Sunyvale is another temple that I used to go every Thursday when I was in Bay Area and the disciplined crowd and bhajans were something I enjoyed. 

Food & Bay Area:

I haven't been to Malaysia but for me best malaysian food is served in Banana leaf,Milpitas. I have tried lot of items offered in their Menu and thoroughly enjoyed their food. When Anjappar opened its first branch in 2008 a bunch of us were invited to test the food and provide feedback. This was like giving money to eat sugarcane case !! I provided mine and guess what owner called us second time to again test the dishes after taking the suggestions into account. Since then this Anjappar next to one of Cisco's building has been a constant one in my list of places to eat. Now coming to a road called 'El Camino Real' ..Omg ...if you visit this road you wouldn't know whether you are in Biz bazaar street or California ....Madisar mamis, Panchakacham mamas talking about their lazy Daughter in laws, Balram Naidu and Reddy garu talking about their hardworking Son in law so on and so forth. I got to a point where I knew what menu items were available in Madras Cafe; Komala vilas a typical brahmin type of lunch served as per schedule (each day they have a fixed menu like Monday - Potato poriyal, Tuesday - XXX) is another restaurant I enjoy. Aapa Kadai is one restaurant served in two places on the same road - one in Sunyvale and another in Santa Clara - since I visit both the places often I knew how sweet is the milk served for Aapam in both the places. Since I take United nonstop flight from DC to SFO I don't get to enjoy my breakfast so my Lunch on Monday's is usually at Ananda Bhavan and I take the 10.5$ lunch which is ideal to eat at the same time work post lunch versus the grand lunch served where we can build paathis and carry irrigation in the plantain leaves. Likewise there is Indian pastry shop, places where you have have Indian sweets, sugarcane juices, Indian chat shop etc., If you visit Nameste Plazas in Bay area you will realize how men take care of kids at the same time how good in buying groceries. Swathi Tiffin is one place where I used to hangout often since it was very close to the Applied. The 1$ masala tea is a great one to quickly refresh yourselves and food is good over there and televisions screening Telugu programs in non stop manner just shows USA stands for United states of Andhra pradesh. There is Saravana Bhavan, Sangeethas, Pesarattu (andhra meals) and Madurai idli kadai all of which I visit often especially Madurai Idli Kadai since it was geographically closer to where I worked. I promise idlies are softer than cotton buds and literally melt in your mouth. Actually some of these restaurants I developed a rapport with the management/staff in such a way that I was wondering whether I should send them friend requests. 

Movies, Entertainment and Bay Area

Since Bay area has got a sizeable Indian population we have celebrities who come directly to Bay Area for the weekend, do a show and leave back to India right away. Pretty much every weekend you will have some concerts, music shows, stage drahmas, stand up comedies happening and will never make you miss Home. There is one theatre called Towne 3 cinemas closer to the SAP convention center which is truly a fan's corner. All the videos which people see before Thalaivar movie - fun and euphoria which fans rejoice are from this theatre. Theatre gives full freedom to fans to celebrate the occasion before movie release of superstars like Thalaivar, Mahesh Babu, Chiranjeevi, Pawan Kalyan, Allu Arjun etc., Cutting cakes, throwing paper, music, cutouts, posters, train rally all can be witnessed in this theatre. Though Theatre may look ancient and outdated for current times it is camaraderie between fans and theatre management makes this a great choice for movie buffs to come. Probably this is one theatre where I must have watched maximum number of movies in USA. I still remember seeing movies like Vellai illa Patathari  with a crazy crowd .....On one instance when I went for watching Kaaki sattai a friend of mine came with his expecting wife and asked him when is the baby due? He said it is pretty much time and she may go to labor anytime ..I wondered they may even go from Cinema theatre to Operation theatre. 

  On the east coast of US I have tons of friends and great memories and on west side basically the Bay Area I just love the place by itself. By writing this blog I was able to reminiscence some of my experience with Bay Area. 

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