ROMANCING MOSQUITOES: THE INDIAN WAY

The writer is an amateur blogger. While the writer’s close aides (which only include his wife & 1.5 year old kid) celebrate his writing, his friends get infuriated for calling him a ‘writer’. One of the writer’s biggest contributions is the evolution of the phrase ‘bathroom writer’ (meaning in close proximity to ‘bathroom singer’). Through this blog ‘Romancing Mosquitoes, the Indian way’ the writer drives away the point of how the Indian system, people, to be precise, get induced by innumerable ‘groups’, who despite political will, act like termites in depriving the basic standard of living to this society.

As forced upon every writer in this democracy, this blog also has its usual disclaimer that, this in no 
way harms or disrespects any human.

Dedicated to those mosquitoes which pricked me yesterday. If not for those mosquitoes, I might not have written this.

When the campaigns for the local body election started heating up, the contestants were geared up with promises each running into several pages. Few of them still believed in the time tested ‘free’ clothing scheme, but people have become rich enough to take care of their clothing need from “Saravana stores”. Election promises were typically no-brainers and neither the contestant nor the people really care about the feasibility of delivering such promises. Most of us love fantasy, after all this is the ‘Land of Rajnikanth’.

Finally, here was the man who quenched this thirst. He brought them to the edge. Heads turned, Jaws dropped, and hands went up in the air. People removed their dhotis and waved which was a symbol of extreme joy!!! It was at this moment, he knew for sure that he has hit the bull’s eye. It was one of the real, common and perennial problems many middle & lower class people were facing. The man did not even think for a while that delivering this promise was actually going to be a mammoth task. He was distinguished and renowned overnight in the locality as “Kosukolli Kangeyan”. (In simple translation, it means ‘mosquito killer’ kangeyan. The word Kangeyan denotes ‘bull’ which symbolizes manliness). The promise he gave was to ‘abolish mosquitoes’ in the area!

A month later….. ‘Kosukolli Kangeyan’ is now the area’s ward member. It was time to deliver his promise. He called the local ward council meeting. From his ward fund allocation, he ordered massive ‘fogging’ operation. This fogging operation was so intense, so much so, through the satellite images of NASA, US could have even shot an email to India about India hiding a weapon of mass destruction in its southern province. Along with fogging operations, the ward counselor even distributed free ‘All Out’ and ‘Odomos’ creams. Having sacrificed his studies at the age of 10, this free ‘All Out’ scheme itself was path breaking as per Indian political standards & lauded by his party men as visionary.  All these efforts, though temporary, started showing quick results and as a result, the population of man- biting mosquitoes came down drastically.

But our ‘Kangeyan’ did not anticipate problems coming from a different way. The local area ‘Green panel’ division sued him. Reason, ‘Mass destruction of mosquitoes’ could lead to huge ecological imbalance as there would not be any prey for mosquito predators. Also, thousands of plant species would lose a group of pollinators. They organized mass camps and distributed ‘mosquito badges ‘and pamphlets to people about the possibility of another ‘Tsunami’. Soon, a group of NGOs, from HNIs and NRIs living in the US started funding these initiatives and they marched on the shores of “Coromandal” with billboards saying ‘Kill Kosukolli; We love mosquitoes’. People even started tattooing mosquitoes. With beautiful gals all dressed up in chic T shirts and skinny jeans, parking their BMWs & joining this march, the media too opened their slot for this stupendous cause to raise their TRPs. This is the same panel which stopped the ‘Elevated expressway’ project citing ecological imbalance. These panel refuse to accept that this world’s greatest metropolises are ‘port cities’ having their biggest physical infrastructure only along the coastlines. This is the same group which stopped another ‘road project’ since it affected the free flow of a river called ‘Cooum’. Anyone native of this place know, what river ‘Cooum’ symbolize.

Our man who has politics running in his DNA know very well that all these glitz and glamour of these green panel would die once the ad agencies stop sponsoring to these media(s). But the problem took a different twist. The opposition party which till sometime was keeping silence started brainwashing the fishermen community which is the biggest vote bank in the area. They brought in a name called Mr. John Addicott, who according to them was  a researcher in University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada. Indians has lot of belief & trust on foreigners, due to the slavery & inferiority feeling injected by our rulers several decades before. That is why all the DPRs, feasibility reports for our government projects also were done by firms like Wilbur Smith, JLL etc as though there is death of talent here. Even real estate companies sell housing units by quoting some tongue twisting names calling them as their ‘principal’ architects.

Now, coming back to John Addicott: The opposition went on with a massive campaign that killing mosquitoes would actually affect the livelihood of thousands of fishermen as it would kill their daily yield of fishes. As per the research, Mosquito larvae makeup substantial biomass in aquatic ecosystem and remain as a great feed for several kinds of fishes. Our political parties knew very well how to use the ignorance of the people. In our democracy, the beneficiaries of government/ scheme never ever gather and voice their views. Whereas, the affected people if they have a strong influential political connections can go any miles to show their strength to give a myth that they outnumber the beneficiaries. In the course, they even influence the policy makers.

Come today: This ward remains the highest producer of mosquito larvae at the same time boasting highest consumerism in ‘All out’ and ‘Odomos’ sales. Our ‘Kosukolli Kangeyam’ though lost his adjective, still survives by distributing free dhotis and sarees. The ‘Men in yellow’ outside the ground, appear in ‘Yellow fever’ awareness programs.

- Hari

MANGO PEOPLE IN BANANA DEMOCRACY:

Note for the readers:

The characters and situations used are imaginative. It is not intended to harm or provoke anyone. Reading this article is at reader’s risk. Neither the so called ‘writer’ nor Microsoft shall be responsible for any dire consequences.

The content is not copyrighted. You can reproduce this in any form in whatever media but do not use any name.

Cigarette smoking is injurious to others health. Be responsible and do not create nuisance. Your democracy ends at other’s nose. 

Thanks to: Anu, Ishara, my friends, YOU, Microsoft and Indian democracy

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PROLOGUE:

Finally, after fighting out few missiles when I was about to breath sign of relief, 2 cops ran towards my car from one corner of the road asking me to stop. The last time I saw cops running like this, was during 26/11 attack, when the terrorists took the car post their attack on Mumbai CST. I salute such heroic act but….why did they do that to me?   L...........

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It was already late to office. I never anticipated that the government would suddenly wake up one day to dig the entire street for the storm water drainage which was approved 2 years back. Negotiating all those 90 degrees curves, greeted by the cows & dogs on the road, honked by the fellow ‘frustrates’ (I mean my companion on the road that day) it took good 15 minutes to reach the main road which was indeed frustrating. It was’ nt easy after that either. A well known God’s spokesperson visited the neighborhood and people from nearby hamlets thronged to see him. The venue chosen was a roadside temple so that the spillover crowd could use the tarmac highway to wash their sins. May be due to recession and consequent retrenchment, the government citing shortage of police, deployed only two constables who were spinning their ‘lathi’ in the air as if it was a magical wand that can help them to manage the crowd in the peak hour traffic. There was car- people conflict with some people keeping their tongue out, looking at the car drivers so ferociously. Little do they realize that the ‘sacred’ place they chose for their ritual was meant for some other purpose! Driving the car we buy with our hard earned money (many times borrowed money) is like running on the battle field. The missiles can come in any form. Sometimes it takes the form of a motorist who wish to perform all his daredevil acts on public road; Sometimes as jay walkers who jump over the median and walk on the middle of the road like buffaloes gazing on the field; Sometimes as radio cabs who come closer to you and threaten to dash you if you don’t give sides.

Finally, after fighting out few missiles when I was about to breath sign of relief, 2 cops ran towards my car from one corner of the road asking me to stop. The last time I saw cops running like this, was during 26/11 attack, when the terrorists took the car post their attack on Mumbai CST. I salute such heroic act but….why did they do that to me? That too, when the vehicles were making beeline before signal and every driver turned environmentalists murmuring ‘Go Green’!

‘Hey it’s tinted glasses. It’s contempt of court. (Cauvery verdict and hanging Afsal Guru are minor cases of contempt, I suppose) Pay Rs. 300 or you will be produced in the court’. The angry traffic cop pronounced. ‘It was not complete tinted glass. It has 60% visibility. You can check that’. The traffic cop became furious and started arguing. After some 5 minutes of argument, we reached for the ‘out of court’ settlement and I got 50% discount on the penalty without receipt. The cops were also happy and must be thanking the judiciary. When it comes to strict implementation of laws on small time offenders, our cops stand next to none.  

When I was going in the multi level park ramps, my mind was thinking about the misplaced priorities of the government. A procession was granted without adequate protection that too on peak hours. Cops were asked to manage the ever increasing traffic without any long sighted vision from the government and planners to improve public transportation. All that the cop can do is to increase the ‘waiting time’ in the signal and create new ‘one ways’.  Road accidents take more life than terror attacks in India. The working middle class who are responsible for the huge upswing of India’s economy spends significant, precious amount of time on roads, but finding the solution for the urban chaos is never the government’s priority. This is not as big as border issue, water dispute and Telegana which cannot be solved.

On the other hand, the citizens of India, has misplaced tolerance limits. They tolerate everything and anything that affects their daily life like grass root corruption in public services, poor physical infrastructure, bad civic amenities but never tolerate even a slightest provocation on their religious/communal quotients, even if it is well within the definition of ‘freedom of expression’. The British Raj introduced ‘divide and rule’ and we are still divided and ruled. Atleast those days, the rulers were intelligent, educated and little sensible. It’s this, misplaced tolerance of the ‘common’ man aka middle class, the politicians use for their advantage. They swindle the money meant for development and come to our streets to distribute ‘biryanis’; They call the country as ‘secular’ but never ever allow the country to become truly liberal and secular sans religion. India with its division, caste based reservation system, reserved constituencies is what they want. That’s the definition of ‘secularism’.

I reached my work station and the headlines evoked my curiosity. It read, “Suggestion to decongest choked cities; introduce congestion tax”. The biggest copycats are our babus and netas who simply copy laws from the west without bothering to do any ground work. Take for instance, London. (From where this concept of congestion tax is copied, I guess). The first metro network in London was commissioned in 1863. 100 years later London government proposed congestion tax to decongest ‘central London’ the CBD area of Greater London. Post several debates and protests, it was finally introduced only in early 2000. This means, after putting in place an efficient public transportation system like metro and improving the ‘last mile connectivity’ the Britain government introduced the congestion tax to dissuade private vehicles from roads. As against this, the first metro in India was introduced in Delhi only in 2002 and still there are many black spots in the city which was not covered by metro. Cities like Chennai are yet to see metro and some confused bureaucrats still keep arguing which public transportation (Metro or Mono) is best suitable for Indian cities. Whether it was the old dynasty rule by our kings or the present ‘modern’ (?)  dynasty rule in the name of democracy, Indians always pioneer in discovering new form of taxes and go on with the tradition of ‘minting spree’, the hard earned money of the common man. Anyways, we have income tax, service tax, wealth tax, education tax, health tax, road tax, property tax, excise duty, customs duty, state level sales tax, central level sales tax and other whole list of holistic hidden taxes. These congestion taxes are never going to deter our enthusiasm for holding candles and protesting near India gate, the only thing which we could do for holding the Indian passport!!!! Happy republic day guys!!!

- Hari

The Day that wasn’t: The day café coffee day arrived

Bangalore/Chennai: Upro, one of India’s largest IT service provider has announced the launch of the ‘coffee vending machine’ in all its pantries, starting today. Speaking on this occasion, the Chief administrator oppicer Mr. PRK said, “We are very happy and pleased to announce the coffee vending machines in all our pantries. This shows Upro’s aggressiveness and commitment to pro-employee policies which establishes Upro as market leader and one of the greatest innovators in present times”. When quizzed about the rumors that these machines were delivered to Upro free of cost, Mr. PRK said, “We will not comment on market speculations”. Mr. VRao, country head, Coffee day pantry services, reached the dais holding the plastic cup filled with the coffee & said, “It’s a proud moment for us. We are here for a long term strategic relationship with Upro.” When talking about the non linear growth of Coffee day he said, “We have a great growth potential. Since the employee of Upro slog for more hours in office the growth of our coffee sales is not linear to the employee growth in Upro”. Mr. Madhu, Upro’s Chief employee procurement and maintenance oppicer said, “The presence of coffee vending machine has already started showing the results. The morale levels of our employees has already grown by 50 to 75 basis points when compared to last quarter, thus giving us a 0.25% sequential growth. These results are available in the website of Gartner, the country’s largest paid survey company”.

Bring your own Coffee seeds:
Mr. PRK unveiled the new policy known as ‘Bring your own coffee seeds’. On a medium to long term perspective, the macroeconomic levels in EU is bright and hence the employee will be able to afford to bring their own coffee seeds.

One of the employee of Upro, on condition of anonymity said that these machines were given to Upro on DBOT basis (Design, build, operate & transfer). He further complained that the milk has been procured at throw away prices due to change in the pattern of discretionary spending by the customer in developed markets and hence these gives a distinct stint. The top management of Upro is not reachable for the comments
Source: Reuters/Bloomberg/TOI/ET/The Hindu/Vijay Karnataka/Dinakaran/EEnadu/Unnadu

Old Mahabalipuram Road (IT Corridor) Born 2001; Died 2011;

A letter to the honorable Chief Minister

Dear Madam,
As an IT employee and a responsible citizen I would like to bring the condition of the ‘IT corridor’ (OMR or Rajiv Gandhi Salai) to your kind attention. Your announcement about the phase 2 of IT corridor between Siruseri and Mahabalipuram has brought in lot of cheers but little was the realization that the phase 1 of this road is still far from over. This road though conceived in 2001 was completely only in 2008 post several cost revisions and escalations. But 3 years after the inauguration of the main carriageway the service lane under the phase 1 is still not complete. The problems due to non completion of service lane are as follows:

1. Due to non completion of service lanes, the 3rd lane on either side of this road is occupied by vehicles for parking. This leaves just 2 lanes on either side & this affects the free flow of traffic.



2. There are no pedestrian paths and no there are no bus stops/bays. Commuters have to stand on the road under the sun and when it rains it becomes all the more difficult.



3. Due to non availability of storm water drainage along the service lanes, there are water logging problems. There was heavy flooding in Semmencherry just outside the Tata Consultancy office (TCS) and Thoraipakkam areas due to recent heavy showers.



4. Vehicles wanting to use service lanes use main carriage way and come in opposite direction.


5. The IT companies on this road employ around 1.25 lac employees however these companies depends upon water tanker lorries to meet the daily drinking water requirement. In the year 2010 when tanker lorries stopped supplying water for some time, few companies even shuttered their doors and evoked DRP (Disaster recovery plan). The then Deputy Chief minister Mr. Stalin promised to complete the metro water pipeline along the service lane by December 2010 but there was literally no progress after that.
   
   There seems to be no co-ordination between metro water, CWSSB, TNRDC and the local panchayats for completion of service lanes as they keep blaming each other for the delay in construction. TNRDC cancelled the contractor few times in the past citing design faults but every time the new contractor comes, there is no change in the speed of execution.
   

Apart from the issues concerning service lanes, there are other problems plaguing IT corridor which needs your immediate attention:
1. Cattles day out: Cows, buffaloes, goats and dogs has a free run in the IT corridor. These animals sleep, gaze on this road, sometimes jump over the median. If unchecked, a disaster is sure waiting to happen. The stretch between Sholinganallur and Siruseri is the most vulnerable.
2. IT corridor touches lot of village panchayats. The road is not properly cleaned and there are large amount of garbage lying around, along this road. The heaps of garbage on the one of the most prestigious road not only create a health hazard but also create a third world look among the investor community.
3. The five flyovers/grade separators announced in the assembly never took off. It takes nearly 20 minutes to cross the Sholinganallur junction during peak hours. Similar is the case in Tidel park junction, MGR salai junction etc. It’s all the more surprising to note about the non inclusion of this corridor in the monorail & metro rail plan.
4. The interior roads branching out of OMR/IT corridor is in very bad shape. Formation of IT corridor ensured horizontal growth but these developments were not supported or backed up by proportionate infrastructure development in the suburbs. When Chennai city got expanded the places beyond Semmencherry like Navalur, Siruseri, Padur were not included in the city limit surprisingly.
5. There is no clear lane marking on the carriage way & there is no lane discipline followed. More policing and better traffic monitoring will ensure people follow lane discipline and don’t jump signal.

I have great respect and trust on your government and your administrative style. Since this road is your brain child, I believe some action will be taken on war footing basis. Tamilnadu do not require any more IT policy as it has already established itself in the IT industry. The completion of this corridor and proper maintenance will influence the investor fraternity and this road can act catalyst for all future developments. Our government’s commitment to physical infrastructure will automatically ensure all around development.

My City, My woes

Filter coffee & Unfiltered Marghazi Raagam, Raucous Yellow auto & eco savvy Temple cars, teeming Ranganathan street & Sumptuous express avenue , Lungi clad roadside Romeos & Waist tapping laptop techies, Bharatanatiyam & Duppakuthu Vathiyam, Saravana Bhavan & Kaiendhi bhavan, Marina beach & Larger than life Rajnikanth’s reach, green medians & Kollywood comedians ,wall murals & roadside urinals , River Cooum & its queasiness aroma, white & white dark complexioned politicians, Satyam cinemas, Mount road and last but not the least Captain Dhoni’s super kings. Well, im talking about things that are synonyms of Chennai, my home town. Chennai is India’s fourth largest metro, third best city to live, 9th city in world’s top 10 investment destination and second most competitive city in India. These are facts that a Chief Minister or Mayor or bureaucrat can boast of. As a normal resident of this city, there are the things that I would really look forward for a change:

The Graffiti and poster menace: The cheapest and easiest form of advertising is here to stay despite the official ban. If your house is on a busy street or main road, you don’t need to paint your wall. Even if you do, it will eventually become the ruling party’s manifesto depicting their leaders face like lion, beer, buffalo etc. This craziness can be best appreciated when you see important signage or sign boards in city eaten up by these posters. The Adult movie posters on temples, funeral or death notice on the hospital compound walls are just a tip of the iceberg.
Dual identity: Chennai is a city which can even confuse a navigator or google earth or some of mankind’s best innovation in navigation space. All major roads carry an English name & a Tamil name. Instance, Mount road is also known as Anna salai. Mt Poonamalle road is also known as EVR Periyar Salai. There is more than one MGR road in the city. Similarly there are multiple roads named after Mahatma Gandhi. When Ms. Jayalalitha comes to power, Kalaignar nagar is abbreviated to ‘KK Nagar’. When Mr. Karunanidhi is in power, the original name (ie Kalaignar nagar) is restored.
Even houses have 2 door numbers. Each house has an old number and a new number. It’s easier to find a house using a landmark than finding it using the door number.

A true democracy: In a democratic country like India, everyone has right to live. Mosquitoes, Rats and Olive Ridley Turtles are inhabitants for ages ever since Chennai (then Madras) was formed. The Cooum river which is Asia’s biggest (perhaps World’s biggest) open drainage runs across the city and provides a perfect breeding ground for mosquitoes and rats. Whenever the politicians feel the pinch of inflation, they start the Cooum river cleaning project to fill their wallets. As long as the sludge in our political system remains, river Cooum will never be clean and green.
The Olive Ridley Turtle is something unique to Chennai. Recently some of the activists and fishermen halted a beachside elevated road project as they claimed it would endanger Olive Ridley Turtles. Not sure whether their environmental impact report also considered the fuel wastage & pollution caused by the vehicles struck up in traffic. The fishermen, who kill fishes to make their living, acting as if they are fish’s natural predators, also opposed this elevated project which was finally shelved by the government.

The big social divide: While it is exciting to see huge commercial complexes and skyscrapers dotting the city’s landscape it is equally important that the growth is inclusive and takes into account the local community along the growth corridors as well. Else the roads like OMR, GST will see huge slums (like Mumbai’s Dharavi) in the years to come. A drunken man urinating before a IT company, men chasing buffalos under hot sun in the middle of IT corridor, an aged person picking up plastic covers from the garbage bins establishes these well known hard truth.

Chennai lack those lakes: When it rains, the city roads become more viable for water transportation. For a second, you would think you were in Alleppey. This rain water gets polluted and drained to sea. Using the desalination plant the sea water is converted back to drinking water. While the government made rain water harvesting mandatory for all buildings, the planners failed to notice the natural rain water harvesters, which are our lakes, being neglected & converted to housing units. The present day Nungambakkam and T.Nagar areas were once lakes. My office stands on a place which was once part of the Pallikaranai Marshland.

The Auto menace: One of my north Indian friends visited Chennai. Stepping out from the Central railway station he approached an auto and asked him ‘Can you please take me for a ride?’ He realized that the auto guy really took him for a ride when he demanded 200 rs for an 8 km ride. The auto guy’s tradition of fleecing the passengers’ dates back to Stone Age and they never change. If Chennai is called Gateway of South India, this looting starts right at the gate. Does this say ‘Get-away of South India?’

Planners day out: Chennai started growing only after British established the East India company here. The present “Beach to Tambaram” EMU rail line which is Chennai’s lifeline was planned and constructed by British. When it was inaugurated in 1931 it was considered too futuristic. The British determined how the city should grow and the city exactly grew along this corridor. Today, after 76 years when we are implementing the Metro, the city has already grown by leaps and bounds & this is being laid through the most congested localities of Chennai. Planning is always a thing of past in Chennai.

And, Chennaites: There are active and passive citizens of Chennai. The actives are ones who gets their hands dirty and raise themselves against these civic, social & environmental issues. Perhaps the reason they are called as Activists. The passive are ones who don’t bother to care for their city or restrict themselves to blogs. They can be called egotistic. Unfortunately 99% of Chennai’s population falls under the second category!!!

- Hari

Walking thro: Life with Anu

After 5 days of meticulous planning, it happens every weekend. If we work upon one thing, another problem crops up. Oh my God, is my life going to be like this throughout? This weekend, we fought badly on who should clean the wardrobe? It was her wardrobe and she could have maintained it well. Why did she put her trousers in the Saree holder? The moment I started cleaning, I started unearthing useless treasures. What is the use of keeping the wrapper of chocolate I gifted 4 years ago, when there was no sweetness now? I stepped out and got into my car. I ignited the engine & turned off my mobile. I drove like crazy through the roads of Chennai. The car went through the Nungambakkam high road, R.K. Salai. Our CA institute is located in Nungambakkam high road. When I crossed ‘Café Coffee Day’ in Isphahani centre, ‘Sridhar & Santhanam office’ (where I did my CA articleship) my mind started recollecting the old memories. Like it happens in most of the Tamil movies, the images before me blurred, helping my mind to walk thro’ the past.

The first decade of my life went without making any mark as I hardly remember my childhood days. The second decade was flat with not much of happenings, I was neither bright nor a back bencher. The end of second decade or the earlier 20s was similar to a roller coaster ride with excitement lasting only for a nano second while boredom lasted more than the time I asked for. I was away from my parents and had to take care myself. This sudden independence hit me hard and I struggled to overcome the emotions. Studies were no longer a cake walk and Peer pressure only led to blood pressure. I failed in my professional degree and diagnosed with severe kidney infection in the year 2004. I did not want to wander around this planet as a loser & questions about the reason of my existence was heard within. The future looked bleak as I was confident that things would only get worse.

It was at this time, I met a gal in the office where I did my CA articleship. It was August 2004 but believe me I forgot the exact date of re-birth. She joined our office as an article clerk. It was my ‘Crush at first site’. I went around my office to take some water or carry loads of file in an effort to get the glimpse of her beauty but she was deeply engrossed in ‘Sherlock Homes’. As a teenager I dreamt of a gal who could look modern at the same time traditional. She perfectly fitted the bill. I did not want to get the impression as ‘flirt’ in my first meeting itself which really held me back from proceeding further.

All article clerks stationed in Chennai for audits should attend the Saturday class in our CA firm, but the real reason for many was to meet & greet our fellow colleagues. These Saturday classes acted as a perfect stage for introducing the new joinees & in one such class I was introduced to this gal. ‘Hi. My Name is Anusha, what’s yours?’ was the question from her. I did not forget my name but took time to respond as my mind concatenated both our names. There were some arms length dialogues but soon we dispersed. My friends started realizing the sudden change in my behavior as I became a regular attendee for these Saturday classes. My eyes even glued to some of the all time ‘Mokkai’ romantic scenes in the Tamil movies.

Months rolled, vehicles went for service and I grew in size, thanks to all those ‘OC Saapadu’ provided by the clients. But nothing progressed on Anusha’s side except for the meetings during Saturday classes. The one major problem with Anusha is that she gets friends in seconds and before you realize that she starts talking about things showing decades of familiarity. During this time, I also noticed another junior article clerk becoming more and more close to her. Their private chats near our office staircase, exchange of foods, pleasantries made me fuming. There were times when we had ‘one on one’ but several such meetings went without making any impact or impression.

I had a friend in my articleship firm whom we call as ‘Gossip Galore’. He is a creator and disseminator of gossips. The funny part is that he extracts information from people as a trustworthy friend but duly pass on that information to others with a ‘confidentiality’ tag. People throng him for the latest gossips so was I. I came to know a lot of ‘not so good’ things about Anusha’s friend, some of them might not be true also. It seemed that he commented about Anusha’s duck walk style, flirting nature, immaturity etc but it deeply affected me. I was not bad enough to let Anusha know about these as I did not want to take the shortest and cheapest route to woo her.

This is when I got a chance to meet her in our head office in R.K. Salai. I was working on an audit report and she came to hand over her audit files. Resting those butterflies in my abdomen, I began the conversation. This conversation starting from Reception, extended to the lobby, staircase and finally till the parking lot. From work related issues, the conversation slowly went onto discuss about friends and in this course I learnt that Anusha was really sad about her friend distancing him from her with an indifference behavior. I should say that it was not a well planned conversation but something forced me to tell about all those gossips & comments which I heard about her through my friend. Thinking myself as a caretaker, I was gracious enough to shower her with my advices. I asked Anusha to be careful with such “wrong (?)” friendships, driving a point that I can be a trustworthy friend. Anusha was certainly impressed and with a twinkle in her eyes she acknowledged my advices. When she moved her vehicle from the parking lot I was sure that she was moved. This meeting was a milestone in our relationship. I was elevated as her ‘Best Friend’ from just being a ‘friend’ (which she had in dozens).

We started losing our self in each other’s company. The free SMSs for the day were exhausted within hours. Since I was senior to her, I made sure that I help in her office work. The best friend category is the most confusing relationship category as it falls between ‘Friend’ and ‘Love’. She called me one day to her client office which was in Spencer Plaza and gave her diary. I went to her house once to give my company law notes and she introduced me to her mom. She used to make surprise visits to my client office to meet me. We used to talk about office, CA exams/test papers, family, food, dress etc but we never fail to suffix one word in all our messages. Our messages used to end with a bolded word ‘Friend’, may be an effort to fence ourselves. For me who took the relationship till this level, the reality suddenly started to hurt. I was still doing my CA final, having a huge responsibility to take care of my family which includes my physically challenged sister. My family is a Brahmin Iyer family and is very conservative. Love marriages are a big NO and I always had a ‘Dad-phobia’.

I was neither able to break this relationship nor wanted to continue. I used to take pledge on each morning not to message Anusha and those promises were found broken on the very next moment I get a message from her.

My Vizag trip was the next milestone in our relationship. Some say ‘Distance connects people’. It happened in my life too. I was asked to go to ‘Taj Vizagapatnam’ for an internal audit. I have been to this place earlier during my first year articleship with Praveena (whom I regard as my mentor) and I just loved the experience. This time, when I was asked to go, I was not enthralled, the one and only reason being Anusha. I told her not to message me as I had to incur huge roaming charges. She did not appreciate it but since I had to pay for my mobile bills from my stipend money of Rs. 675 per month, she had to agree to my request. I left Chennai with a heavy heart and a swollen throat. One day, Anusha had an accident. When she was returning from her client office, she fell into an open drainage. Her left leg got struck and she was pulled from it by the bystanders. I was apprehensive for the whole day and was getting hour by hour update from her. Several years later, when Anusha told me that this particular incident and my gesture made a huge impact, all I could do was to thank the Chennai corporation drainage workers. :)

This was December 2005, ie 5 months of our relationship as “best friends”. Meeting Anusha in the morning and evening was my regular routine. This apart, we use to meet each other in our client offices. I bought a new two wheeler. I discovered the world with Anusha in my ‘Discover’ bike. From Nungambakkam to Villivakkam, from Marina to Elliotts, with her I felt the distance has shrunk. The ‘Café Coffee Day’ in Ispahani Centre used to be the famous hangout in Chennai those times. She was little hesitant when I called her for a coffee but finally accepted it after minutes of persuasion. She followed me in her scooter and I was showing all those road signs I learnt in my driving school to impress her with my road sense. In the coffee shop, she clicked me in her mobile cam to check the camera clarity but I understood the real intention. Even today when I see the ‘Café Nirvana’ in the CCD menu, I recollect those old good times.

We both realized that we were not just ‘friends’. Starring at her constantly, holding her hand, touching her feet, tell me in which planet a ‘best friend’ would do? Proposing to her was the natural progression & it happened on midnight of 24th December 2005. These were the messages:
Anusha: Where are we leading to?
Me: I did not understand your question
Anusha: Where are we leading to??
Me: You know, Harish Bhattad asked me if we are in love
Anusha: What did you respond?
Me: I did not respond
Anusha: What will you respond if I ask you this?
Anusha: Hello??
Me: To some extent, YES
After this, there was no response from her for an hour. She (Bluddi women!!) told me months later that she was checking it with Veena (her best friend) on what to respond. She asked me to meet her in ‘Hot Breads’ the next day afternoon. She did not say ‘yes’ and did not say ‘No’. But these are all enough hints that she is in love. I celebrated it yet took several efforts to make her to say that explicitly.

Over to Aug 2011: There was a huge gathering near Gandhi statue in Marina. People were holding the flag and protesting for the government proposed Lokpal bill. Their slogans woke me up mentally, from the deep slumber. Is that Anu in a white dress standing near the light house, messaging someone? She must be messaging me as im really late today. No, no that’s not possible. She is at my home. I fought with her and came here. I switched off my mobile too, how rude?! She must be really upset. I switched on my mobile.
Anu (that’s how I call her now): Where are we leading to?
Me: I did not understand your question
Anu: Where are we leading to??
Me: You know what, I asked myself today if we are in love still
Anu: So what’s your answer?
Anu: What will you respond if I ask you this? To some extent YES?
Me: Im crazy about you Anu. It’s been 4.5 of years of life with you. There were several ups and downs. But who said, “Nothing is constant except change”. I took a U turn and no one is stopping me now. Life is in full throttle!!!

- Hari

SIZE ZERO: what not to do for weight reduction?

All work and no play made my friend Srini an obese boy. Coming from a small town in Tamilnad, he was extremely dedicated, thin but well built. An excessive dose of socializing with friends, recently found obsession with junk foods and an ever changing bio from IST to GMT to EST took a toll on his health.

He likes to walk but his wake up time which varies anytime between 6 in the morning and 3 in the evening screws up his schedule. He wants to diet but beyond 9PM there are no diet burgers & pizzas available in the cafeteria. He went to gym but being a couch potato in the treadmill he attracted lot of eyeballs and this enhanced attention kept him away from it. He bought a Sauna Belt for Rs. 2999 after spending 2 hours in an online auction. But the effect of the Sauna belt on his tummy was such that he slept a whole night without switching off the belt & the next day it was charred beyond recognition without burning his calories. He subscribed to a weight reduction program in a slimming clinic burning his pocket. He realized that it was ‘Very Limited Calorie Cut’ clinic only after months of stopover.

The transformation from ‘sexy’ Srini to ‘Sizeable’ Srini affected his morale. His dating schedule went haywire & he was deceived by his gal friends. He was crossing the marriage cut-off date of 28 but his matrimonial page had least number of hits, that too unintentional ones! His concentration was affected which started showing up in his work performance. He started getting anxiety problems and soon a heap of health issues followed. Srini was soon shown the door!!

Welcome to new age life style disease called ‘obesity’. Increase in waist size? Some call it as ‘sign of prosperity’. Actually, it is a sign of ‘short term’ prosperity. Some of the finest form of art lost its importance due to mechanization ever since the Industrial revolution took place in Great Britain. The life style is refined and innovation results in more sophistication. Almost all the physical activities are now replaced by machines. This new found life style will be sustainable only if it is a healthy. There are easy ways for a healthy lifestyle such as workouts, dieting etc but the easiest way is to stay ‘Normal’. Srini walked on the treadmill for one kilometer while he took an ‘auto’ to reach his cab pickup point which is a stone throw away from his home. Srini lived in an air-conditioned apartment usually keeping his room dark watching the television all day but pop in to the ‘oxygen’ parlor twice a week. He put his bicycle in a scrap yard and got a pulsar only to start the cycling again in an AC gym. There is no quick way for weight reduction but there are easier ways to it.

.......................
So what’s Srini doing these days? He runs a consulting company & takes classes about ‘Myths in weight reduction’. The famous enrollment program which made him millionaire today is ‘What NOT to do for weight reduction!’

- Hari

The Fast and Furious

Advice always comes free. The older generation’s preaching always begins with ‘During my days’ or ‘When I was young’ kind of statements which is ridiculous, absurd and highly irritating. That’s because the days have changed and so is our lifestyle. Our standard of living has changed drastically and the present generation has several challenges to cope with, which were either non-existent or irrelevant that point in time. The most formidable issues are ‘communication’ and ‘commutation’.
We have 3G internet connections, WiFi and smartphones, so whats the problem with communication? My friend has registered his profile in a matrimonial website. He knows that bride hunting is the most difficult task currently, than job hunting. He uses his datacard and look for an update on a daily basis. The downloading speed is so high that he loses his potential/shortlisted bride before his computer contacts the server. The fact that Ratan Tata and Anil Ambani are playing the spoilsport on his engagement plan makes him fuming. My other friend uses ‘facebook’ extensively. So much so, he even kept his status message once which read as ‘My rectum problem and loose tools, sucks!’. He has his ardent followers and his facebook showed 3 of his friends liking his comments and one of them suggesting him to take some pills. He got a smartphone from an upmarket area in Chennai known as ‘Ritchie’ street for Rs. 6999. He is in depression and feels like ‘hanging’ everytime this Korean handset ‘hangs’ due to his multi-tasking exercise. But I have another friend who is not gadget guru but he is terribly worried on his monthly telephone bills. He just uses a simple basic mobile (May be 1G?) and looking at his mobile bills I asked him if he is looking someone? Then I came to know about this weird disease of making calls to Music channels and dedicating a song. This guy gets goosebumps everytime his voice is heard from his idiot box, but the chance of making it is as difficult as Grammy! Most of the time one will be in the queue which explains the reason for his skyrocketing mobile bills.
The other problem is commutation. We are all married to Indian roads as we spend most of our time on roads which is more than the time we spend at home. The traffic pattern on the particular morning will determine your rest of the day. On a busy weekday, my friend was first to hit the stop line when the signal tuned red in the ‘Tidel Park’ junction in Chennai’s OMR. He has greater responsibilities now as he has to speed up his car within a nano second once the signal turns green. The tension started building up and his blood started rushing out from his cardiac wall, as if a man waiting in a marathon. The time meter below the signal was showing 10 seconds (ie 10 seconds for the signal to turn green). He started accelerating and his foot was moving away from the clutch pedal. The signal turned ‘green’ and he released his clutch pedal when all the hell broke loose. His car stopped! ‘SHITTTTT’, he yelled at ‘Henry Ford’ and switched on his engines. When he attempted to release the clutch, the car stopped again, this time followed with huge honking from the vehicles behind him. One auto driver came near and started showing some signs with his face as horror as Malinga’s when he ‘throws’ his ball. The traffic cop from the other end came fast and gave his share of bad mouth. He reached office finally thinking about his bad day. When his laptop did not boot properly, he passed it nicely to his subordinate whose vehicle passed all signals successfully that day.
I stopped my car one day when the signal tuned ‘orange’. Bang! A call taxi hit me from behind and before I could react, he started shouting at me. The fault is ‘I stopped at the signal when it was only orange’ and this guy was coming at 100 kmph. The cop who intervened got Rs. 500 from the call taxi driver for overspeeding and Rs. 500 from me for not having the number plate in the rear side. (PS: The number plate was damaged only due to this incident or should I say accident?!)
So tell me guys! The next time you hear out from a grey hair about the today’s tech advantage and their olden golden age, will you recommend my blog?

- Hari

Students freak out

On a busy day when the place was buzzing with activity, a group of students joined to celebrate ‘Bus’ day, a mad idea in vogue only in Madras. The students hijacked the bus, forced the inmates to hop out, climbed over the roof and started dancing, singing all in presence of the police personnel. The driver of the bus was threatened at pen point not to accelerate. The traffic became haywire and came to standstill; Office goers, school kids, ambulance services, senior citizens were all at their mercy. I came to know that they were from nearby ‘Pachaiyappa college’ an institution dedicated for graduating rowdies. Only couple of days ago, these students joined their professors for a protest against the proposed metro station near their vicinity, as they feared destruction of green cover which they claim, are used for studying (!)

The ‘bus day’ is basically a thank giving day for the MTC buses which these students use free of cost to woo women, rag/tease people and do all kind of rubbish in the course of their graduation. In Karnataka the bus day is celebrated to encourage people to take public transportation, but here in Chennai, in the name of thanksgiving the seats of the buses are torn & window panes are broken, to give the loss making a MTC a real run for their money. ‘Your right to swing your fist ends where my nose begins’ is a famous quote. The nose cut and the bleeding mouth due to this barbaric act is nothing but the blow to this democracy.

God or Dog’s own country

My cousin married a Russian and visited Chennai. Our society, like our habit is very reluctant to ‘change’. It does not allow someone to be in his/her own way. A student who meticulously mugs up & scores 99.9% is appreciated while it looks down someone who fairs poor in studies & pursues his/her interest or ambition outside the school curriculum. School topper or college topper at the age of 16, a salaried job in a top notch IT company, arranged marriage at 26 years, own house & children at 30 years are some of the unwritten ‘standard operating’ model. A person departing from this model will occupy the hot seat of all speculations especially in family functions like marriages. Some of my cousin’s close relatives though initially not very happy about his love marriage started realizing the true essentials of a happy engagement which is (a) A boy and (b) A Gal. Religion, language, nationality etc is of no relevance and they are just ‘add ons’ to a married life.

We received her with a warm welcome. We showed her the glassy skyscrapers, grade separators, Air conditioned buses in Chennai. She in turn enquired more about the slums, cattle & people on the streets, may be, hangover from the Oscar winning movie which showed this country in grim, poor light. She asked me to describe the inequality in India in a nutshell. Im taking two scenarios to describe this which I could not do when she asked:

1. My friend Srinivas is not a happy man because of his kid ‘Adithya’ (‘H” silent). He checks his fortune driving his “Fortuner” at every sight of a petty shop in Navi Mumbai. Unfortunately, he could not find even a single ‘Air filling station’ for his kid’s bicycle. His earlier suggestion of a motorized cycle was turned down by ‘Adithya’. The plan B of tubeless tyres is yet to materialize. He lives in an integrated township which has Sauna, Jacuzzi, Spa, Acupunctured walkway, a multiplex, school, mall, tennis court, swimming pool but nothing satisfies ‘Adithya’, more than a joy ride in his cycle. Adding fuel to fire, his service lift often breaks down and Srinivas has to carry the cycle to 15th floor, which overlooks the sea. Though this may help Srinivas to bring down his BMI below 30, he is more than happy to pay Rs. 45,000 for a comprehensive weight reduction program in VLCC.
   
2. My maid’s neighbour VelMurugan is not a happy man. Not because his house, which his family was occupying for generations was bull dozed by the government to give way for a new ‘Multi Level Car Parking’. Not because he was relocated (of-course forcefully) to a place called ‘Semmencherry’, 30 kilometers away from his erstwhile house thus losing his job and livelihood. Not because of his wife who keeps complaining about the drunken men in their locality, poor sanitation, water & overflowing sewage, overshooting monthly family budget; It’s because of his one and only son ‘Tamil selvan’ (Read Tamil as Tamizh) who profusely cries as his old cycle tyre with which he plays is lost in the transit! Also he could not meet his old pals with whom he plays Gilli on the street overlooking the Cooum river!

For people like my cousin’s wife, the real estate development in India might sound weird. The real estate in India is more ‘investor’ driven rather than end user driven. (The government may even give tax exemptions for these real estate developers under SEZ provisions since they engage in rendering service outside India). The inclination towards foreign investors is perhaps the reason we find more Posh apartments and villas in a country where significant junk of the people are lower class or below poverty line. The government spends crores and crores of money in relocating people from slums to make India ‘slum free’. On the other hand due to migrations towards metropolis and lack of housing for these economically weaker sections, more slums are being formed.

The real ghost towns are not just in China but also in India. This is because in the so called new age ‘integrated townships’ the apartments are mostly vacant since the owner lives in developed country like US or Singapore and parking their deposits in developing country like ours. But for India’s facebook account if the status has to become ‘Developed’ all we need is an ‘inclusive’ REAL growth.

-

Hari

Endhiran- Titbits

From the desk of a KamalHassan Fan: The anxiety of watching the most hyped and most expected movie of the year “Endhiran- The Robot” the next day made that night sleepless. After watching the movie I was speechless. Each and every frame of this movie has been carefully crafted and with a whopping budget of 150 crores this movie has all ingredients to keep the cash registers ringing. Im not going to write a review but here is my ‘TAKE’ on this movie:

I never imagined a Rajni movie without punch dialogues & ‘Kuthu’ Pattu. This movie does not have single scene on the superstar’s mass image & star value. The superstar deserves a standing ovation for accepting a run of the mill character without giving a damn thought to his image. There is no introduction song & even the intro scene is straight forward!

This movie has raised the bar & sets new benchmarks. The younger heroes like Vijay, Ajith who are into image trap & fight for the superstar status by giving filthy ‘masala’ movies one after the other should take cue before they are thrashed down by the audience.

The theme is global. The director has purposefully avoided regional specific scenes. Prima facie, good commercial strategy! The location includes Marine drive, Bandra-worli sea link to give pan India feel.

The second half of the movie has too many animations & the CG on the climax goes little overboard. A little pruning would have done wonders.

The audiences were either engrossed in the movie or not in the position to take sides (Good Vs bad Rajni). Surprisingly they remained a silent spectator and within 5 minutes the whistle sounds subsided.

Rajni has performed some fabulous fights & the chitti dance song in which he dances like MJ are definitely a treat to eyes.

My friend told me that this movie is loosely based on ‘En Iniya Iyandira’ a famous fiction written by Sujata. But for the writer’s help Robert would have been a machine without battery. AR Rahman’s music won’t stand the test of time.

I spent 100 bucks for the 3 hour movie. Definitely price worthy. I will give thumps up with my punch ‘REPEATU’

Dot!

Go for IT or ‘GO’ for IT?

When I told that my neighbour was an IT commissioner, my friend was quick to ask, 'Wasn’t that a strange designation? I know Program manager, Team manager but how is this designation ‘commissioner’ going well with the customer?’ I clarified to him that ‘IT’ can also mean ‘Income tax’ and not just ‘Information technology’. Such is the power of IT (Henceforth mean only ‘Information Technology’) that every young Indian identifies the word with software companies.

I met my friend after a long time. The person who was once roaming around the ‘agraharams’ of Mylapore with a six yard dhoti was seen wearing a ‘Tommy Hilfiger’ T-shirt & a low waist jean. The boot actually weight lifted him by 3 inches with the Woodlands logo clearly visible. With the sign of prosperity - the tummy and a French beard he addressed me ‘Dude’. His transformation has been phenomenal & no wonder why every graduate wants to join an IT company, whatsoever his/her specialization is.

When Texas Instruments started in late 80s, no one would have guessed that the IT offshore market would cross $50Bn someday. Currently, 4% of our GDP & one fifth of our total exports are contributed by IT industry. Close to 2.5M Indians are employed in these companies, which translate to 1.25 crores direct dependency. (assumed for 1 earning member, there are 4 dependents). Over $12Bn of the total offshore revenue comes from BPO & going by the logic of $24K average realization per employee, the total dependent population of BPO comes to 26 lacs. When one talks about India’s growth story, the reference to IT/ITES is inevitable. The boom here propelled real estate, retail, tourism, automobile, travel/transportation, financial sectors thereby creating a multiplier effect.

This industry is growing but will India continue the momentum & retain its pie?
The US government has increased the Visa fee. Mr. Obama has started threatening the companies which are outsourcing jobs about the withdrawal of tax benefits. The Ohio government recently banned outsourcing. Though this may not have a significant financial impact in the short or medium term, one cannot rule out the psychological effect of these protectionist trends since US geography contributes more than 60% of Indian IT company’s revenues.

Only few years back the word ‘Bangalored’ meant job outsourced to India. That’s coz India remained the top outsourcing destination for the world. Today we have several countries like Brazil, Philippines, Mexico, and Vietnam which are giving stiff competition to India. Take for instance, China! The Communist government declared 20 destinations as outsourcing hubs & declared IT as their priority sector. Considering the aggressiveness the Chinese shows, we cannot really rest on the advantages which we naturally inherited like language, work culture etc. In a recent analysis, Gartner has mentioned that India’s share in outsourcing may reduce to 60% from the current 80 – 90%. Indian IT Company’s buzz word today is ‘Near shoring’. All major Indian IT biggies such as TCS, Infosys, Wipro, HCL already has near shore facilities in places like Atlanta, Romania, Polland where they are planning to recruit significant number of natives.

Leave alone the external factors, there are internal hiccups too;
(a) The cost of doing business in India is increasing!! The projected salary increase in India this year, as per Hewitt’s report, is 11.6%. Assuming, India continues the growth momentum for the next 15 years and assuming the salary increases around 10% YoY, in 12 years time we will not have any wage arbitrage between India & USA (On an assumption that US salary will increase by ~3% YoY during this period). In 3 years time, Philippines will become the preferred outsourcing destination than India. Though some may cry foul that the working population in India is much higher, the prospective or ready talent availability remains a challenge; thanks to our poor primary, secondary education & poorly implemented reservation policies. This again increases the hiring and training costs for the companies.

(b) The government is piggy backing on the removal of SEZ benefits citing irregularities (as though none of the other government schemes has).

(c) It is estimated that the total population in Indian cities by 2030 will be twice the size of USA. But still we do not know what ‘infrastructure’ means.

(d) We also have naxalism, terrorism, red tapism in abundance. Corporate scandals like the one happened in Satyam create a negative impression on our moral or ethical practices & integrity.

Are we approaching the dark or is it just a temporary cloud that’s …. Only time will tell what it holds for this sunrise sector. …..

Ever hoping,
Hari

Hop ON & Hop OFF in Chennai MTC

It was a usual day, usual office but unusually I decided to use the public transportation. It was not a bad idea, but due to the fact that I was forced to use it since my ‘high command’ took the car, I was rather infuriated. I was in office formals with a backpack. The images of jam packed chennai MTC buses, ‘open to sky’ bus stops, rusted seats traumatized me. The ‘Baby Nagar’ bus stop was just 10 mts walk from my apartment and the bus stop was, in reel sense, an excellent handwork of the state ‘Public works department’.

The MTC has introduced several AC VOLVO buses in major routes and I’m habituated to count the passengers inside these buses whenever I happen to see them. I saw a Volvo bus (Route 570 towards CMBT) approaching and I thanked my stars for saving me from an otherwise horrifying experience.

I got into the bus and to my surprise it was full, barely a seat or two left unoccupied. All the passengers had a quick look at me, not sure whether they do this profile screening on all boarding the bus. The conductor came to my seat (In Chennai, these people stick to their designated work place, usually near the exit gate & the passengers have the responsibility to collect the tickets) & addressed me ‘Sir’. Awe struck by his politeness, I physically controlled myself from falling off the seat. The window pane was huge and chennai looked really sexy through the lens of these Volvos. They played some nice melodies, sans those honking noise the journey was pleasant and refreshing!

Most of the Volvo patrons are youngsters who either lost themselves in ‘Iphone/Ipod ‘ or seen baffled with their gal friends. MTC should have done aggressive marketing of their AC services as an alternative for personal vehicles. They should fully utilize their ‘Global positioning system’ by providing the timetable through SMS or internet. Making them as Gen Y’s style symbol would have made these services a huge hit. The profits earned from these services can then be used to subsidize the ‘white board’ (normal) services.

I had to get down near ‘Race course’ junction since the bus took a detour from the ‘five furlong road’. The reality struck me immediately and I was completely drenched in sweat within minutes, thanks to the hot & humid climate. I trekked on the pavements. The air was filled with odor from the overflowing sewage, people were seen jumping, rowing on the stagnated pool. The ‘Kai Endhi Bavans’ (Road side food shops) were busy selling their ‘mid day Thali’ in the same vicinity. An auto driver was seen negotiating the rates from his prospective customer in his own style. One drunken man was crossing the road, swinging, cuddling his co-drunker. A group of middle aged people were coming out of ‘Guindy railway station’ most likely returning home after their shift.

This is India and this is Chennai. Behind the huge shopping malls and commercial skyscrapers there lies my society. This bus ride helped me to reconnect with my society. I travelled by foot thinking about what did I ever give back to my society. The reduction of carbon footprint on that day was the smallest contribution though!

Yours,
Hari

Ten Teething reasons why I should quit?

On a serious note, this has to be read with a ligheter vein

Interviews have become difficult to crack, I mean exit interviews. Thanks to acute talent crunch and ever increasing hiring and attrition costs, Indian companies are coming with divine ways to control attrition. Some of them give hefty salaries & provide stereotype targets with psychopath bosses. Some give moderate salary and provide the luxury of sitting on bench. (Few may not allow this option to perish) Some make a balance between Salary and work.

I decided to quit my company which falls under the last category. I decided not to face any humiliation from my boss, super boss and HR manager. Hence, I listed down issues which I believe none of the HR manager can retaliate. Some of them are given below:

1. My office websense (firewall) blocks Facebook and Naukri site thereby depriving my fundamental right.

2. My mobile phone with 10MP camera & 4GB memory is not allowed inside the ODC (Overseas development centre) due to security reasons. I was dismayed to note the double standard policy of my company which allowed the security team to install the CCTV!

3. There is no gender diversity in my process which has only male employees. I was embarrassed to face questions on 'oomph quotient' from my clients.

4. My office laptop does not recognize Blue ray/movie DVDs. The system even crashed once when I tried to copy Rajnikanth’s Sivaji from my pen drive.

5. My office bulletin board has no information on new releases.

6. My office has a 1000 seater cafeteria which does not serve liquors/cocktails. There are training halls but there are no party halls. The party animal within me has already gone on a “LTA”.

7. My office is just 5 km away from airport but 50 km away from the city. I need to commute in a non air-conditioned taxi daily. Since our nativity to the place where the office is located is questionable why don’t they provide the guesthouse accommodation within the same campus?

8. I could not doze off properly even during a good 'full meals day'. My office system has an admin controlled screen saver which says 'Work, Don’t stare' if my mouse is untouched for a minute. Worse, the screen saver scrolls in bold yellow 'DO NOT DISTURB. PRINCE HARI IS SLEEPING' if the mouse is untouched for 2 minutes.

9. My company follows US timing, US holiday, bill the customer in Dollors but pay us in Indian Rupees. Damn!

10. My office is situated in a Tropical place (Chennai). But the dress code is so strict that the tropical wear is not allowed inside the premises.

Im sure the reasons mentioned above can be appreciated by every Independent young Indian of the New India. The president of United states, Mr. Obama once spoke of shipment of jobs from Bangalore to Buffalo. Mr. President, ask the Indian IT companies when will they start treating their employees like holy cows !!!

Hilariously yours,
Hari

Tamil Culture & women- Are we talking about Male Chauvinism here?

- Hari

My office colleges were unusually giggling that Friday. It stimulated my curiosity but I hibernated it till lunch break. On the lunch table, I began the conversation and it soon killed my curiosity.

Ms. Sanghamitra who works in our bay has come in western attire was the news.

'What’s so special in that?' I asked my colleagues; After all she is wearing a shirt & trouser.

'We all thought Sanny (That’s how the client address her) is a perfect disciplined Tamil women. Am heartbroken since I always dreamt of a well cultured Tamil girl as my gal friend’

‘Who said that wearing a shirt & trouser is against Tamil culture & what’s wrong in that?’ I asked

‘Hari, come on. Gals during Tholkappium times were not wearing Kurtis & shirt. Don’t tell me. These people spoil our culture’- said Krishen.

Krishen alias Venkatakrishnan’s statement shocked me. Krishen is a Brahmin Iyengar who does Santhiyavandhanam three times a day despite his UK work timings. I was under the impression that the travel he undertook to UK for the transition work would have transitioned his ideologies since his thirunamam was missing from his forehead ever since he returned.

‘As per Hindu religion you should not travel abroad since travel across sea is forbidden. Why did you take that’, I was quick to ask this.

‘Are you seeing Sanny, coz this question is of least relevance here’ he smiled at his own joke.

‘It is. If you are not following your religion, you can’t expect them from others’.

‘Off course I follow. I perform Santhiyavandanam thrice a day & the transition travel was simply unavoidable. Anyways, religion & culture are both different. Im talking about her culture not about her religion’- Krishen looked serious.

I was in no mood to preach anyone but my mind was comparing religion & culture and the reason we guys, are concerned about culture especially when it concerns the opposite sex.
In IT industry parlance, Culture is nothing but the SOP (‘standard operating procedures’) for human life. It defines, what to do and what not to do. In a way, it is a subset to religion since religion too talks about individual discipline.

The culture has evolved over the years depending upon the civilization of the mankind and it should keep evolving as change is inevitable. So what holds good in a particular period may not hold good forever. In India, Khadi is (was!) a traditional wear which are handspun/hand-woven clothes suited for this climatic condition. Ever since we had an overdose of westernization we even started wearing blazers which are killer clothes for Indian climate. We (Men) had the exposure to westernization first. We also felt driving a two wheeler, travelling in a crowded bus is easier with trousers than with a ‘dhoti’ or ‘lungi’. Trousers soon replaced our traditional wear. After breaking the religious and cultural barriers we are seeing the present day women challenging us in every sphere of life. Some are bold and confident to shift to western attrire & some are reluctant to the change, may be on the fear of losing their cultural virginity and societal blackmails.

A 60 year grandpa wearing short & T-shirt jogs in a park and no one complains. His wife who usually jogs with a sari & canvas (!), attracted more eyeballs when she came in a ‘chudidhar’ on that blue moon day.

I browsed a Tamil daily which showed a group of gals wearing Jeans, shorts & trousers hoping near a shopping mall. The male journalist who must be a custodian of Tamil culture was bashing at these gals for spoiling the ‘Tamil’ culture. Few pages later, I saw photos of few actresses in a compromising posture. The daily carried the title 'மனம் திறக்கும் நடிகை XYZ'

In our office, as part of anniversary celebration, the employees were asked to come in traditional wear (I dunno who invented this weird idea!) They also gave list of wears which were allowed. We had a choice of Pyjama Kurtha and sharwani! It’s obvious, women were left with no other choice except Sari. The next day we had a haughty laugh at those gals struggling with their Sari.

I hate being called as MCP but is there a gender bias here? Are we using the culture as an excuse? We have grown seeing our mom & sister as ideal women. Our present day super women who love economic independence & socio-economic status have given the moms of housewife era a decent & silent burial. They are matured to choose their life, job, Partner. Do we need to preach them how to dress & about the 2000 years old cultural values? Let us give them a break!

Indian demo’CRAZY’

- Hari

August fifteen: The very mention of this date immediately brings the joy of (a) Public holiday (b) Television special programs (c) Discounts on our favorite outlets. Give us 2 more minutes, and we will realize that its Independence day within the stipulated time. We celebrate this day because our country became democratic after centuries of colonial rule. More than six decades since independence, I use to think, whether we are enjoying the fruits of democracy in the right way?

India became the largest democratic country, as the definition goes the government of the people, for the people and BY the people. Nehru travelled across country educating people that they had to choose their own leader. Dr Ambedkar drafted the constitution, which best suited the country at that time. The constitution allowed even the illiterates to contest elections since the majority of the country's population was uneducated. This yielded the desired result since most of our current politicians/leaders are uneducated while the majority of the country's population is educated, atleast in terms of average literacy level.

Our leaders post independence had a vision on how to make the country progressive when the majority of the population was clueless. Today, the reverse has happened.
Democracy allowed every citizen the right to follow his own religion, faith, language. Today we have innumerable religions, caste, sub-caste thus requiring the need for caste based census after six decades of independence (!). The growth of number of castes, linguistic politics might have surpassed the growth of the GDP of this country itself.

Dr Ambedkar spent several thousand hours in drafting the constitution of this country. Today, we have several laws, which if indexed can run more than the constitution of this country. Yet none of the law is implementable in its true spirit since abiding a law defeats the very purpose of democracy.

Six decades of self ruling, we still have problems of illiteracy, social inequality, poverty, unemployment. Though the change is happening, this transition process is very slow.
Some of the reasons that are plaguing India which I could think of:

Politicians & political system:

Indian politicians are known for corruption and unethical practices. Politicians shift parties, loot public money, encourages short sighted policies, woo voters with freebies and most importantly fool the people. Our politicians are always in corruption spree & famous in spreading corruption in all the fields without any discrimination. Some of the famous scams are Coffin box scam, cattle feed scam, Bofors Scam, Spectrum scam & the list goes on.

The political system does not allow the common man to take public cause easily. One has to join a public party & by the time one gets elevated as minister or nominated for ministership, he/she gets soaked in the old age surpassing the retirement age. Running the political party is as costly as running the country itself & naturally the first job is to reap returns from the investments already made. The complete lack of accountability from the politicians is something which irks the fellow citizens more than the corruption. Nobody takes responsibility for any manmade disasters like terrorism.

There is company law which regulate companies, there is SEBI which regulates the market. Why don't we have an independent governing body to regulate the political system & politicians?
We should lay down professional ethics to be followed by the politicians while in power. In this way, those who throw mikes can be thrown out of power for the indiscipline act. There should be a training academy which trains & certifies the aspiring politicians. A person can contest election only after being certified in this academy. Minimum education qualification like arts or science degree should be stipulated. One should possess adequate knowledge for planning & to convert plan to action.

Babus:

The Hindi speaking clerk who has little knowledge in english is known as Babus. In Indian context, we refer Government employees as Babus. When British was ruling India, the creamy layer of the population who were given education in English medium was offered Government jobs, which ensured high pay package (comparatively)! The British framed several rules which were bureaucratic and used it to suppress Indians. The same bureaucratic rules are even now used by our Babus & they continue to suppress our fellow people. Many countries in the world has reformed the way government works but India sadly remain in the stone-age era. Several foreign investors have been highlighting the 'Red Tapism' issue but any attempt of reformation leads to flash strike in the name of democracy jeopardizing the entire government.

A visit to any government office & one can see half or full bald clerk, sitting on a teakwood table, with loads & loads of file completely engulfed in the dust coming out from those decade old files. Their punctuality & productivity were duly rewarded by promotions, which are based on seniority. The periodic Dearness allowances is given for their 'Dearless' behavior.

There are several people friendly policies which has gone haywire, credits to our babus. The present government's flagship program 'National rural employment Guarantee' (NREG) scheme was declared success since the wastage in this scheme was only between 20 to 40% (On the estimated $8b spending on rural schemes, 20% would mean Rs. 7200 crores. Wow!) The total wastage in PDS scheme (Public distribution scheme) was astounding 73%, which must be an unofficial Guiness book of world records.

It's tempting to write so many ideas, well, nothing is going to happen in our democratic country.

Judicial system:

Over 3 million cases are pending in India's 21 high courts, and an astounding 26.3 million cases are pending in subordinate courts across the country. At the same time, there are almost a 250,000 under-trials languishing in jails across the country. Of these, some 2,069 have been in jail for more than five years, even as their guilt or innocence is yet to be ascertained. This has been revealed by home ministry's department of justice, under a Right to Information Act. While this is the scenario, our Lords and My Lords goes for a summer vacation. (Wow!) These cases were pending not because of shortage of lawyers. More the duration of cases, the more the money they make.

Justice delayed is Justice denied. The judgment for the Bhopal Gas disaster which killed around 25000 people was delivered in June 2010, nearly 25 years after the tragedy at the ratio of 3 deaths per day. By delivering judgment imprisoning the culprits for 2 years, the court has done the unjust.

Why don't the governments insist deadlines for closure of cases & give ceiling on number of adjournments? The judgments can be fed into the computer and most of the regular cases can be disposed by using artificial intelligence. Why not e-judgment?

India has strong moral values and was once considered as the land of 'dharma'. The justice is not a synonym of dharma since the justice is based on a particular law. In most of the cases, the justice is a mere pronouncement of the underlying law & if the law itself is unjustifiable, the judgment does not deliver the 'dharma'. Most of our laws are obsolete and needs to be rewritten based on changing times. Recently, the criminal law on 'Rape' was suitably amended in order to remove the gender bias. But this has to be done more proactively.

People:

All the politicians, Babus, are not made. They are from the people. Our tolerance & carelessness is also responsible for their actions. Evading tax, Vote for Money, offering bribe are some of the serious blunders while disposing the garbage on the streets/roads, disseminating religious information in public places, causing pollution, driving recklessly or drunken driving, damaging public properties, encouraging child labor in domestic help etc are some of the common mistake which we never realize as mistakes.

Democracy is the government by the people. It is THE PEOPLE who is responsible for the success of democracy. It should not go the saying in Tamil 'Kurangu Kayil Poo Malai' If we act as a responsible citizen considering the national interest it WILL make the difference. Won't they?

- Hariraam

The Road ‘NOT’ to be taken

- Hari

In the hustle & bustle of urban Indian life, one has to always negotiate with narrow lanes, haphazard parking, over speeding vehicles & the worst traffic sense of our nuisance, sorry, citizens. If this has to be done during peak hours, where the offices are located elsewhere in the planet, it cost us dearly in terms of health bills. It happened during such peak time when I was returning from my parent’s house located near Choolaimedu (Chennai) driving straight to office. The lane heading to the main road was just 15 feet wide with pedestrians, two/four wheelers, heavy commercial vehicles, cyclist all sharing the same road space, was in a complete mess.

I accelerated at every possible moment, almost hitting the pedestrian who suddenly poked from a corner so mercilessly. An auto was heading straight towards me, took a sudden turn which if not done in a ‘nano second’ would have hit my bonnet. A middle aged, bald headed helmet less gentleman, was turning his head some 30 to 45 degrees signaling a right turn. I think he always forget to use his indicators. But having spent more than ‘one third’ of my estimated lifetime in India, i'm somehow used to all these forms of driving.

I noticed a two wheeler rider thro my car’s ‘rear view mirror’, a near replica of Chris Pfizer, driving fast so dangerously. The Indian ego of not letting the fellow Indians to overtake you hit my senses and I speeded up my car. In the first 2 sharp blind curves, I succeeded. Then I encountered a huge speed breaker where I had to reduce the speed. This guy came near me & was about to begin the conversation. I did not want to let him speak out & wanted to yell at him first, as he was over-speeding. (Without realizing that I was equally bad) His body language was calm, subtle & he politely told me to close my car door properly! I realized I was driving the car without locking the door & who knows, I would have been thrown out of the vehicle on the previous sharp curves!

I felt ashamed at my own act. Why did I drive so recklessly? What makes me so impatient & why such a preconceived notion on that biker? We talk about business etiquette, why don’t we have the road etiquette? We don’t follow road rules & if someone does, we laugh at it. We honk without realizing it as a ‘indiscipline’ act. Everybody has some urgency & in the mad rush to come first, we have completely lost our tolerance. Unfortunately we are ruled by short sighted, corrupt politicians. Unfortunately, all our laws are never implemented in true spirits. After all, our responsible act makes a difference! Don’t they?

- Hariraam

The MUSA story

- Hari

It was in February 2006, when self, Vinaya and Deepa travelled to Goa for an audit assignment. We met a foreigner (Think a Russian) in the general compartment. He was fair complexioned, pale and was looking very funny with his short kurta & trousers. Infact his saffron colored kurta had some Sanskrit words & it was giving him a complete ‘third world’ look.

The audit assignment was planned for a month and we were so thrilled about the fact that the entire stay had been arranged in the Taj Exotica hotel, one of the finest luxury hotels in Asia. We kept chatting about our previous audit assignments but this man was so bored that he kept looking at us. At times, when our eyes met he smiled. In India, we are very hesitant to communicate with the strangers and when the other person does we become suspicious.

We were very hungry & waited for Arakkonam junction the first stop after Chennai central. As soon as the train stopped I rushed to a nearby shop and got 2 flavors of Lays chips. Vinaya was too good to offer her portion to this guy, but he refused. I tried convincing this guy to take some piece explaining that it was a product of Pepsi co and India has these so called hi-fi processed foods.
In a couple of minutes, we finished our portions. Deepa gestured she was still hungry. Noting this, he took his trolley bag and to our surprise he was keeping loads & loads of bananas. I made a quick count and it was more than 2 dozens. This time it is his turn to convince us to take some bananas! The funny thing was, we had to hear about goodness of bananas from a Russian national. He infact advised us to avoid these packed foods which has processed fat that increases blood cholesterol.

The next day, we reached our hotel. We were completely exhausted and thought of ordering thro room service. The waiter on the line gave some options on the milkshakes. Vinaya ordered three banana milkshakes and smiled at me!
- Hariraam

Industrialization in Tamilnadu & emphasis on value creation

- Hari

The past several years has been good for Chennai & Tamilnadu, thanks to the efforts taken by the state government in attracting major automobile MNC and several IT/ITES companies. Its gives immense pride for a true chennaite like me on the very thought that my city is second only to Bangalore in IT/ITES space and one of the major automobile cluster of India.

But what I feel that the government has failed rather should have done is ‘branding the city’. The city scores high with a ‘low cost destination’ tag & when it comes to perception, Chennai looses to Delhi/Gurgaon, Bangalore & even Hyderabad. The reason is, we are NOT moving up the value chain.

In rupee terms, we have attracted more than 20000 crores of investment in the last 4 years alone. But on a close look, these investments have been spent on the ‘machines’ and other intangible things such as ‘land’ & not on the main factor of production ‘labour’. These MNC come here for the cost advantage & in any manufacturing companies the main factor of production is ‘Materials’ and ‘Machines’& perhaps the last emphasis is the ‘Men/Labour’ as most of the production is automated. In a way, the government is providing the employment opportunities but not really moving them in the value chain. Our employees still work under poor work condition, get the minimum wages or little more than what they could have got in the tier 2 or tier 3 towns. This is also evident in the frequently increasing labour unrest & formation of several labour unions. The management layer of these MNC are occupied by the expats (foreign nationals) and hence the profit from running these operations are either galloped by them or repatriated to foreign countries.

The sudden increase in industrialization has lead to migration of youth from smaller towns & smaller cities to Chennai. Those who are not willing to settle down for these low paying jobs end up in migrating to near-by cities like Bangalore or Mumbai or to gulf countries.
While it is good to have manufacturing industries since it helps in equivalent growth across the section of society (from helper to floor supervisor to production manager) the government should have given much more focus to service industries. For instance, in an IT company, more than 50% of the cost is spent on direct salaries & investment for any service company is nothing but their people alone. From recruiting employees, paying for their retention, staff welfare the cost of most of the service companies such as Banking, IT/ITES goes to employees. It’s just not service industries any labour oriented activites such as Consulting, R&D emphasis higher investments on labour. The service industries also create indirect employment like cabs & transportation, real estate, tourism & entertainment etc. We may be second in IT exports but again the product offerings are nothing but BPO/KPO, testing & maintenance activities which requires miniscule talent & thus they are low paying jobs.

Companies like Hyndai, Motorola, Nokia, Dell have their production facility in Chennai whereas their R&D centres or corporate office is either located in Bangalore or Hyderabad.

What we can do:
A state like Maharashtra has several global cities like Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur and government is keen on developing new world class Greenfield cities with all modern amenities. Gujarat does not have one metropolis but still is a leader in industrialization & several new cities are coming up on the Delhi- Mumbai industrial corridor. We should focus on developing multiple manufacturing clusters in Tamilnad & all manufacturing industries, IT/ITES which involve BPO, testing, maintenance activities can be shifted to those tier-2 cities. Those involve design, R&D, consulting, Application development should be located in big cities like Chennai or Coimbatore.

Tamilnadu still depends on the local talent. Though we have 250+ engineering colleges and several arts colleges, we do not have the quality of resources locally to attract industries across all sectors & all activities. The long term solution is to create a strong fundamentals like good primary & secondary education. But the short tem solution is to attract the talent across the country to Tamilnadu. Setting up world class technical institutions, business schools, foreign institutions (like the Virginia university near Puducherry) will allow influx of several students from different part of the country who can turn as potential workforce.

The state & Chennai in particular should turn to be ‘youngster friendly’ city allowing cross sectional society, multi cultered people.

A city like chennai if it has to be truly global city, should have more ‘knowledge parks’. These knowledge parks will have Finance, IT & R&D SEZ. More emphasis should be given to have their corporate office in these knowledge parks that’s where the creamy layer of the company will be situated. These knowledge parks should not be coming in the already congested city but on a new Greenfield city outside Chennai (Similar to Noida & greater Noida)

A higher emphasis should be given in creating a truly world class infrastructure. Instead of proposing elevated or BRTS corridor inside the city leading to land acquisition hassles & there by multiple court cases, we can instead have a new city with all these modern infrastructure, designated commercial & residential areas, place for the international school/college campuses, outside the city limits.

Chennai should host several high end business & investor summit, international sports event. The government should encourage more industries to have their product launch from here. For instance, the automobile show, auto racing shows, can be hosted in Chennai instead of Delhi since the city has the highest automobile production capacity. More fashion shows since Tamilnadu has a biggest textile cluster too (Tirupur & Coimbatore) Activities like this & much more will put Chennai on global map and helps in creating the brand for Tamilnadu. In a long run there is going to be a perception change.

More public- private participation should be encouraged. The government can have a ‘real estate’ specific policy so that more & more real estate players will come forward for infrastructure creation. Creation of private cities like ‘Lavasa’ near Pune, requires more private public participation. The promotion of these projects by these real estate player will automatically create the much needed publicity.

- Hariraam

Chennai & Me

- Hari

It’s my home town and no wonders why this place is close to my heart. For that reason, everyone is attached emotionally to their home town. In those days, I remember Madras only for the beaches and VGP amusement park which we use to visit during our summer holidays. In early 2000, when I had to settle here for my higher education and for a person who was brought up in a small hamlet from interior Tamilnad, Chennai suddenly became an alienated world. I was perplexed why I was here and bit nervous. She was getting fast for me and those days are indeed ‘ever green’ as she took me over this transition process smoothly. Our country is known for the diversity and each city is different in its own way. The language, the culture, the people and the society are different and it is ‘equally easy’ to get adopted once you start loving them and start associating with it. Thanks Chennai for teaching this to me.

Above Vindhyas, people use the term ‘Madrasi’ to refer Chennai. Some of my ‘North Indian’ friends (I hate this differentiation, yet using it for easier understanding) even laugh at her for being very different from the rest of the country.

Some of the most noticeable ‘Madrasi’ culture:

1. Tamil, Tamil and only Tamil. It’s Tamil everywhere!

2. Same as point 1. ‘Naan Hindi nahi malum’ sirji type people.

3. HOT weather

4. Idly, vada, Dosa, Pongal serving hotels

5. Yellow Auto rickshaws and ‘Tanglish’ speaking auto drivers.

6. Green Tappa MTC ‘PUSH BACK’ buses

7. Salty water

8. ‘Party na enna nu kekara Makkal’

9. Tamil movies, Rajnikanth, Kamal Hassan.

Each place has similar uniqueness and identity and it should not be changed. As I mentioned earlier, we are attached to our language, religion, culture and place emotionally that we think all others are inferior. Infact on a positive note there is more to the Madras culture than just Auto rickshaws and Tamil movies.

Ø Chennai has designated places for non tamil speaking people such as ‘Sowcarpet’ or ‘Kilpauk’ for Marathis & Gujarathis/Rajasthanis. There is a street off greams road near to Apollo hospital for Bengalis. Chennai has a larger number of Telegu speaking population & a recent survey pegged the non tamil population in chennai as 20%.

Ø Chennai is second only to Bangalore in IT exports. It provides direct employment close 3 lacs youngsters in IT/ITES space. ‘Tata consultant services’ the largest IT company & Cognisant technology solutions have their biggest development centres in Chennai.

Ø Chennai is also known as ‘Detroit of South India’ with a total installed automobile production contributing to 32% of India’s total production & she is establishing her leadership in electronic manufacturing as well. Chennai is home to companies like Hyndai, Ford, Nissan, Renault, Mitsubishi, Daimler, BMW, Nokia, Dell, Samsung, Flextronics, Motorola, Foxconn, Caparo, Caterpillar, Komatsu, Apollo tyres, JK tyres, Michelin, Infosys, Wipro, IBM, Accenture, HCL, Amazon, Shell and also to homegrown companies like Ashok Leyland, Mahindra & Mahindra, TVS, L&T etc

Ø Chennai was ranked 29 in early 1990’s in the world’s top 30 cities. In 2003, it was ranked as ‘second’ best city to live in India by outlook. In 2009 E&Y survey, Chennai ranked 3rd best city in India surpassing Bangalore, Calcutta, Pune and Hyderabad.

Ø Chennai was the first city to introduce the ‘mall culture’ in India. The spencers mall in Mount Road was the first organized retail space in the country.

Ø The famous domestic brand MRF tyres which has been endorsed by most celebs including Sachin is known as ‘Madras Rubber Factory’.

Ø Chennai is the one of the top Asian cities to attract major chunk of FDI (Foreign direct investments). Most of the investments are in the Chennai- Sriperumbudur, Chennai – oragadam corridor making it the biggest industrial corridor of south India.

Ø Chennai airport is the busiest airport in South India & the 3rd busiest airport in India after Mumbai and Delhi. (Both domestic & international traffic put together). Chennai is called ‘gateway of south India’

Ø Chennai is the least polluted city among the metro despite having more than 25 lakh vehicles on the roads and on an average 800 new vehicles getting added on every single day.

Ø Chennai is the leader in ‘medical tourism’ with people coming from countries like Pakistan, Srilanka, Myanmar, Israel to Chennai for advanced medical treatments. Chennai offers access to high end medical treatments with lower cost. The leader in healthcare sector in Chennai are Apollo hospitals, Ramachandra, Miot, Bilroth & Fortis. Ø Chennai’s Marina beach is the second longest beach in Asia.

Ø The chennai Mofussil Bus stand in Koyambedu (CMBT) is Asia’s biggest with capacity to handle more than 1000 buses.

Ø Chennai took her name from the king ‘Chennappa Nayakar’ who donated this piece of land to British’s East India company to set up their trading company here. She was formally known as ‘Madras’

Ø Chennai is the safest metro in India, having the lowest crime rates when compared to cities like Mumbai & Delhi. The city never came in the terror rador, thanks to the political setup which gives equal rights to all section of society. There has been no or less communal tension in this part of the country.

Ø India’s biggest salt water lake (Pulicat) is situated near Chennai. The Vandalur Zoo situated in Chennai is the oldest zoo in India. It was located initially near the ‘Central railway station’ before shifted to Vandalur due to space constraint.

Ø Next to Mumbai, Chennai is the only city to have the best metro connectivity. The EMU services running in Chennai- Kolkatta sector, Chennai- Arakanom sector and in Chennai beach- Chengalpet sector connects chennai with 6 satellite towns such as Arakonam, Tiruvallur, Tirutheni, Kanchipuram, Chengalpet & Gummidipoondi thereby facilitating mass transportation of work force.

Ø Hundred years ago, Chennai had several lakes near & within her vicinity. The present upmarket area of Nungambakkam, Mahalingapuram, commercial heaven like North Usman road, poor man’s land like Choolaimedu, Aminjikarai was then covered by ‘Long lake’. There is a place still in Nungambakkam known as ‘Lake area’. A road near Nungambakkam known as ‘Village road’ establishes the fact that these areas including Chetpet was used for cultivation. Aminjikarai derives its name from ‘Amainda Karai’ due to its proximity to ‘Long lake’ and ‘Cooum river’. The present day ‘Pallavaram’ is known as ‘Pallava puram’ which was under the jurisdiction of Pallava kingdom.

Ø The british used the St Thomas as ‘residential area’ and the present day ‘George town’ as ‘Commercial area’. A well laid road was created to connect the George town & St thomas mount which is now called as ‘Mount road’ (Or Anna salai)Ø Chennai metropolitan area (1130 sq kms) has a population of over 7 million. Of this, 43.5M lives in 179 sq km making Chennai the most congested metropolis. Successive government’s failure to emphasis planned development lead to this chaos.

Ø The City boast some of the finest pubs, bars & also have places such as Mylapore/Triplicane which boasts several cultural shows still retaining its old charm. Chennai is a perfect blend of this tradition and modern. Whether it is party in ‘Dublin’ or Kutchery in ‘Music Academy’, whether it is ‘Evam’ English play or ‘Terukoothu’ in Royapuram.

Ø Chennai is never really hot compared to hinterland & plateau regions of India. The cool breeze from the sea reduces the temperature & increases humidity. But the high humidity increases ‘sultriness’

Ø The current Buckingham canal was used by British to transport rice & wheat from Andhra.

Ø Chennai & Tamilnadu produces largest number of engineering graduates next to Andhra Pradesh. The Anna University (College of Engineering, Guindy) is one of the oldest & best in class engineering institution.

Ø During the regime of Dr MGR (as Chief minister) the city faced acute water shortage which forced the government to consider ‘Trichy’ as Capital of Tamilnadu. This proposal was later shelved due to stiff opposition across various quarters. Chennai’s underground water considerably improved between 2001 & 2006 as the government insisted compulsory ‘rain water harvesting’. The city is the first to get the ‘Desalination plants’.

Ø Chennai’s MRTS (Mass Rapid transit system) is the first of its kind in India to run on the elevated tracks. (Kolkatta metro was underground)

Ø AR Rahman is known as ‘Mozart of Madras’ since he hails from this city. Chennai is also proud to have personalities like Kamal Hassan, Mani Ratnam, Viswanatha Anand, Narain Karthikeyan who put this country in global map. The tennis star ‘Laendar Paes’ was trained in the Tennis Academy setup by NRI ‘Amirtharaj’. Chennai also hosts ‘Chennai open’ the only ATC tennis tournament in India. Chennai has a world class ‘racing track’ in Irungattukottai.

Ø The Mahindra world city near Chennai spreading across 1500 acres is India’s first private SEZ in its size.

Ø When the present congress government allowed foreign universities to setup their campuses in India, Chennai is the first city to get one. The Virginia university one of the oldest in US is setting up its first campus in India near chennai.

Chennai is known as ‘conservative’ city and there is absolutely no merit in it. To me, a city can be called as conservative not on the basis of ‘spending power’ of the people but on the basis of thoughts & her adoptability. It’s sad that cities like Mumbai where the north Indians are brutally beaten up & city like Hyderabad which is demanding separate statehood are considered as ‘cosmopolitan’ and city like chennai which has absolute tolerance & respect for other culture/language is given the ‘conservative’ tag. I hope the things will change & chennai gets her lost glory soon.

Attaching one of the oldest map of chennai