കേരളം - கேரளம் - Keralam

When Madras got changed to Chennai, I neither supported nor was opposed to it, but I continued to use the name Madras wherever I could. Even now in some conversations I use the name Madras. It gives a sense of nostalgia of the city. Same with Bombay and Calcutta!

Now, it’s the turn of a state to get it renamed. Kerala to “Keralam”! I am in full support of this name change. Kerala is also good but “Keralam” is too good. I am not a Malayalee but Malayalam is a language which I like most after my mother tongue Tamil. Kerala, the state, its people, and the language connect with nature and there is something the way they speak which represents the rich culture and the evergreen nature of the state. The name “Keralam” sounds closer to it than Kerala.

Read somewhere that a Kerala Travel Association official had spoken against this name change as this will not attract tourists. And another reason he states against the name change is that tourists are finding it difficult to pronounce the new names. He had cited Trivandrum changed to “Thiruvananthapuram”. To me Thiruvananthapuram sounds beautiful.

My question to him would be how easy for him is to pronounce “Braunschweig”, “Kaiserslautern” and other European city names!? It’s not the tourists who build a place and preserve the culture right!?

Altogether, both my thumbs up for Kerala getting its new beautiful name “Keralam”. Wish I could have known to write this post in Malayalam.

I-T

Wonderful! This is the 5th consecutive year I file my tax returns and 4th consecutive year I do it online. It was when I learnt about filing online I came to know about the tax policies and other few stuff related to it. Till that I was a complete zero in it.

Now people ask me how to do it and I too keep telling and teaching people on how to file online. This year I have supported 3 people to do it online :)

The best thing in that is we know our stuff. Most of us are salaried people and that makes it simple to file the returns. The major portion of it is filling up the ITR-1 and the Form 16 is exactly the replica of it. Moreover, if returns are filed online, the refunds get processed quickly. I have got mine! I am not just writing it, have really got it. What else do I need to support this utility by GOI! It’s a wonderful site on the e-governance intitiatives.

Sorry...wrong number...

Sometimes a stupidity turns to be funny and vice versa too.

Being in Mumbai and wanting to get my return ticket booked, I called up a colleague sitting in Bangalore to get the travel desk contact number. Dialing the number, a girl picked up. I started telling my requirements. There was a pause on the other side and I heard “wrong number”. And she hung the call.

I checked the number I had dialed. It was right! Telling my colleague about this he felt strange. He is a frequent traveler and dials the number to the travel desk every time! I thought probably the team would have shifted to a new building and tried a possible new number. No response! I again dialed the first number and it was the same hello. This time I responded “Travel Desk…?”

She: No, sorry. This is not travel desk!
Me: Sorry

And I hung the call. My colleague tried the same number and he got through and asked me to try again. I felt hesitating. I had to return another call to Bangalore office and thought I will make this call and then dial the travel desk again. Dialed and the response was “The number doesn’t exist…” I thought something wrong with making calls to my Bangalore office.

I had to call the travel desk. Had no option to book my tickets! Tried again! Same girl, same hello… This time I started asking for a specific name in the travel desk.

She: No, there is no one by that name here…
Me: That’s travel desk right..!
She: No, this is not.
Me: Which place is this..! This is our office travel desk number
She: No, this is residence and I am Sneha
Me: Sneha, sorry but this is the number of my travel desk and all my colleagues use this only.
She: Oh! I am sorry but this is my residence number for a long time
Me: Okay..! Sorry for the disturbance…Hopefully I won’t call to hear you again…
She: It’s okay. Don’t feel sorry. And even if you are dialing again here, you will hear my granny’s voice and not mine as I am leaving out now
Me: Oh..! then I guess I wont be dialing again for sure
She: [Laughs]
Me: [laughs here too] anyways, I am sorry and… you have a nice voice.
She: thank you…

“Bye”, “Bye”. Call ended. For the next few minutes I did not remember anything like I have to get my return tickets or anything of that sort.

My colleague friend called up and asked me whether I got through or not. It was like waking me up from sleep. “No” was my answer. He then tried to call the travel desk and got the correct line. He then had set up a conference call. I conveyed my requirements and requested the helpdesk people to call me by themselves. Ticket got booked.

Few hours passed by and suddenly something flashed in my mind which was very funny. {My colleague gave me the Bangalore help desk number. I am in Mumbai and it means if I am dialing Bangalore, I had to prefix the STD code} I had dialed the number without the STD code and my calls have landed to Sneha’s residence in Mumbai all the three times and when I asked which place was that, she did not tell me the locality! It was just funny that I dialed a number without a STD code and it landed in a different city.

I thought I should share it with Sneha and called her again with full intention. With a 2 second response came out a voice.

“Helloooooo…”

It was her granny. I hung the call myself saying “Sorry…wrong number...!”

Scenu…

I am a local fellow.

A local fellow that I take road side snacks daily and choose the public transport rather than auto rickshaws or taxis or my own car. Local in the sense I always prefer to mingle with the common man around me which makes me common too.

I am sitting in the Bangalore International Airport as I write this. This local thing in me has made me write this. Usually when you travel by public transport, say the bus, you board and then the conductor gives you the ticket. Way back to home yesterday I travelled by office bus. So, no tickets! My boss called me that time and said please travel tomorrow. Well, it’s an air travel. I chose the public carrier. Air India! As it was a last minute call, I completely missed to pick my ticket and landed here in the Airport early morning. Going to the airline counter and asking for a print out, the officials indicated that I don’t have the correct PNR number. LOL! I did not feel any jerk or bad for it. Because it was booked by my office! Loss is for them if I don’t travel. After effects from boss will be a different story altogether!

Had to do something to get the tickets! There was a passenger behind me in the queue. (2 too make a queue) It was a girl. Looked available! With no hesitation, just like the white collar guys I took out my laptop to access my mail. After logging in only I realized that I don’t have any net access or data card to check my mail. I had never been given a data card in office. I can use the internet only if I plug that blue or yellow wire in the laptop. Then how and why did I take it out!!! Girl effect…! Girls somehow have some magic in them. In Tamil they call it as “Bandha” or locally it is referred as “Scenu”

Time was running. She quoted her PNR correctly. I acted doing something in the laptop. Battery low! Then wi-fi option came to mind and checking out, it was blocked as a security measure by my office. Too much things by my office! May be because we manage this Airport’s operations! But I know the administrator thing in my laptop. I had done some fraud sometime back to have it and now it helps. A 15 min free internet access was on the way by the time the official in the counter popped up asking for a photo identity of mine. Nothing to wonder he wanted to check my identity! Early in the morning standing before the counter without the ticket quoting a wrong PNR!! I thought this is going to be yet another drama. But not!

Good day to start with, the official searched the records for my reservation and gave me the print out. The girl too got hers. Getting in, she was following me to the check in counter and I have followed her to the café and sitting here just next to her table seeing her, typing this. Darjeeling black tea…4 sugar cubes…laptop open with a formal look in my face... She should be thinking I am some high profile busy guy. Scenu… Or even she would know the real truth too. Whatever, time to board now. She is up to the gate…

Tsamina mina eh eh, Waka Waka eh eh

To create your own cartoon like this please visit the Disney UK site. It allows you to create your own screen with Disney characters. Mine is as above with my favourite characters.

Corporate Social Responsibility

6 years back, I as a management graduate with my team was in a seminar organized by the IT department of Government of Tamilnadu. The seminar had the CEOs of the biggest BPO companies in Tamilnadu. BPO was at its peak at that time employing fresh graduates with hefty salaries. They were talking on the skill set that a fresher candidate should possess if wanting to be employed in BPO industry. I wondered and started to think why for a back office job a fresh graduate is required! There is no work for the brain there and no skill set is required except language for which the companies were anyways training the candidates. Employing fresh graduates for BPO is actually a way of restricting their thinking. I called BPO as Brain Paralyzing Outfits. My team members did not accept my thought. They defended it gives a fresh graduate an exposure and also made them confident and independent. It was actually the money paid which make the young graduates go for BPO jobs. Then, I started to make a plan which will enable the candidates to work as well pursue their higher education. It was basically a shift system which will benefit the society on the larger scale and also meet organizational goals.

Yet, a thought was there in my mind on why for a BPO job a fresh graduate is required. Why cant physically challenged people struggling for a life, be employed for those jobs or why not single senior citizens be given an opportunity rather than making the young graduates restrict themselves. I strongly felt there is no learning or thinking nature in BPO and it’s a danger in the future when these organizations grow big employing all the fresh graduates out of college. I used to keep discussing things like this with one or the other. After a while, all these passionate thinking passed away just like several others.

Today, I got this invitation.

It makes me feel good that the Government is acting on it. It’s a PPP model. Samarthanam Shrishti will be an unique BPO/Call Centre Training Unit for the Disabled at Peenya. This initiative is first of its kind in India along with a similar setup at Hubli started recently. This project would train 300 physically challenged youth across the state of Karnataka. This is a first step and hope the corporate too will support this and it’s where the real corporate social responsibility lies.

Yeh jo desh hai mera...

"Becoming an entrepreneur was an evolutionary process. I had a good life in America. I did not face any problems there, but I always had the feeling that I must do something for our villages. I do not feel I have made any sacrifice. Today, there is hardly anything I do other than work. It gives me the satisfaction no job can ever give."

For full story please read on http://bit.ly/dyEX0a

Akkare Akkare Akkare

Wow! Good that it happened for me to watch this movie. It’s a Malayalam flick. Almost every Malayalee would know this movie. I am not from Kerala but still I enjoy watching Malayalam movies for the simplicity and substance in it.

Sreenivasan is considered as the best script writer in India. I have seen two of his movies: “Katha Parayumpol” (Kuselan in Tamil and Billu in Hindi) and “Udayananu tharam” (Vellithirai in Tamil). The remakes did not do well in the box offices. They lacked the life of the movie including the location and ambience. That way, Malayalam movies are unique. The Malayalam originals showcased the stunning performances of Sreenivasan and Mohanlal. Both the actors have a great rapport on screen on whatever theme it is.

Way back to 1990, these two actors have done this movie Akkare Akkare Akkare. A complete laugh riot from the first scene to last, I think this should be the funniest movie made. There were traces of something which was very easy to relate. And it was the director Priyadarshan. No eye rubbing sentiments and no slapstick comedy in this picture. Pure hilarity in every scene with every character along with a neat script has made the movie too good. It’s a story of 2 CID officers from India sent to America to find a priceless golden crown which had got stolen. The plot is both the CID officers are clueless and lost when they land in America and that’s where the fun starts. “Saathanam Undallo….!”

I read this movie is preceded by “Nadodikkattu” and “Pattanapravesham” but this is the funniest one among the three. For non-Malayalees I am not aware, but all people who can understand Tamil would surely get along with the language and dialogues in the movie. For few scenes I was laughing out loud! Now, this movie is a classic in my list no matter how it has been to the world. Altogether the time spent was wonderful. Watch it without thinking twice. You will enjoy.

Its all in the Game

There are three things in the world which take over almost every human in the universe. 1. The alcohol “kick”; 2. The nicotine “kick” and 3. The football kick..! A survey during last world cup revealed that football is on top of sex and mother for males. When the ball is taken near the goal post and gets passed in between the players for a goal, my excitement level shoots up irrespective of which team is playing. And if it is the team plays, I forget the surroundings.

This world cup, I have been making huge noises never minding the neighbor, texting people on the fly during the match in midnight and bunking office hours. I have been supporting Maradona’s team and I felt very bad for they lost to Germany. I have never ever felt like this for India losing to Pakistan in a cricket match. Germans were outstanding in the tournament. Greece and Ghana had played a wonderful game as well.

Argentina may not have a good defense on field but off the field the players have a tremendous defense and it’s from their coach himself and more than that the people of Argentina. The fact that thousands of people gathered to give a supporting welcome backing their team from South Africa is definitely something precious. While Maradona’s position as coach is questioned after the team’s exit, their people were seen holding signs such as “Diego 2014” say it all.

There may be thousands of controversies around. But, no matter what, Maradona is my favorite player. If there was a crowd to watch the match, there was a crowd to watch the legendary player too in the field. Wish I could be designated as the photographer to shoot him during the match. It was pure entertainment to watch his love for football and I did share his emotions while the team lost.

After the famous Hand of God goal in 1986 Maradona said, "I was waiting for my teammates to embrace me, and no one came... I told them, “Come hug me, or the referee isn't going to allow it." Hand of God got its name from this line of the player - "a little with the head of Maradona and a little with the hand of God". The frustrated England team manager stated it as “Hand of a Rascal” during the press report.

Short in height, he moves like a snake in the field. The videos on the internet will tell you about the legend better than my words. Actually, people who are short are fast in the field. It was that short guy Bala Murugan who had coached me. Very few of my friends reading this will believe that I play football.

And Maradona is a reason that I am back to follow football after a long gap. It was a football match I played which shattered a dream of mine 8 years back. Since then I had stopped playing and following the game. But when I came to know Maradona becoming the coach of the team I couldn’t stop myself getting into the game again. Argentina may have lost the word cup but they haven’t lost the game. They have certainly played a beautiful game far better than other teams and I am looking out for a Argentine jersey.

This is not just a game. Its a religion and you dont have to be a religious leader to reach heaven. Following it itself takes you there.

Do you know Osama Bin Laden is a hard football fan?? Goooogle to believe it or not and find which team he supported... :)

The Majestic

This temple tower holds the cultural history of Tamil Nadu. Its a rich visual treat for everyone visiting this historic temple in Madurai, Tamil Nadu. I am glad I shot this pic and sure shot this one will be a treasure pic for me. You could download it and zoom in to have a look on the architecture and carvings.