SRI'S Blog

I wanted to post this blog before the start of the Fourth and Final test at Nagpur. Not that the result of that match matters much to my thoughts. To say that the English team came prepared to India would be an understatement. They came well prepared to plan the downfall of the Indian team in its own territory. The preparation by the English to me ,was extraordinary. For their batsmen support they had Graham Gooch who knows the Indian Conditions so well and was instrumental in our defeat at the Prudential cup in 1987 ( he swept Shastri and Maninder Singh of their length ) . On the bowling they had Mustaq Ahmed the wily Pakistani leg spinner. And with Andy Flower at the helm as the Coach , the English had a good support team to plot the Indian downfall. So , what did we do for preparation ? We believed that the English were weak at playing Spin bowling and so in all practice matches before the actual Test series , we had innocuous bowlers bowling to the Englishmen , so that they

I go paranoid if I get a call and they tell me that I am their Preferred Customer.. I say this because of the way Preferred Customers are chased down in our system. May be I am getting the wrong side of it but read it with great sense of humor and I am sure you would enjoy this post. I am sure it is not intended to be this way but with targets and bonus tagged on , a good program can turn out to be a irritation . I recently had to do a transaction with one of my bankers which necessitated a personal visit to the bank. That was the start point of my problem. There were plenty of guys in the lobby of the bank offering to help. As I talked about what I wanted to do, I was pulled off the area ( Where there were plenty of counters that I could have used to complete my work ) and asked to move to a different area where Preferred Customers are handled. I agreed ( with lot of hope and happiness ) , after all , I am a being viewed as a Preferred Customer . As I went up , I was received and

Rendering a servicing  as per agreed discussions ( read terms ) or completing a sale that meets the product specification are expected norms in any dealings . But does this happen at all times. I am sure all of us engage in one form of sale/ service buying every day and not sure if we check to see if we are happy with result of what we got. I also have no clue as to why some incidents during last week left me fuming on the lack of complete service delivery.  Here are those instances that put me bewildered with what people expect although they may not do a good job of what they are supposed to do. 1. Was on a personal trip to Mumbai and on the way back to the Airport, was arranged a taxi. I realized that it was not a taxi as I got in. A smart car owner was using it as a taxi service when the car was idle. The fare was agreed before the trip. The air-conditioning did not work . I figured this out after a kilometer of travel. Either it was in that state before the journey or it just f

I wanted the West Indies to win and fancied their chances better ,once they got through the Super Eight. Plenty of reasons as to why I wanted them to win : Ever since they got knocked out of the Pedestal in 1983, by Kapil’s Devils , they have been on a decline. A team that had fearsome batsmen ( Greenidge, Haynes , Gomes, Sir Vic Lloyd and … ) and bowlers ( Roberts, Holding , Garner Croft .. ) who could get you out even before they bowled a ball was lost its dominance over World cricket overtime. A blip in 2004 when they won the ICC Championship under Brian Lara was the solitary silverware . It was time that they got to the Pedestal I thought they had one of the best teams for this T20 type of Cricket. They had batsmen who could hammer the ball out of the park with ease and not all batters need to click in each game . It was enough even if one of them went for the leather as the number of overs is restricted. On the bowling side, this is funny. West Indies were known for their Pa

During the last couple of weeks , I have been more irritated than ever, to see people do what they do on the road, largely unmindful of the risk that they take and the hazard they create not only to themselves but to others on the road. Reason for the irritation was because of the data that I looked at . The data is compelling . Chennai has the highest road accidents in 2011 – leaving close to 7900 injured and that includes around 1600 females. The trend for 2012 is on the wrong side as well. I travel on certain routes on a daily basis and can write about the risk, that people create unmindful of the trouble that they can get in to…. It is just not a ticket or a fine but it is a fact that, they can get injured or cause injuries to others. First is the right turn from KB Dasan Road to TTK road- there is a Neat Board that says’ No Right Turn’. People take the right turn all the time , unless there is a Cop monitoring the traffic. Some people take the right turn even when the Cop is ar

It was long week end and nothing could be better than looking forward to following few good games of cricket matches. There were two outstanding matches played .. One a One day international and the other a fifth day battle between two teams to get to the number one ranking in Test Cricket. The first was a match between Pakistan and India.. hang on .. the teams did not have Dhoni, Zaheer or a Virat neither a Misbah ,Afridi or a Umar Gul.. So what was this all about.. it was the Quarter Final of the U-19 World Cup Cricket match .. Does not matter whether it is U -19 or U -15 or any age group. Any Pakistan India match is intense with great emotional attachment and the results can be painful but we all know who has to win. Now , do not underestimate this U -19 World cup matches . This has been the stage from where most of the current cricketing stars have grown to be the big guys…. The list is long … and the Commentary team for these matches boast of Big Boys as well-- Alan Wilkins, Wa

Avvai Shanmuki, a Kamal Hasan starerrer ( Tamil ) was released in 1996. There is a scene where Kamal playing a female lead role, picks up Gemini Ganesan ( lifts him) , the heroine’s father and rushes him to the hospital . This act gets appreaciation from the Doctor who tells “ you should participate in the Olympics” for your weight lifting skills.. You will get a gold medal .. It has been sixteen years since but we are yet to see that happen in reality . Did the Director of the film know what was coming ? India wins two shooting medals in 2012 edition. Vijayakumar a silver and Gagan Narang a Bronze. Panel Discussion in a leading news Channel. The Moderator says ,India is a powerhouse in Shooting ( how can you describe this so easily Mr. Moderator ) – luckily , Rajyavardhan Rathore , himself a silver medalist from the Athens 2004 edition and part of the show, chipped in and said “ being a potential powerhouse is very different to a powerhouse . Yes , India has the potential – thanks f

Federer lost his No1 ranking in June 2010 . It took him a good two years and lot of hard work to climb back to the No 1 ranking after his Wimbledon 2012 win. The All England Lawn Tennis tournament 2012 had great hopes for Federer and his rival in the final Andy Murray. While a Federer win would create a 7 -17 -1 record ( Seven Wimbledon titles , 17 Grand Slam wins and the No1 ranking ) , a Murray win, it would end the wait of 76 years for the British to see a home winner.( For a change , the crowd was not with Federer who is well liked and loved at Wimbledon) .Murray carried this great hopes in to the final only to be denied and the British hopes now would move to 77 years ! The path to the final was somewhat made easy by the early shock exit of Nadal. . Federer had a turbulent third round against Frenchman Julien Benneteau. The Frenchman played unbelievable tennis , returning so well and finding winners at will and he was up Two sets to love against Federer before Federer dug deep an

Personal touch is something that has  been disappearing over the past years in our daily buysof vegetables or grocery. The whole process has become very organized and mechanical to an extent. You get in to the shop, pick your basket and pick up what you think looks fresh and nice . Off you go to the multiple billing counters, you get billed , no free kothamalli , pay the bill  and out. No recommendations , no discussions . A very plain experience. Rare interactions with the shop people or the people at the billing counter. I recall the days where this activity used to be exciting. It used to be the vegetable market and you had multiple vendors and each of them specializing in two to three varieties of vegetables. And you could pick the vendor that has the most fresh arrivals. As you go around , the vendors knew you personally , would enquire about your well-being and make recommendations. To an extent , they knew what was being cooked at your home and what would you buy depending on

I never imagined that this will be a great headache and a growing one. With just about everything to do on the internet and if you have to complete your transaction through the net , it becomes imperative that you have a User ID and a password. Having a User ID is no brainer . You can have the same User ID for N number of sites provided no one has beat you in registering the User ID before you. Password ?!—this is becoming a  growing challenge. Each site has its own recommendation to give you a taste of the headache. Some sites are not stringent – you can do a “123” as password and they accept it happily. Some sites make the task of setting a password difficult and for good reasons.. to enhance security… here are some hints and requirements on the password setting for it be Strong. • Length. Make your passwords long with eight or more characters. • Complexity. Include letters, punctuation, symbols, and numbers. Use the entire keyboard, not just the letters and characters you use

The fifth edition ended with the Kolkata Knight Riders ( KKR ) defeating the defending Champions Chennai Super Kings ( CSK ) in an intense final . If CSK had won , they would have performed the great escape act to retain the title . Such was their position till the play offs. Their performance did not look like that of Defending Champions till that point of time. On the celebrations in Kolkata , no comments !! The current season had nine teams – Kochi Tuskers banned reducing the teams from ten to nine.. Did anyone miss them ? Of course not , such was their performance last year which was their first year and which never progressed beyond that.. Their best players all got picked by the other franchisees. On the Controversy scale ( how can there may be a IPL season without this ) , this season , it did not scale up to matching the earlier seasons. No Lalit Modi , so things were quiet till we had five players suspended for spot fixing and talking too much on the state of affairs of how

I looked at my blog posts during the last twelve months and it was surprising that I did not cover the football in any of them . However , the last round of matches that went through last Sunday was so absorbing, that it forcing me to write on this topic. The fact, that the winner of the title was not decided until the last round of matches ( 20 teams , each play against one other once at home and away and so 38 matches are played over the August – May time frame ) and until the last minutes of the injury extra time of the last round match , added intensity to followers of two Football Clubs – Manchester City ( ManC ) and Manchester United ( ManU). Both teams were on equal points before the start of their 38th match and final match of the season. Both needed to win their last matches. ManC was playing at home , playing Queen Park Rangers who were fighting to avoid relegation threat and incidentally , the man at the helm of affairs of this team was the ex Manager of ManC and a former

I am fanatical and paranoid of my morning walks. I feel upset and dull if I miss my morning walk. The Walk gives me space for myself and also brings in fresh air and helps me to keep myself fit . Most needed to keep me energized and excited. Most times, I walk alone but I do enjoy the bi weekly beach walk with my colleagues and week end strolls with my wife as well. Walking to me is a great stress reliever and when I walk alone I find it the best . I get lot of ideas for various problems that I come across. Some of these ideas turn in to solutions and so I like the walks that I do on my own. . My walk alone last week was very funny and interesting and at the end of the walk I had no ideas except thinking about why it went that way and for what reasons. None of the above things in my first Para applied to this walk . Totally diverted by a companion who wanted to walk with me ! I was walking alone and wanted to do more than I would walk on a normal day. I would have done up to a kil

This Epic movie that was released in 1964 in its first version , was digitalized and was re-released in March 2012 -- after 48 years, with great work done on the tape by using Technology to the hilt ..With DTS version and fantastic sound impact , the movie was screened couple of weeks ago and drew full houses. That must be some sort of a record for a movie being screened again after a long gap and for it to run on full houses !I could not get tickets the first two weekends and the third time was lucky. My good friend Subram who helped me with the tickets tells me specifically, that i should mention that i watched the movie in "Couple seats" !! I must admit I was very excited to go and watch this movie. One must admire the effort on part of the team that converted the original version to its current form. The conversion gave the movie great shape and visual appeal.. I had watched the old version in my younger days and enjoyed the songs of this film , a great deal mostly enjoyi

April 2011 Vijay Mallya , Team Principal of Force India Formula One team, announced the launch of the Force India F1 Team Academy, sponsored by ExxonMobil .The academy, based in India, is an initiative aimed at identifying racing talent in the country, and probably identifying an Indian F1 driver. 　 Now you must be wondering why am I bringing this announcement that happened eleven months back to everyone's notice. Great reasons -- Read on 　 I was coming back from a domestic trip and getting a cab to get to my residence late in the evening , is not easy . Most of the regular travellers would agree with me on this . The regular pre paid private taxi service will have close to 30 passengers waiting to pay and get a bill. Then you go outside and will have to wait further another ten to fifteen minutes to get a cab allocated to you. All this will take time and one would want to reach home quickly rather than wait . The situation was no different last week. There was a big queue at the

Having written about my first flight experience, couple of weeks ago and comments on to that from my Onida colleague Nari as to whether I cut and pasted from my diary --I thought I should do more rewinds just to test my memory out . ( I did maintain diaries but stopped doing it since passing out from high school). I thought I should pen down my job interview and how I got in to my first job.. I had completed my Chartered Accountancy in July 1987 and had a more than three months of my internship to go till I could go and get in to a job. When you clear CA in your first attempt , you have many horns on your head !! I thought the company where I was an Intern , would make a offer to me . The company did make an offer to me but at a plant location that people do not go, unless there is no other alternative available . With little or poor transportation and Communication facilities , I was advised not to take up the offer and I took the advice. A little bit of history as to why I choose the

I was travelling last week and used one of the call taxi services to get to the airport.. Not always you get this kind of a driver -- who was very courteous , had tons of innocence on his questions and happy and contented . He called up well ahead of his scheduled time to be at my residence and indicated he knew how to get to my place and that he will be on time. That was reassuring since it was early morning and other transport options may not be available so easily. Drove steadily , stopped at signals although it was early morning and kept me engaged. As he just got in to the airport his two questions made me go back in time. How long have you been flying ? That was easy.. I said "close to 25 years " . The next question was " do you remember your first flight ? " I stuttered and said yes.. He asked " was it exciting ?" .. I said I flew with lots of tiredness and did remember the first flight.. Rewind .. I was in my last couple of months of my Industrial

The week end that went past ( Feb 11/12 ) was one of those hectic ones but I did have a good time. Plenty of things to do but I managed to do all of them and enjoyed doing so thoroughly. As I wrote down my week end check list of things to do during the mid week , I was overwhelmed with the things that I wanted to accomplish over the week end. The list had family lunch/ Dinners , visit to a temple, celebrations etc etc. It needed lot of planning , energy and enthusiasm , stringent timelines to be met , support of family and others. Here is the list that I went through over the week end. Saturday Morning beach walk with colleagues for one hour ( give another 45 minutes to get to the beach , yank , limber around ) Banking work post Breakfast - Enroute drop / pick up daughter from her class Noon - Lunch with In laws ( Acid Test ) at home so no travel time or ordering and waiting. All ready at home done by Mom and Wife ( how nice ) Post Lunch -- Fuel the car and do shopping for next week t

The time it took for the match to complete was aptly summed by Nadal's address to the crowd post the match -- He addressed them with " Good Morning Everyone ". The final that lasted five hours and fifty three minutes ( a five setter ) was a thriller with demonstration of strength of physical stamina of both the Gladiators (Djokovic and Nadal ), missed chances ( more to Djokovic than Nadal in terms of break points converted ) , support of support staff of both players who sat through this period of time and the crowd. It was early morning on Monday when Djokovic came out as winner defending his title. Both the men gave nothing away and when it looked like one player was taking the match away , the other one will bounce back with greater energy . Both men traded ferocious strokes trying to out power the other. Rallies lasted longer but none of them ever gave up chasing the ball in their side of the court. Their physical strain was visible only at the presentation cer