SRI'S Blog

The July month fund raising Program done by the Rotary Club that I am part of,  was  a roller coaster event . We went through several swings in  plan , execution ,support , guidance etc., . Planning for this event began some five months back .  The reason to do the fund raising event was compulsive. Rtn Saravanan ( Sara ) was a man possessed with this purpose ,to help out children suffering from Congenial Heart Disease  (CHD )  He took it upon himself to establish a fund that will help these young kids get their lives back. Once he explained us the purpose , we all signed up to do the event that will raise funds , that at a minimum will help perform 200 surgeries a year. The fund raising committee met several times ( I was part of this  ). The key decision was to decide on the nature of the fund raiser. Normally fund raisers are done through musical concerts or dramas etc. But Sara had different ideas . He did not want the regular musical show. H...

Couple of weeks back ,t hey were the Most Trending on all social media suddenly .  All for right reasons – Any sport that involves women probable has a lesser following than a sport where men are involved and if it was Cricket , it has to be Tendulkar’s ,  the Kapil Dev and Kohlis of the world that would attract attention from the elite down to the common man . Everyone will talk about them -- Who would bother about a Mithali Raj or a Harmanpreet Kaur ? Do the names ring a bell ? It did and  people did bother about Mithali and the team that played in the Women’s Cricket Cup. Suddenly the whole of India was following the Indian women’s  teams progress in the World cup . There was live coverage - Airports , restaurants and the like were showing the matches . Everyone was talking about them . There were several FB posts . All these augured well for the Women in action . Was it unusual for a world cup to happen ? No , not at all . The Women’s world cup has bee...

We were invited to visit the above NGO by the Founder who had  so much energy , zeal , enthusiasm . When he met us in Chennai in mid of June , we were  floored by his energy and his vision of what he wanted to do. So , over this Saturday ( 8 th July ) ,decided to do a day trip to the area , where this NGO operates and which is at the foothills of the Yelagiri hills.. Strangely, decided to take the train rather than the car drive and found it most comfortable The Founder indicated that he will pick us at the Jolarpettai stations but we decline politely and said we will come to the small village where his office was. The hostel and the office of the NGO  is located at Mullai village , Nimmiyampet ,in Vanniyambadi around 200 Kms away from Chennai on the Chennai – Bangalore Highway.  We were greeted by this person with warmth and love and he had driven all by himself to get to the village from his home which is on top of the Yelagiri hills. I offered to driv...

So, when the trip was announced some four months back , the booking was close to around 60 people ( read Rotarians and families ) joining in . The bus could take 45—Sriram the Champ of the trip would have preferred 30—that was his number that he could take as a group and talk with attention undivided  . So we had a waitlist and a RAC set up. But finally , due to various reasons – people may not have seen through the four months’ time window on planning  – marriages coming up right on the trip days, some illness , general drop outs , the group that finally made the trip was a bunch of 28 – Rotarians . their spouses …. That was a number which delighted Sriram Two main reasons why these trips become so successful – First one , the Organiser Renjit Joseph who is a master in this – Renjit has been thanklessly doing this job of arranging either an outstation trip or Heritage ones as this for the past 13 years or more for our Rotary Club. So , what is special that makes pe...

It would be not be possible for me  not to write about Roger Federer and his 18 th Grand slam win at the 2017 Australian Open – to me , a diehard Federer fan , it was one of the most astonishing comebacks from injury to win the title and when no one  including himself was expecting him to do so. The final itself was a fantastic match – Up against his nemesis and old rival Nadal ( who himself was coming back from injury )—Federer had all odds stacked against him – his record was poor against Nadal—especially in the finals of a Grand Slam event – he had not won a Grand slam since Wimbledon 2012. He had been in the finals subsequently, but was outfoxed by Djokovic.. He was no longer young –  He was coming back after a six month layoff --It was two old veterans clashing – Few things happened in the draw that may have helped both men get to the finals – Andy Murray was sent packing by Mischa Zverev and Djokovic by an inspired Dennis Istomin who played inspirationa...

With family , I attended the annual Agaram Foundation meet on Jan 8 th  and what a good decision, it was to go with family, especially my daughter . As most of you may be  aware , the Agaram Foundation supports educational needs of needy children – this is at the College level— The event  was on a Sunday early morning and we spent around four hours at the event – by the time we came out , there was lot emotion , tears but joy on seeing and hearing out great success stories that were narrated on stage by the ones that benefitted from this excellent Foundation set by Actor Suriya and his brother and family. Great work  done to reach where they are today but I am sure they are going to scale this pretty heavily. I have had the good fortune to work with the Agaram team on many occasions ( Ford works with this NGO on various initiatives ) but this was the first time that I got to hear firsthand  the lovely journey of various successful students . The A...