SRI'S Blog

Being at my organization is a great blessing – for several reasons and one of them is in terms of the organization  promoting Diversity and Inclusion – My company facilitates creating a diverse and inclusive environment all the time. One of the things that our Human Resources team has been helping with is to see possibilities of hiring candidates with diverse backgrounds and also candidates with physical/other  challenges .  When there was an opportunity that opened up in one of the teams that work for me , I requested the team to consider hiring a candidate who was challenged . As they went through the process of hiring , they came across a talented individual but the person was challenged in terms of hearing and speaking . The team wanted this person on board and what they did truly shows how much they value diversity and being inclusive . They looked at the profile of the job and then eliminated all those tasks that involved interacting over phone and any conversation oriente

The last week end I was at Mumbai and as I landed , I was informed both Uber and Ola drivers were on strike – The strike did not bother me as the good old  Kaala Peela service was available ( Black and Yellow regular taxi ) Later in the day , as I was leaving back , my cousin booked Uber . I was surprised since I thought the Hail taxis were off the road . But this one showed up and I got to chat with the driver – he looked very smart and as I engaged him on discussions about the strike , it was a meaningful conversation . He said he has been driving all the days of the strike ( the current day of the strike was day five ) . He said strikes are for few people and any issue had to be resolved through discussions and winning negotiations ! He said by striking , Ola nor Uber will go out of business and it is only the drivers who will lose their daily earnings .. He was so happy to serve and not join the strike – He spoke very well and articulated his views clearly – I was surprised by

Two events in a space of one week gave tons of happiness and joy --- The first was the annual Ford Rotary Digital Literacy Initiative event at which Ford announced the donation of 1500 Laptops ( yes only Laptops ) to more than 100 schools that were identified by various Rotary Clubs . Every year , this being a key event for the Rotary club of Madras South ( I am Rotarian from this club ) , there is a whole lot of effort made to make the event a great success .   This year , the event was made different to previous years because of the following : 1.       We gave away laptops at the event itself   to select clubs – this was possible because till last year there were desktops and being bulky could not be donated at the event . The recipients joy was no bound 2.       We had a video that covered the journey of this program for the past ten years – it was amazing to see the spread of the program starting locally in Chennai and reaching out to all parts of India covering the len

I went through two experiences with two service providers this week  , one was irritating for the way they handled a change that affected customers and the other  was a real"wow”feeling The first one was with my D2H provider – Been  a customer with them for a decade and found them to be usually agile and efficient and quick in handling concerns or issues. This time , they lost it. Having gone in to a battle with the broadcaster over payment issues , they knocked off close to twenty plus channels off the air . I happen to keep close tab on some of the channels that they knocked off because of the live telecast of football matches. As I tuned in , I saw a display that indicated that I had to give a missed call if I wanted to view that channel . And then I realized that I had to give close to each of the channels that were off air to get the telecast back. Each channel displayed  had a unique number to call . What a way to manage a change ?. Easy way would have been to advice

Planning for this had to be done pretty early--  Not an easy task—You had to plan at least four months in advance for you to get a good rates with the travel operator – The first thing that we debated on was to whether to go on our own or to get one of those readymade packages that are offered by various travel operators – The choice became easy once we decided not to go alone as we wanted company/ new friends etc. etc.— Do ensure negotiating an all Rupee rate than a mixed bag of Rupee and Euros – this was something that I found out later as I lost on the Rupee depreciating and ended up paying more for the Euro outflow – best to pay entire money at one go and get the best rate- Then the discussion was on which travel package to go for – This was a very tough one – Each operator has a plethora of packages to offer – just to give you more options and make the decision tough. We were specific about places that we wanted to visit and the time that we would spend – There are um

This may be a topic that is not of topical interest with football fever all over – But this was something that has been on my mind to blog about – just the way the CSK team went about winning the title, inspite of being away from the league for two years.   Some of the things they did right are worth mentioning :   Smart Buys : When the auction was on to buy players , CSK team buys went unnoticed .   They did not go after big names or with those that were high potential based on form . Some of the buys may have been intriguing at that time . Cases in point could be that of Watson , Rayudu, Harbhajan , Deepak Chahar , Shardul etc – Debates rolled on in terms of why some of the thirty plus players for a short version of the game where speed and agility come in to play ?. Most of the critics wrote off CSK based on the team and its buys during the auction itself .   CSK surprised   all of them with winning the title. Retention : The team retained three that mattered and that

March 23 rd  2018 was a red letter for  this village that houses 25 families of the Irula Community . We had a very nice function to declare this village as free from ODF. A total of 25 individual toilets were built in a very quick time and made available for use for the families . If good things have to happen, they will happen – No one can stop  it – The background to this construction of the first phase of a total of 300 toilets is an interesting one . Bill Ford Better World Challenge awards grants for projects that will significantly improve health and sanitary conditions for people. As part of that US $ 140,000 was awarded to work on improving sanitation and hygiene conditions in India. The Project managed by two lovely ladies based out of Ford US Jennifer Leonard and Nihala choose  the Kanchipuram  district of India, ( being close to the communities that Ford is in and also to facilitate volunteering  ) and 300 SMART toilets were to be

The other day , as I got back home , my mother asked me – Did you read the news on Begum Hamida  passing awayin today’s Hindu ( March 14 th ) ( http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/former-rs-member-begum-hamida-dies-at-101/article23168427.ece ) ?  The news items was somewhere in the middle pages but I certainly did not read it till my mother pointed out . I had no idea of the connection my mother had with this lady . I start to chat and my mother talked about how Begum Hamida had helped her and family to survive. This happened in 1958 some sixty years ago. My grandfather was the Librarian at the National Defence Academy at  Khadakvasla  and he passed away, leaving behind his wife ( my grandmother ), my mother and her two siblings all of a sudden. They had nowhere to go and were broke financially and were lost and had no life to look forward to. It was then that Begum Hamida stepped in to their lives. what would have happened if she had not stepped in , is difficu

Over the last weekend , took a trip down to visit some of the DivyaDesam temples( A  Divya Desam  is one of the 108  Vishnu  temples that are mentioned in the works of the  Alvars  (saints). Of the 108 temples, 105 are in  India , one is in  Nepal , and last two are believed to be outside the Earthly realms ) in and around Sirkazi, a town that is close to 250Kms away from Chennai . There are around 12 temples to visit and we hired a guide who could take us around efficiently and get us darshan . You may ask why a guide but we realized what a good decision it was to hire a guide – Yes, the Google maps will guide us to all these temples but they would not help us with the timings that the temple opening and closing . Most of the 12 temples are private and so the priests choose based on that day , the time they wanted to open and close and sometimes they are open for short periods of time . The guide that we had,  not only knew the terrain but he knew the Priests in the temples pe

This happened to me around a month ago – It was a Friday   night , and I just got to bed and must have been half asleep when the ring tone for my SMS rang continuously – Must have been four messages – I do not get many SMS messages these days   – may be one a day and four at that time was unusual . I hauled myself out of bed to take a look – The next five minutes , my emotions ran   from shock to anxiety to disbelief to high tension and finally some relief but   ended with lot of worries – What I read was four messages indicating OTP numbers being generated for Foreign Currency transactions . As I was just trying to figure out , I got two more SMS messages that indicated completion of transactions in British Pound Currency and US Dollars—The total of the transactions that were executed were half my credit limit   With my pulse pounding , I called the Call Center ( I remembered this instantly which was my advantage at that point ) , punched in my Card Details, verified my credenti

I love to follow this tournament that happens once in two years – Some reasons for me following this tournament so closely are : 1.       The Youngsters play cricket with gay abandon – They show no nerves on the field—Nothing to lose for them . 2.       Most of the future senior cricketers for all countries emerge from this tournament – The Kohli’s , Yuvraj’s , Jadeja , Southee , Willamson  and so on 3.       I follow the Indian team more closely – just because of one man – Rahul Dravid who is the Coach --  There cannot be a better person to mentor these kids and prepare them for the big stage. India won the tournament hands down – They played far superior cricket  to the other countries and to me they were not challenged by any of the  nations. Yes, there were some nervy moments in the matches but at no point they looked like a side that will not win the tournament . India started their campaign with a thumping win over Australia ( whom they met in the final as well ) , ro

It is my habit to visit the local temple on  every Sunday mornings . Today was no different. I visited the temple , offered prayers and thanks and did something that I do not do usually. Just sat down on the aisle and closed my eyes – within seconds , someone tapped me on my shoulder—As I opened my eyes , the person asked ,” Are you Srikanth  ?“ I said "yes" and then realized it was Jeeva or Jeevanantham my classmate from school of the 1983 batch at Don Bosco . We were seeing each other after nearly 34 years. I was surprised that he was able to recognize me – I was surprised at myself that I was able to recognize him – Both of us had changed so much – We forgot for a few seconds that we were at the temple – But quickly we moved aside – Started talking about the good old school days – Time flew – It must have been close to 75 minutes that we got lost in our thoughts and recollections. We talked about our teachers , the schools itself , our classmates and so on. Jeeva tol

Roger Federer’s last grand slam win before the start of the 2017 season was in 2012 at  Wimbledon – He did get to the finals  of the Grand Slam events in 2013/14/15 but there was no Winner Trophythat he could lay his hand on. So the expectation of many fans including me for the 2017 season was very modest . I thought he will announce his retirement with the 17 Grand Slam wins that he won till 2012.  Not to be – 2017 was an outstanding year for Federer – he won two out of the three Grand Slam tournaments that he competed in – he tactically skipped the French Open to save his knees from the clay court endurance – Went on to Wimbledon easily  and was favorite to win the US but lost in the Quarters to Del Potro and ended the year at No 2 ranking skipping a tournament that if he had participated and won would have taken him back to the No 1 world ranking – For a 35 year old, this deed on the  tennis court was remarkable – The turnaround was the start of the year Aus Open where he defe