SRI'S Blog

It was a defining moment when I finished 15 years with Ford.. It was defining for many reasons… 1. The employee number that I carry is a special number .. No :001 and so for the number 1 to stay with the same company for fifteen years sends in a great message to the young youngsters. 2. I was not expecting a celebration for this , but the teams that work with me more than surprised me .. Cake cutting , a lovely pictorial frame of my pictures was done up …. People worked on it to get the right pictures and frame it .. Thank you guys. 3. A write up on the Ford website that brought in lot of attention and comments on to the post was truly a humbling experience. 4. The comments told that I was doing the right thing in many ways and it was testimonial to my leadership.. What more can you want ? 5. The challenge bar is much higher post all this -- Need to raise the bar , not just maintain it . Comments by various people helped me walk the journey of the past fifteen years. I realised how ha...

The Events in Egypt , Yemen , Libya and smoke in Bahrain are all great signs of what people power can do . No matter what type of military power you have with you or other support you possess , people power can easily decimate these powers in no time. Egypt was classic . A dictator overthrown after thirty years in power. It was so simple . People wanted him to go and they did it without any great strategy or tact. The common theme of "Oust Mubarak " brought them together. In this context , Anna Hazare has brought in attention in India with various groups in multi cities and for all good reasons . A simple man , who gave notice of his fasting to the government to take forward the Lok Pal bill would not have expected such a support through out India for what he is trying to do . May be the timing of his call was just about right . With the background of Egypt events, and what was happening locally in India,with the 2G scam involving crores , the Adarsh Housing Scam , the Common...

There was so much of expectation from the India Pak match . Everyone was involved -- the Politicians , the bureaucrats , the filmi stars , the common man and of course the teams. You had the two leaders of the playing nations watching the match amongst back end work by the Diplomats. It was all exciting stuff at the Mohali stadium . India had to win and there was no other result that one can compromise with. This was the final as far as any Indian or Pakistan was concerned. Winning this match was more important than the final. India has a good record in the World Cup against the Pakis . All the five matches that we played in the previous World Cup against Pakistan were won by us and this record could not be blemished and so extreme hype and pressure was built up on the eve of the match with many a Corporate India facilitating the viewing of the match in one way or the other . The prematch talk was about who will fire in the match . For sure the name of Wahab Riaz did not figure in tha...

India won the World cup -- after a long gap of 28 years . They were the favourites to win , but to ride that tag and end up winners is something else . I hear everyone saying after the win " I told you. India will win " -- Does not matter. We have won the title and that is awesome for the Cricket fans of this country. The final was a fantastic match . It had to be and brought out the best team to fight hard to win it. Sanga and his men , lost the plot , I thought at the team selection stage. What else can you say ? Changing a winning combo is never good and to change four players from his winning semi final line up and then play a player who just arrived in to Mumbai was too much for the asking. Also too much was made in pre match reviews about Randiv and what he could do with Murali on the pitch. SL should have had one change - replace the injured Mathews with Thissara Perera. Ajatha Mendis had the best average as a bowler till the Semis -- less than three a over and they dr...

The stage is set for the semi finals .. The line up is on expected lines -- except for South Africa missing out ( I can add " as usual " ) . India - Pakistan and SL Meeting up with Kiwis. In the first Quarter final match , two unpredictable team met up .. Pakistan was more predictable that day. West Indies were never in the match and Pakistan was the first to get to Mohali.Nothing to talk about the match ! It was funny that Bangladeshis turned up to cheer Pakistan -- Why -- West Indies team defeated Bangladesh in the group match and revenge had to be taken. If Pakistan defeats West Indies , it is as good as Bangladesh defeating them !! Great story of Cross country love and friendship amongst enemies !! The second match was the one that I was waiting for ..Ind- Aussie Match . Aussie had to play for lot of pride as holders of the World Cup. Ponting said that Aussies would play the Aussie way and Dhoni responded -" India will play the India way.".The stage was set . A...

The qualification matches ended mercifully.. I say this because , most of us knew which of the teams would go through to the Quarterfinals. It was no surprise that we had Australia , South Africa , India , Pakistan , Srilanka , West Indies , England and New Zealand go through . As Allan Border said before the start of these matches , Bangladesh would be the team to create the odd nuisance value but would not qualify and how right he was . The most improved team from the affiliates was Ireland and I think they would go to do well in the future. Kenya , Canada , Zimbabwe and the Dutch are far away from the top eight to trouble them . Now on to the knock out matches and many a heart is going to break as we finish the quarter final matches . The last week of the qualification matches had very good matches in store and it was no surprise that England was involved in one more tension filled nail baiting finish. England took on the Windies needing to win to stay in contention. Bangladesh on ...

New Zealand Pak Match The New Zealand - Pakistan match was a great match . Pakistan fielded first and all was quiet till the 45th over of the NZ innings . Pakistan did well till that point , pushing the Kiwis to the back foot and having a good dominance over the game. Birthday boy Ross Taylor changed all that , sent them on a unforgettable leather hunt. 114 runs came off in six overs as Taylor tore in to the Paki attack and sent the ball over the ropes with ease. It was carnage . If Rawalpindi express Akhtar gave away 28 runs in one over , his colleague Abdur Razzack bettered him. He conceded 30. Taylor's magnificent attack pushed NZ past 300 mark and from then on Paki were never in the match . Twenty Twenty has brought in this element of attack by the batsmen and Taylor played some audacious shots as Pakis who did well for 44 overs of the Kiwi innings could not believe that they played badly for just six overs of the 50 overs and lost. Pakis were also bent back by some good swing ...

England were in the thick of action and become famous for both right and wrong reasons. First the right reason -- They defended a small total against a team that is known to "Choke" -- you are right against South Africa . SA were sailing at 124 for three at one stage , chasing 172 for a win and lost four wickets -- three on the same score of 124 and one at 127 and then England realised that they were playing against the "chokers" and nailed it in . Broad bowled dead straight and was promptly rewarded . Now South Africa have to redeem themselves.. And their next match is against India .South Africa normally play well in the round robin but not in the knock out and so this should be a big wake call for Graeme Smith and his men. England for the wrong reasons England played Ireland and they put a total that they thought was a winning one and then had Ireland on the mat at 111for five chasing 328 for a win. And it all became messy for England after that. Kevin O'Brie...

The Cricket World Cup Action so far The matches have gone on predictable form so far. The minnows have been generally outplayed and questions will be raised on their participation in the future world cups . The ICC has already trimmed the teams from the current 14 to 10 for the next One Day Series World Cup. Seemed the right thing to do with teams like Kenya and Canada out of depth at this level. New Zealand and Pakistan thrashed Kenya while Srilanka did the same to Canada. The Dutch gave the run for the money to the English but the English prevailed due to their experience at the end over's. India played out Bangladesh -- Bangladesh ran up more runs than they should have but at no point they threatened to win after India had put up a winning score. Sehwag and Kohli sizzled and that was good enough irrespective of how you bowled. All this set up the weekend matches between Lanka and Pakis and India and the English. The Pak SL match , although it went to the wire , I had no worries ...

The World cup is back in to the Indian subcontinent and there can be no other place than the sub continent to get the crowds in. Which part of the world would you see a packed stadium for a practice match ? The India Australia practice match played at Bangalore on Sunday had a good turnout and the match was watched with intensity and with India running out winners, what more can you want from a Indian fan perspective ?! With 14 teams and 49 matches to be played to decide the eventual winner , cricket fans all over the world will be talking nothing else but obviously cricket and their favourites. While the West Indians dominated the first three editions ( 75 & 79 ) and were the favourites to win the third time ( 83 ) , till Kapil's Devil's turned it on , with Kapil's catch to get rid of Viv Richards and Sandhu's in swinger to Greenidge being the talk of the town even today. Kris Srikkanth hit only 38 runs in that final match but he can still be proud that it was the ...

Over this week end there was an interesting get together. It was a strange one to me . I will tell you why I felt strange but very happy to be part of the gathering. I have heard of many Alumni gatherings .. School batch mates gathering , College batch mates , Some Club members gathering etc., This get together was a meeting of people who once worked for a Company ( majority of them have moved on ) and a few who are still working with the same company. It was a well planned and well attended get together. Although close to 100 signed up , around 56 of them turned up to meet each other. Most of us worked with this organisation in the early 1990's and had lot of bonding for each other. We all worked in Chennai or through Tamilnadu and later in major metros and the Company Headquarters in Mumbai. It was very nostalgic. Some of us were seeing each other after nearly 15- 18 years. Appearances changed. Hair loss , Weight gain being very prominent. People have moved on , some have very su...

The Fund Raising Program at our Club Rotary Madras South The fund raising event at the Rotary club is an annual event . Each Rotary club raises money to do as many community projects as they can. So, Fund raising project is a key event in a Rotary Club's calendar. This year the event was special . We had our lady Rotary member Asha Marina, who is the Club's Fund Raising Director spearhead the whole effort and what a good job she did, can be figured out easily as you read this post. The Rotary Madras South ( I am a member of this club ) board agreed that the event to raise funds would be a Picnic Car rally. Key things that had to be done were : 1. Get a reputable organisation to conduct the rally. The Madras Motor Sports Club was approached to conduct the rally and they agreed. 2. Lining up sponsors was the next big thing. Ford in India agreed to be the Gold sponsor . LIC and Inno Geo city were other affiliate sponsors. For Ford , to partner with Rotary, it connected very well ...

Week end work --Saturday - List of things to do -- Get them done and …. ? Had plenty of things to do on Saturday. Had to get to three banks -- two of them nationalised and one private bank . Got to complete few open items with all three of them. You might ask - "So what ? The fact was that certain things whenever we attempted to complete on the previous occasions with the same banks, were pushed back , rejected , person not available etc… So , to me it was great to do what we were able to do. Then the day went on great lines .. Had a afternoon quick Nap , Went to the latest craze mall , got a parking slot as I entered ( what luck ) , completed shopping in spite of the mad crowds. Did a mini walk in the evening , Had dinner with my in laws who were visiting us ( very sensitive and had to get this right ) and watched my favourite team play well and beat their rivals 5 -0 in football ( ManU beat Birmingham City ) , watched the sports quiz, dialled in and answered a good question and ...

The Onions impact Over the week end , I went to a Veggie food chain of restaurants for a evening snack . I like Sambar Vadai and Onion Rava Dosa. Both orders were taken . The surprise came in the delivery of the first item and in refusing delivery of the second item. The Sambar vadai came minus the nice sprinkling of grated onion dressed up on the Vadai . As the first item was delivered , the non availability of any food item where Onion had a major content was expressed. I realised with the spiralling prices, hoteliers have taken a easy route. Just avoid serving them . I can understand , with the prices fluctuating , they may not be able to price their stuff as well .. So much for what Onions can do !! The Onion jokes had a field day at the Humour club first meeting of the year as well. Some changes in the way the Humour club is functioning.. There were lot of decorations at the entrance , stage, backdrop etc., to make it colourful... and to the audience , a new lucky dip ( thr...

Happy New year Wishes The Best Break I had from work It was one of those good , just long enough breaks that I had. Although I was wired all the time , I was under no pressure to respond , call etc., and this was probably due to the fact , that most of the world was closed down at the this time and hence it was the best time to be away from work. It also showed how global our dependencies are and the need to plan your vacation to suit global needs. But the balance has to happen to match local needs through the year as well and that is going to be a huge challenge. For the moment ,enjoyed the 10 day break from coming to office ( including two week ends ) I did travel out and also spend equal time at home just doing nothing. And just doing nothing was not at all easy but to be honest , I did try not to do anything. The travel out was fantastic. I covered close to around 1400 Kms .Went to Coorg . Used the Chennai - Bangalore - Mysore - Coorg road . It was a pleasant surprise to see the co...

The Ashes -- Third Test The Aussies bounced back in to the Ashes reckoning with a big win in the third test. This was largely possible due to Mitchell Johnson who was not in the team for the second test which the Aussies lost . Johnson playing in his home ground at Perth batted with gusto in the first innings and then had England in all sorts of bother with four wickets in 27 balls to give Australia the edge in the first innings . Then Watson and "Mr Cricket" Mike Hussey ensured that England had a target that they could never chase in the fourth innings . Ryan Harris chipped in with the wickets along with Johnson in the second innings and Aussies were home and dry. That leaves the series tied at one each with two matches to go. To me, Mike Hussey has been the big influence on the Aussie team so far . He has had a lean trot in the last two years but from the first test of this Ashes Series , he has been in form , fresh on legs , great body language on the field. Aussies norm...

All Cricket fans will be excited by what England has done … The Ashes series is not overyet but the English have created the buzz and in line with my earlier blog on what I thought about series. It is very exciting when what you anticipate happens and so ……I am excited !! England did a neat job. It was clear that from the drawn result of the first test , the Aussie defeat was coming for sure very quickly. England bounced back with a strong batting display in the second innings of the first test to frustrate the Aussies and earn a creditable draw. Aussies in their prime would have overrun them after taking a sizable lead . But not to be.. With Alastair Cook in great form ( close to 450 runs in just three innings so far ) and with Trott becoming the Rahul Dravid "Wall" equivalent for England , Strauss getting a hundred , England set themselves well to draw the first test. Some thoughts on Cook - I wonder what Strauss, the England captain must be thinking of what he said on Co...

The plan to get away was soaking for a long time but it took the "spirit of energy" to execute it . Late evening a month back , we jumped up and down , scrambled websites for fares , booked tickets for onward and return in a jiffy and then got ourselves winded to get the accommodation and transportation done . Over time as the date of the journey became nearer , one member backed off due to school commitments of his daughter ( how much we missed him and his tender care for children was evident during the trip ) . As you go through the link to the photo album , you know who made the trip and who did not ( guess out ). This was my first trip past Ooty .. It was a nice drive down from Ooty to get to the terrain of the jungle. Masinagudi is just before the point where the Mudhumalai Forest Sanctuary begins. ( It is on the Ooty Mysore Road and you can get in from Mysore as well )For those who are not comfortable with the drive up or down the hills , there are 36 hairpin curves dow...

The Ashes Series Australia Versus England An Ashes series has so much of hype leading up to the matches. In the last fifteen years Australia have been the dominant side . England had a brief spell of ascendancy in 2005 as Flintoff and some reverse swing bowling by Simon Jones helped them win the Ashes . But for this summer Ashes, being played in Australia , the Aussies seem to have given up on the series even before it has started. Their own fans have predicted a English win and that is unbelievable if one had followed the way the Aussies have played their cricket on the last decade. There are good reasons as to why the media in general and the Aussie fans predict a English win. Here are some of my thoughts England have been playing very good cricket for the past year. They won the T 20 and under Strauss have been able to produce a fine balanced side The Aussie team is aging. With the departure of McGrath , Warne , Hayden , Langer and Gilchrist , the team has lost talent and I have no ...

It was Diwali and a long week end-- It helped … Spending time with family , meet up and get blessings of elders and relatives , eat a lot , catch up with friends who do not stay in Chennai but make it a point to come down to their hometown for Diwali -- All in all a great way to recharge low charge batteries .. And prepare for more challenges ..Overall there was lot of happiness and being away from your regular pressures The rains on Sunday nearly took the sheen off the long week end .. It was just not a good idea to stay indoors . I also realised how much we need sunshine .. Hot . Hotter is okay but not rains . What the rains did help on Sunday was to get some afternoon nap that set me up to watch the Formula one ( the penultimate race of this season ) at Brazil and also watch some football of rival teams. First the Formula One -- As indicated in my earlier blog , the races are no more interesting . They are drab , dull and have no excitement to offer . Steve Slater , Gary Anderson an...