SRI'S Blog

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 3...

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 step...

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 terra...

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 Detai...

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...

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 yea...

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...