SRI'S Blog

  The Covid Pandemic was just  too cruel to the families of the people who passed away , just like that . They just disappeared .It just took them away in a  a short span of time and in a flash. Most families were left  not  only to grieve the loss of the family member but to deal with  many situations  that they would have never imagined that they would be dealing with.  Yes , accidents do happen and there are fatalities   but the pandemic was brutal in taking away  many lives. And just as many lost their close friends , near and dear ones , I lost some friends.  I could not digest the fact that they were no more. But the families of these friends who were colleagues or ex colleagues suffered the most—   Here is why it was so painful to the families ---  a list of  things that we can easily fix . No one wants to die but it is inevitable and what needs to be done is some amount of sharing with the family so ...

  CSK won the IPL title for 2021 , I would say with ease .. But winning with ease was not mostly expected based on what happened during the previous season. The Dad s army had not qualified for the Knock outs , the team looked out of sorts and the team was just not competitive.. And one knows in sport , once you are knocked off the pedestal , how difficult it is to climb back to glory. It takes enormous effort to rebuild –It was an amazing turnaround – Did they change too many things … No not really. They just stuck to the same team ( mostly ) , relied on experience , did not do too much data analysis , built relationships , gave freedom to the players and allowed them to deliver building enormous trust and credibility and making the team so bonded and fierce.   Did they make big changes to the team ?   They let go of few players ( Vijay / Watson and that man Kedar Jadav and Bhajji as well ) – Traded in and brought in Robin Utthappa – Splurged 9.25 INR on K Gowtham and ...

  This group of young volunteers based out of North Chennai – to be precise Vysarpadi were an unknown till the Covid Wave 2 showed its fury.   This  team of young graduates have been running a Night school for  around 160 children in Vysarpadi for close to ten years or so . They have a piece of land nestled amongst the densely populated houses and huts and Housing Board Flats --on which a shed type arrangement ( Look like a Container  ) has been made (neat and clean and well maintained ) and children of various ages come in during the evening hours and are taught various subjects. The Night school is run by these fiercely determines group of graduates who want to change the perception/ the tag that North Chennai is known for and believe that this change can happen only through Education and Education.   Well what made them well known during the second wave ?  Noticing that there was shortage of beds and more in particular Oxygen availability, t...

  I am not sure what the expectations were when Federer played in the 2021 edition of the Wimbledon ?   Many think that he holds a magic racquet that he swings at will and wins championship. Not really .. He does create his own magic when playing on the court and is of     course     a treat to watch but he is a human being after all. For me , I had very little expectations from the Champion .He had resumed the Grand slam pursuit at the Clay courts of Roland Garros and then after winning three rounds , quit the tournament to prepare for the grass courts of Wimbledon.   and   to preserve his knee as the Clay courts are very demanding the knee. As a pre cursor to the   preparation for Wimbledon , Federer does play the Halle open every year   and has won it several times. Not this time , he was ousted by Young Canadian , Felix Aliassime and that probable suggested the form and what to expect from him   at Wimbledon.   Federer ...

  Last Sunday ( Feb 28 ) was a super charged up afternoon/ evening .  The reason was simple . Plan was to go to  the school where I did my Higher secondary schooling and the visit was after 38 years !.   Every year , some of us who are part of the school class WhatsApp group contribute a tidy sum to the school . The school is an aided school and so help is always welcome . For the past years , we have been just transferring the sum to the Coordinator ( this guy not only keeps us going but also finds classmates and adds them to the group ) who would then go to the school and handover . But this time , someone proposed that we get to the school and handover .  Some were skeptical because of the pandemic but finally nine of us said we will make it. And all of us will follow safety protocols .The coordinator said we could be in at around 3:30 Pm and he will ensure that the current Headmaster and our Accounting teacher would be there.   When I went , I...

    The Australia – India Cricket Test   series played in the summer in Australia was a fascinating duel in the purest form of this game for the Border – Gavaskar trophy   –   The trophy is named after two legends of each country , Allan Border of Australia and Sunil Gavaskar for India.   With the T20 gaining popularity , at times even the One day matches seemed to be a bore. And there were enough voices that said – Test Cricket is done and dusted , give it a decent funeral . But this series just turned Test cricket in to one of the most intense battles over the five days and with the   competitiveness over which they were played , it brought back   the thrill of the game over the longer version.   The first test was a sort of a disaster for the Indian team if one would   describe it . Having taken a first inning lead , one would have expected the team to set a target for the second inning for the Aussies and defend it . Bit a ...

  There has been so many memes, videos   going around on the poor showing by the CSK team in the current IPL 2020 –   Many of the Memes are horrific and reflected poorly on MSD and his team . Yes , the team has not done well and will not make it to the playoffs   but to me , criticizing them so harshly is also unfair – This is the 13 th edition of the IPL and barring the editions when the team was banned from playing , every season , CSK have given tons of entertainment with their brand of cricket , winning titles and have largely remained a strong force in this format – They excelled in this format , creating intensity and tension and then moments to celebrate ( Sometimes , it would be the last ball that will give you the joy ). The yellow army and Whistle Podu are such an integral part of many a CSK follower .   The surprise win in 2018 did build expectations – It was an aging team in 2018 itself but the title win made everyone quiet and not worry about lon...

  The  Little Heart Surgeries was going on well – Over 300 surgeries done since July 2017 and funding had been secured to do another 225 surgeries  when the Covid struck this project as well – Medical camps that identified children with the defect could not happen , more so surgeries could not performed due to the risk. It was very painful as there were children that needed the treatment to be normal post the surgery . Discussions continued with the medical team and the Rotary and slowly things started opening up , a solution was found . However the solution needed additional funding and this requirement was to adhere  to Covid norms in terms of testing the patient  and other requirements for the medical team for them to be safe – But the approval from Rotary International for the additional fund need came overnight . And so , the surgeries have commenced .. We have had eight surgeries post August  so far and they have been successful.  This is reall...

  The above picture came through our Whatsapp Group of the society  last Sunday evening around 7 pm or so.  The person who posted it said that this was lying on the North side at the rear of the building.The amount of panic that it created cannot be described. One suggested call the Police. There was panic in the entire building . More chats exchanged until one of the inmates mustered courage and pulled the blanket off and they saw this . The moment this picture came through , there was sigh of relief , But what anxious moments one went through. One Suggestion was something went wrong behind the building and someone threw this over the wall in to our compound.  ...  It was a messy one hour that the group members went through.  As we found out later , some one had dumped the blinds at the rear and had not removed it. This was not a recent event and one  the inmates who was affected by this as he could not park his car , decided to create sensation by dr...

This happened over the last week. We used to live in Jawahar Nagar a quiet  colony in the suburbs of Central Chennai ( Now not a suburb ) and our house was the last on the small 30 feet road. The house was built in 1970 and my father ensured that there was more than  adequate space for a kitchen garden . He liked to work on the garden over the weekends and that was his favourite pastime . In addition to vegetables ,he had also planted coconut trees ( four trees ) in addition to Mango and others and all of them started yielding three or four years later. Our opposite house was sold sometime in 1990 and we had a new owner .   He started to build a very small Pillaiyar temple , by carving out space from his front yard but some portion most of the temple ended on the road.  We had mixed feeling about this but did not do anything .  The Kumbashibegam was done in 1996 and till we moved ou t in 2001 , we were regular visitors on a daily basis to see and g...

I have said this before .   I watch these matches with great interest .   This is the tournament   from where the likes of Virat Kohli, Kane Williamson , Rabada , Eoin Morgan and other stars emerge and   give a clear indication of where they are destined . So this year it was no different.   Followed the matches and also the Indian colts very closely India was the favorite and defending Champion. Easy matches through the league and the Quarter final and then the semifinal was against favorites – Yes of Course Pakistan , India came through quite easily . One important fact was that they bowled out all of their opponents till the final . And that was extremely creditable. Batting relied mostly on the top order and the middle order was suspect and that proved India losingt in the final. Bangladesh was the surprise packet . They came through the other half , quite efficiently and made people notice them. One could see that they wanted to win the title and ...

The notification from the Chennai Metro Water Board that they will deliver water needs within 2 days made my heart glad. Whether they deliver or not in 2 days is a big question but even if they do in seven days   and on a scheduled time basis will give Big Big relief to people like me and others in my society   and throughout the city who have gone bonkers trying to manage the water ordering , storage and supply and maintaining water availability schedules. This issue built up stress to many in the city. Ours is a very small flat – just five   and with two out of the five flats being let out , the onus is on the balance three to manage the booking and the affairs. One may say it is an easy task compared to other big assn where number of flats are more – I am not disputing that .. But everyone   is going through massive amount of time being spent – on   discussions , arguments etc etc. just to manage the water. Early in January of this year , we threes...