Chennai

Diary With a Difference… Standing out as A Guide To Value System !!!

NatarajanLeave a comment

” We learn from the Best” is the theme of Diary 2013 brought out by VNC Group of industries , Tamilnadu .

IN The foreword, the Management Team of VNC …leading manufacturers of welding electrodes …..state ” At VNC, our lives are driven
by values. Values that we have risen with. Values that are the Best guide and also the Best measure of Success… Values which are best learnt from the stalwarts of Humanity, who inspire us Everyday !!!”

What an wonderful message conveyed thro their Annual Diary!!!

Team at VNC has zeroed in on the following great personalities and highlighted the respective individual ‘s core personal attribute in the Diary.

1. Charlie Chaplin…..What made Charlie Chaplin the greatest comedian ever was the HONESTY with which he essayed his roles.

2.Guru Gobind Singh …. Even today Guru Gobind Singh is reveredfor having provided PURPOSE to his followers by creating the” KHALSA”.

3.Thomas Edison…. The world thanks Thomas Edison for the lesson in PERSEVERENCE that he taught by failing and trying again and again several times before inventing the Light Bulb.

4.Adi Shankaracharya…. India is indebted to ADI SHANKARACHARYA for bringing about UNITY among the various schools of thought

and the revival of Hindusim..

5.Martin Luther King Jr…..Respect follows Martin Luther King Jr. in USA and the world because of his relentless fight for the

EQUALITY OF Human beings…

6. Saint Joan of Arc…. The warrior Saint Joan Of Arc won freedom for French people against all odds only because of the

CONVICTION..she had in her duty towards GOD..

To sumup, TEAM VNC has conveyed and reconfirmed their core values as under…

1. HONESTY

2. PURPOSE OR GOAL

3.PERSEVERENCE

4. UNITY and Uniformity

5. EQUALITY

6. CONVICTION towards ACCOMPLISHMENT OF SET GOAL

Next comes Iceing on the top of the Cake !!!! TEAM VNC has posed a question … ” What possibly can be common between a certain thin

HALF naked gentleman { MAHATMA GANDHI } who woke up a Great Nation India and “Best Wire” ? ”

Best Wire is one of the products of VNC…. The answer to the question is …INNER STRENGTH !!!

I must say that VNC diary is not a mere diary reflecting routine features ….It is a perfect guide for those who wish to follow the value system in whichever profession or business they pursue .

Last but not least, the Diary is a good Hand Book for the younger generation of today to understand and appreciate the value system in their life.

Source::: VNC Company Diary received from my Friend Shri.Vijayakumar of VNC

Natarajan

Ref…www.vncgroup.com email to …info@vncgroup.com

” என்னை சங்கராசார்யா என்று சொல்லுவார்கள் “!!!

NatarajanLeave a comment

அம்பத்தூரில் வசித்த கம்பெனி தொழிலாளி ஒருவர். அவர் மனைவி ஒரு நோயாளி. அவருக்குப் பிறந்த பிள்ளைகளோ பொறுப்பு இல்லாமல் தறுதலையாக அலைந்தார்கள். இப்படி சிரமங்களையே சந்தித்துக் கொண்டிருந்த அவருக்கு நண்பர் ஒருவர். மகானின் பக்தர்.

“கருணைக் கடலாக இருக்கும் காஞ்சி மகானிடம் ஒரு தடவை சென்று தரிசித்தபின் அவரது ஆசியைப் பெற்றுக்கொண்டு வா. உன் சிரமங்கள் எல்லாம் காற்றோடு போய்விடும்”, என்று யோசனை சொன்னார்.
அப்போதிலிருந்து அவரது மனதில் “காஞ்சி மகானைப் பார்க்க வேண்டும்” என்கிற எண்ணம் வேர் விட ஆரம்பித்தது.

தொழில் சம்பந்தமாக அவர் வெளியூர் செல்லும்போது காஞ்சி வழியாகப் போகும் சந்தர்ப்பம் வரவே, காஞ்சியில் இறங்கி யாரிடமோ வழிகேட்டு வரும்போதுதான் அவரது மனதில் அந்த எண்ணம் தோன்றியது.

“உலகோர் போற்றிப் புகழும் நிலையில் பக்தர்கள் கூட்டம் தரிசனத்துக்காக நிற்க, பரிவாரங்களுடன் அமர்ந்திருக்கும் இந்த சாமியாரைத் தான் எப்படிப் பார்ப்பது” என்கிற எண்ணத்துடன் இவர் அந்த குறிப்பிட்ட இடத்தை நோக்கிச் சென்று கொண்டு இருந்தார்.

இவர் எதிர்பார்த்த மாதிரி ஆடம்பரங்களோ..ஆரவாரம ;ோ ஏதும் தென்படவில்லை.

“அந்த சாமியார் வேறு எங்கோ போய்விட்டார் போலிருக்கிறது” என்று இவர் நினைத்துக் கொண்டார். தனக்கு விடிவுகாலம் பிறக்க அவரிடம் ஆசி பெறலாம் என்று வந்த அவரது கடுகளவு ஆசையும் மறையத் தொடங்கியது.

யாரிடம் போய்க்கேட்பது? ஆள் அரவமே இல்லையே என்று அவரது கண்கள் தேடியபோது, ஒரு பெரியவர் மட்டும் அவரது கண்களில் தென்பட்டார்.

வந்தவர் அவரிடம் கேட்டார்.

“இங்கே ஒரு சன்யாசி இருக்காராமே. அவர் எங்கே போயிருக்கார்?”

“அவரையா பார்க்க வந்தேள்? யார் சொல்லி அனுப்பினா?”

இந்தக் கேள்வியும் அவரது அமைதியான முகபாவமும் வந்தவரின் உள்ளத்தில் நம்பிக்கையை ஏற்படுத்தின. அதனால் வந்தவர் தனது குடும்ப சூழ்நிலையையும் தற்போது ஏற்பட்டுள்ள வறுமையான சூழ்நிலையையும் சொல்லி, தன் நண்பர் ஒருவர் இங்கே இருக்கும் சாமியாரைப் பார்த்து ஆசிகள் வாங்கச் சொன்னார் என்றார்.

“அவர் கிட்டே சிரமங்களைச் சொன்னா தீர்வு கிடைக்குமா என்ன?” கேள்வி பிறந்தது அவருக்கு.

வந்தவரோ, ‘இந்த வயதான கிழவர் தன்னிடம் ஏன் இப்படி ஒரு கேள்வியைக் கேட்கிறார்’ என்று நினைத்தார்.

வயதான பெரியவர் தொடர்ந்தார்.

“சிரமம், சிரமம்னு சொல்றியே.. அதை ஏன் நீ படறதா நினைக்கிறே.. அந்தப் பாரம் உன்னோடது இல்லையின்னு நீ நினைச்சிட்டா மனம் லேசாயிடுமே…”

இது எப்படி சாத்தியம் என்று வந்தவருக்கு மனதில் சந்தேகம்.

“அது எப்படி சாமி? நான்தானே அத்தனை கஷ்டங்களையும் தாங்கிக்க வேண்டிருக்கு. என் கஷ்டங்களை வேறு யார் சுமப்பா?”

வயதான பெரியவர் சிரித்தபடியே சொன்னார்.

“இப்போ ஊருக்குப் போறோம்னு வையுங்க. உங்களோட பெட்டி, மூட்டை முடிச்சு எல்லா பாரத்தையும் சுமந்துண்டு போய்த்தானே ஆகணும்? அப்ப என்ன பண்றோம்? யாராவது கூலியாள் கிட்டே குடுத்து சுமக்கச் சொல்றோம் இல்லையா? அது போலத்தான் நாம படற சிரமங்களை நம்மது இல்லே, பகவான் பார்த்துப்பான்னு பூரண சரணாகதி அடைஞ்சுட்டா நமக்கு எந்த பாதிப்பும் வராது.

இதைக் கேட்ட அம்பத்தூர்காரருக்& #2965;ு கொஞ்சம் மனத்தெளிவு ஏற்பட்டது போல் இருந்தது.

அவர் வயதான பெரியவரைப் பார்த்து,

“பெரியவரே இப்ப எனக்கு கொஞ்சம் மனசு லேசானது போல இருக்கு. என்பாரம் உன்னோடதுன்னு பகவான்கிட்டே சொல்லிடறது நல்லதுதான். நீங்கள் சொல்ற மாதிரி இந்த சாமியார் கிட்ட வந்து என் பாரங்களை இறக்கி வெச்சுட்டுப் போகலாமுன்னு வந்தா, இங்கே அவரைப் பார்க்க முடியல்லே..

எனக்கு உடனே மெட்ராஸ் போயாகணும். காத்திருந்து அவரைப் பார்க்க முடியாது. எனக்கு இன்னமும் நல்ல காலம் வரலே போலத் தோணுது.

ஆனா உங்களாண்டை பேசினதுனாலே மனசுக்குக் கொஞ்சம் இதமாக இருக்கு. ஆமா நீங்க யாரு? இதே ஊரா?”என்று கேட்டார்.

வயதான பெரியவர் முகத்தில் சிரிப்பு.

“என்னை இங்கே சங்கராச்சார்யார்ன& #3009; சொல்லுவா” என்று சொன்னதும் அம்பத்தூர்காரருக்& #2965;ு இன்ப அதிர்ச்சி. வியப்போடு அந்த எளிமையின் உருவத்தைப் பார்த்தவண்ணம் ஒன்றுமே தோன்றாமல் மலைத்து நின்றார்.

அதுவரை அந்த மனித தெய்வத்திடம் அஞ்ஞானமாகப் பேசிக் கொண்டிருந்தவர் சற்றே திரும்பிப் பார்க்க, அந்தத் தவமுனிவரைத் தரிசிக்க ஒரு பெருங்கூட்டமே காத்திருந்தது.

இத்தனை நேரம் ஒரு மாபெரும் மகானிடம் சர்வ சாதாரணமாக பேசி, அவரிடம் யோசனைகள் பெற்றதை எண்ணி அந்தப் பக்தர் வியந்தார்.

“நமஸ்காரம் பண்ணிக்கிறேன்” என்ற பக்தரை ஆசிர்வதித்தார் மகான்.

யாருக்குமே கிட்டாத மாபெரும் பாக்கியம் அவருக்குக் கிடைத்தது. தொடர்ந்து அவரது இன்னல்கள் யாவும் பனிபோல் விலகின…..

source: http://www.periva.proboards.com
Natarajan

Read more: http://periva.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=exptamil&action=display&thread=3752#ixzz2M5hdRP00

Thiruneermalai….A Temple Which Witnessed the Wedding of MS and Kalki Sadasivam!!!!

NatarajanLeave a comment

The temple at Tiruneermalai - Photo: Special Arrangement

The temple at Tiruneermalai – Photo: THE HINDU
Column By V.Sriram  in The Hindu….

Last week, I went in the company of friends to the hill temple of Tiruneermalai just off Chromepet. It is one of the historic shrines around the city that I had been meaning to visit for years. Picturesque beyond description, it comprises as can be seen in the picture, a large tank, a hill and two temples, one at the base and another at the top. Rather uniquely, Vishnu is in four postures, standing, sitting, reclining and walking.

Considering that Bhoothathalwar (7 century CE) sang in praise of the Lord here, the temple must be of Pallava vintage. However, there is nothing of that period left to see for then, it probably was an edifice of brick and wood that perished over time. The Cholas rebuilt it with stone in the 9 century and the rulers of Vijayanagar extended it in the 14 and 15 centuries. The work of the last named period is evident in abundance here though the sanctum is probably Chola.

Inscriptions are in plenty all around the two temples, making them an epigraphist’s delight. These pertain to Chola, Pandya and Vijayanagar times. When you also consider that this is also a site of megalithic importance, you can see that Tiruneermalai has been a continuing witness to historic development over ages.

When Tirumangai Alwar of the 8 century came here and sang his 19 verses, the hill was completely surrounded by water. This must have been a frequent phenomenon, giving the place its name. Several historic accounts note the presence of water and lush green groves. And it is not so surprising considering that Chennai and its environs were once noted for their water-bodies. Even now, Tiruneermalai has plenty of water in its vicinity — apart from its own tank there is the Pallavaram Periya Eri, the Kadapperi and the Pallikaranai Marsh.

In the 19 century, the temple came to be governed by Venkatachala, a rich dubash. The Sanskrit work Sarvadeva Vilasa, (translated by Dr V Raghavan) notes that Venkatachala rebuilt the temple tower and car. The latter now stands outside the lower temple, shrouded in plastic sheets. The book has a fascinating description of a soiree conducted by Venkatachala in a large grove near the temple. Performing in it were the courtesans of the patron and Sonti Venkataramanayya, the guru of the noted Carnatic music composer Tyagaraja.

The British appear to have not considered the temple of importance though there are unverified stories that Clive camped here during the Arcot wars. In the 20 century, Tiruneermalai became the venue for unostentatious weddings, the most famous being that of MS Subbulakshmi and T Sadasivam in July 1940, with Kasturi Srinivasan of The Hindu being witness. The place also became notorious as the venue where lovers, fearing parental wrath, got surreptitiously married, earning it the sobriquet of ‘Thiruttuthali Malai’. But that is another story.

Food For Thought………..

Natarajan1 Comment

While everybody struggles with something, for this young boy life’s struggles started early…

Lost childhood: Living life the hard way. Photo: Ashoke Chakrabarty
Lost childhood: Living life the hard way.

When I got a call, I went to the balcony to continue the call. At that moment, I noticed a little boy who was hiding behind my house owner’s car parked nearby. I thought he was playing the “hide and seek” game. Even after my call that lasted for about ten minutes, the boy was still in the same place and that made me take a closer look at him. He was wearing a dirty top and shorts which was unusual for kids in our area to be wearing something like that. That’s when I had a lot of questions running on my mind.

Who is this kid? Why is he hiding here? Is he waiting to steal something from the car? I decided to wait and watch him.

He was constantly looking at the backdoor of my neighbour’s house. After a few minutes, an old lady came out from that door carrying food on a banana leaf. She placed it over the compound wall and shouted “ka..ka..ka” (to invite the crows to eat the food) and returned home.

It took the boy only a few seconds to run towards the wall and grab the food. When he was enjoying the food, that old lady suddenly came back with another banana leaf. The little boy was shocked looking at her. When the old lady screamed at him, he disappeared in seconds.

The very next day, I ran to the balcony when I heard that old woman calling out to the crows but this time the clever woman was standing in the terrace.

I looked for that kid to give him some money so that he could buy something to eat but I never saw him after that incident.

P. SUBRAMANIAN, Engineering graduate in THE HINDU….

After reading this story in The HINDU, I have a question … when we are prepared to feed the crows why not we feed the poor kids too who look for food alongwith crows ?….

Natarajan

Keywords: My space column, young boy struggles

A Blow at 30000 ft. Saves a Doctor at Flight !!!!!!

NatarajanLeave a comment

source::::TIMES OF INDIA..chennai…
Natarajan

A 46-year-old surgeon got a fresh lease of life, literally, on board a Kolkata-Chennai flight that was cruising at 30,000 feet on Saturday night. He fell unconscious and lost all pulse but was revived miraculously after a doctor who was on board gave a strong blow to the rib cage close to the heart. He sat up as if woken up from a deep slumber.

About 30 minutes after the IndiGo flight took off from Kolkata, the passenger fell unconscious. Thankfully, the flight had around half a dozen doctors returning to Chennai after an annual conference. Dr J S Rajkumar, chairman of Lifeline Hospitals, who was one of the first to rush to his help, said it was a shocking experience which taught several others a valuable lesson about the importance of Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation (CPR).

“Assessing him rapidly, we saw to our horror that he had no pulse, even in his neck, and was ice cold and unresponsive. He was dead for all practical purposes,” said Dr Raj Kumar. “I have never felt such cold skin in my life. I gave a strong pericardial thump (a strong blow to the rib cage in front of the heart) and he jumped back to life! His pulse and blood pressure returned to normal,” he said. The revived passenger is a surgeon at Vijaya Hospital.

The doctors had told the crew that the plane would have to land in Bhubaneswar if the passenger’s condition didn’t improve. But once he was revived, the doctors told them he was doing fine and there was no need to make the unscheduled landing. “He did not know what happened to him when he was without pulse for less than four minutes. It is a heart condition and needed monitoring for 24 hours. We sat beside him throughout the flight,” said Raj Kumar. The passenger was driven to Vijaya Hospital for further monitoring as soon as the flight landed in Chennai.

மார்கழியில் வீட்டுவாசல் கோலத்தில் பூ !!!

NatarajanLeave a comment
Temple images

மார்கழி மாதத்தில், வீட்டு வாசலில் கோலம் போட்டு, அதன் நடுவில்சாணம் வைத்து, அதில், பறங்கி பூவை வைப்பது, தமிழர்களின் வழக்கம். மஞ்சள் வண்ணத்தில் பறங்கிப்பூ இருப்பதால், அதை வைக்கும் இல்லங்களில், மங்கல நிகழ்ச்சிகள் நடைபெறும் என்பது நம்பிக்கை. பூமலர்ந்திருப்பது போல், வீட்டில் உள்ளவர்களும் மகிழ்ச்சியுடன் இருப்பர். மாட்டுச் சாணம் கிருமி நாசினி என்பதால், இல்லத்தில் உள்ளோருக்கு ஆரோக்கியம் தரும். பூ மலர்ந்திருப்பது போல, வீட்டில் உள்ளவர்களும் மலர்ச்சியோடும் திகழ்வார்கள் என்பது நம்பிக்கை.

கன்னி பெண்கள், இவ்வாறு மார்கழி மாதத்தில் கோலமிட்டு பூ வைத்து வழிபட்டால், நல்ல வாழ்க்கை அமையும் என்பது ஐதிகம்.

source::::::DINA MALAR..Tamil Daily

Natarajan

10 Renowned Tamilians in America!!!!!

Natarajan13 Comments
source::::silicon india net…
Natarajan
The outstanding achievements of Indian Americans in various sectors ranging from business and academics to media and politics make us proud of our rich Indian heritage and culture. It is not a matter of surprise to note that there is an increasing number of Tamilians representing our country in the U.S.Indra Nooyi

Indra Nooyi, an Indian-origin American executive who hails from Chennai is the current Chairman and CEO of PepsiCo. She was one among the highest paid CEO’s in America, according to a recent survey report. Nooyi’s name appeared in the list of 50 women to watch in 2007 and 2008, according to a survey conducted by Wall Street Journal. She was one among Time’s list of 100 most influential people in the world and she also bagged the top position of most powerful woman in business, by a ranking done by Forbes (2009 and 2010).

According to Nooyi, ”Just because you are CEO, don’t think you have landed. You must continually increase your learning, the way you think, and the way you approach the organization. I’ve never forgotten that.”

Nooyi joined the company PepsiCo in the year 1994 and was appointed to the post of CFO in 2001.She rose to the position of CEO in 2007 and has been contributing a major share in the development of the company for more than a decade.

Nooyi completed graduation from Madras Christian College and post graduation in Management from Indian Institute of Management in Calcutta. She began her career as a product manager at Johnson & Johnson.

Meyya MeyyappanMeyya Meyyappan is the Chief Scientist for Exploration Technology at NASA Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, CA. Until June 2006, he served as the Director of the Center for Nanotechnology at NASA Ames.

Meyyappan has authored or co-authored over 225 articles in peer- reviewed journals and made over 200 Invited/Keynote/Plenary Talks in nanotechnology subjects across the world. His research interests include carbon nanotubes, graphene, and various inorganic nanowires, their growth and characterization, and application development in chemical and biosensors, instrumentation, electronics and optoelectronics.  He has worked to include nanotechnology products into space missions as well as transferring technologies to industry for commercialization.

Meyyappan is a founding member of the Interagency Working Group on Nanotechnology (IWGN) established by the US Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP).  The IWGN was responsible for putting together the US National Nanotechnology Initiative.

For his sustained contributions to nanotechnology, Meyyappan was inducted into the Silicon Valley Engineering Council Hall of Fame in February 2009.

Padma Lakshmi

Padma Lakshmi is a well-known internationally accepted model, who was the favourite of top designers such as Emanuel Ungaro, Ralph Lauren and Alberta Ferratti. She started her modeling career when she was just 18 and has appeared on the covers of many promonent magazines like RedBook, Vogue India, FHM, Cosmopolitan, L’Officiel India, Asian Woman, Avenue, Industry Magazine, Marie Claire, Harper’s Bazaar, Town & Country and Newsweek.

She says, “I was the first Indian model to have a career in Paris, Milan and New York. I’m the first one to admit that I was a novelty.’’

Along with modeling, Lakshmi started hosting cookery shows such as Padma’s Passport and Top Chef and she also published many cookery books.”Easy Exotic”, her first cookbook was named as the Best First Book in the year 1999 at the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards conducted at Versailles. She was also nominated for Emmy Award as “Outstanding Host on a Reality-Competition in 2006.

Padma is basically from an Iyengar Brahmin family based in Chennai, who did her schooling and higher education in U.S. She completed graduation in Theatre Arts from Clark University in Massachusetts.

Kamala HarrisKamala Harris is the current attorney General of California who was featured as one of ‘America’s 20 Most Powerful Women’, by Newsweek. Prior to this, she served as the District Attorney of San Francisco for six years, from 2004 to 2010.

Kamala is the first female to be elected as the attorney general of California and the first Asian-American to serve this prestigious post .

During her tenure as the District Attorney of San Francisco, Kamala fought against violence, crime and she was also behind the implementation of tough gun charging policies. Moreover, she focused on child assault, public integrity and environmental crimes. She increased the conviction charges for serious and violent crimes and extended helping hand to the victims of crime and their family members.

Born to a Tamil mother and African- American father, Kamala was bought up in California and she completed her higher education from the universities of California and Howard.

Ram ShriramKavitark Ram Shriram is a board member of Google and one of the first investors in Google. He runs his own investment firm, Sherpalo Ventures, a venture capital firm that invests in promising new disruptive technologies, established in the year 2000.

In 2005, Shriram was named as one among the top three high-tech dealmakers by Forbes, recognizing his talents and foresight. Recently, he also made it to Forbes’ list of ‘richest Indian Americans’, with a net worth of $1.6 billion.

‘He is always eager to roll up his sleeves and work closely with founding teams on the challenging issues that confront and sometimes confound early stage ventures,’ saysGoogle, reports Rediff.

Shriram is also an investor in a global mobile Ad Network, InMobi. He serves on the boards of StumbleUpon, Zazzle, Next Jump, Mevio and PaperlessPost.com, and also serves on the advisory board of Naukri.com.

Shriram completed his graduation in science from Loyola College of Chennai, Madras University and holds an MBA from the Ross School of Business affiliated to University of Michigan.

Balamurali AmbatiAmbati is a Tamil-origin ophthalmologist, educator, and researcher who made it to the Guinness Book of World Records by becoming the youngest doctor; at the age of 17! He was successful in re-defining the minimum age limit for a person to join medical school in the west.

Presently, he works as the Associate Professor of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences & Director of Corneal Research at the University of Utah.

Ambati has showcased extreme skills in various fields of science from early childhood and has now turned out to be a highly esteemed personality in the world of medical science. According to him, being a good listener, being thoughtful and perseverance are the three traits a successful person should possess.

His contribution in correcting myopia, hyperopia, and astigmatism through LASIK is quite noteworthy.

Balamurali has received many prestigious awards for his medical brilliance which includes Raja-Lakshmi Award from Sri Raja-Lakshmi Foundation, Chennai, in the year 1995.

Sendhil RamamurthySendhil Ramamurthy is an American actor, who was born in Chicago to Hindu Tamil immigrant parents from India.

He has acted in many popular movies such as Love & Debate, Orient Express, Blind Dating, Little India, Shor in the City and It’s a Wonderful Afterlife.

He has also appeared on several TV shows, including Ellen, Casualty, Guiding Light, Grey’s Anatomy, Ultimate Force, CSI: Miami, Heroes, Covert Affairs and Numb3rs.

He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in history and then attended the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art in London, from which he graduated in the year 1999.

Aziz Ansari

Aziz Ansari, an Indian-origin American writer and stand-up comedian has huge fan following him, which goes up to more than 1.7 million on Twitter. Ansari, who holds a graduation in marketing from Leonard N. Stern School of Business at NewYork University, started his career performing stand-up comedy. He got a place in the “Hot List” of Rolling Stone in the year 2005 and was also honoured with the Jury Award for “Best Standup” at HBO’s U.S Comedy Arts Festival in the year 2006.

S.Somasegar

S. Somasegar is the Corporate Vice President of the Developer Division at Microsoft Corporation. Till September 2011, he served as the Senior Vice President of the company.

He is responsible for engineering and marketing for developer tools and services, programming languages and runtimes designed for a broad base of software developers and development teams, including the Visual Studio and Expression families of products, .NET Framework, and Team Foundation Server.

Somasegar started the India Development Center in Hyderabad and the Microsoft Canada Development Center in Vancouver.

He was honoured with the Asian American Engineer of the Year Award in  2008.

He holds a bachelor’s degree in electronics and communication engineering from College of Engineering, Anna University and an M.S. in computer engineering from Louisiana State University.

He is the owner of four patents and before joining as the head of the developers’ division, Somasegar had worked on eight different operating system releases.

Jaishankar Ganesh

Jaishankar Ganesh is the first permanent dean of Asian Indian descent at Rutgers School of Business–Camden.

“Dr. Ganesh is an exceptional administrator and scholar, and an energetic visionary. I am confident that he will help to advance the Rutgers School of Business–Camden to its rightful place as a premier center for education and business development in our region and state,” said Richard L. McCormick, president of Rutgers, while announcing the appointment of Ganesh. He also added that “his focus on developing new models for business education that address the career demands of the coming decades will help to lead Rutgers to the next level of prominence in undergraduate and graduate business education.”

Ganesh holds a Ph.D. in Marketing and International Business from the University of Houston and an MBA degree from the same university. He received his bachelor’s degree in Physics from the Loyola Autonomous College, Madras and second degree in Instrument Technology from the Madras Institute of Technology.

Think Differently… Organic Washing Detergent!!!

Natarajan1 Comment

source:::::EONOMIC TIMES..

Natarajan

Meet Chennai-based spouses-turned-business partners, who opted out of the corporate rat race one sure idea: to work on an environment-related concept.

Meet Chennai-based spouses-turned-business partners, who opted out of the corporate rat race one sure idea: to work on an environment-related concept.
There’s nothing new about people leaving lucrative MNC jobs to start their own ventures, but how many are enterprising enough to quit without knowing what they want to do or how to go about it? Meet Chennai-based Preethi Sukumaran and Srinivas Krishnaswamy, spouses-turned-business partners, who opted out of the corporate rat race on the same day, 31 January 2009, with one sure idea: to work on an environment-related concept.

“After graduating from IIM in 2001, we both worked in various FMCG MNCs for eight years. So, we were confident about brand building, marketing and handling the venture, but weren’t sure about the product itself,” says Krishnaswamy, who graduated from IIM-Bangalore, while his wife is from IIM-Calcutta. So, the couple, who got married in 2003, decided to see the world while waiting for inspiration to strike. Indeed, it was during their year-long travel across India and Europe that they figured out how to integrate their personal quest of sustainable urban living with a business venture. The solution was to create a basket of sustainable, organic goodies. On returning home in 2010, the duo researched the market for organic products, and zeroed in on organic washing detergent as their first product. “In 2009, we had started using soapberries for washing our clothes and realised that not only were theyenvironment-friendly compared with the usual detergents, but were equally, if not more, effective,” says Sukumaran.

Within the organic product universe, the humble detergent had remained on the sidelines despite contributing heavily to soil and water pollution. “Till that time, the players in this market were small and unorganised, so we decided to launch organic washing detergent,” she adds. In May 2010, they finally figured on a name, Krya, meaning mindful action, and by October 2010, the company had been registered.

The couple did not set up the venture in the traditional way, that is, first launching and then promoting it. In fact, they did the reverse. “After registering our company, while we were looking at sourcing our product, working on the website design and other back-end issues, we started a Facebook page and a blog. Over the next six months, we interacted online with a lot of people, telling them what we were planning to do and how we were going about it,” says Sukumaran.

Before long, the couple got an active Net community. They also finalised the soapberries they wanted to use and struck a deal with an organic farm near Guntur, Andhra Pradesh. “The latter would process and manufacture the product and send it to our office in Chennai,” she adds. By the time the product was launched in May 2011, Krya had built a potential customer base without spending much—Rs 6 lakh for the entire process, from idea inception and registering the company to renting a 250-sq-ft office space at Mylapore, Chennai, and launching the product.

Will Chennai Ever Learn ?

Natarajan1 Comment

Under one govt it’s go, under another it’s stop

DEEPA H. RAMAKRISHNAN   in THE HINDU……

” Men May Come and Men May Go…But  I Go on Forever ! “…..Is it applicable only to the poem  THE BROOKS by LORD TENNYSON ?!!?….

Why should infrastructure development projects of a city or state suffer everytime a change of guard in the Govt ???…. just think over …

Natarajan

 

 

The Rs. 1,815 crore elevated expressway project from Chennai Port to Maduravoyal, started with much fanfare in September 2010, has been put on hold. File Photo
The HinduThe Rs. 1,815 crore elevated expressway project from Chennai Port to Maduravoyal, started with much fanfare in September 2010, has been put on hold.

Why should infrastructure projects stop every time a government changes?

The Rs. 1,815 crore elevated expressway project from Chennai Port to Maduravoyal, started with much fanfare in September 2010, has been put on hold.

Hundreds of cement pillars standing alongside the meandering Cooum river have been silently awaiting a solution for the last seven months – yet another case of a delayed infrastructure project.

Who is to blame this time? Was it lack of proper planning? An unexpected hurdle?

This project had the support of both State and Central governments. The State agreed to contribute Rs. 470 crore in the form of land and relief and rehabilitation measures, the Central government, Rs. 500 crore and the Chennai Port, Rs. 235 crore. After an initial hurdle because of land acquisition, the project picked up pace and columns were built at various locations. In 2011 the government changed, and a year later, the project came to a grinding halt.

The reasons given were that the alignment was improper and pillars had encroached on the river bed obstructing the flow of water. What is strange is that it was the same set of officials of the Water Resources Department who cleared the project in the first place, who have now raised objections. How could a project that appeared all well and certified as acceptable by professionals a year ago, turn into something that is faulty?

Each passing day without any progress only increases the cost. The compensation to be paid by the National Highways Authority of India to the contractor under various heads rises. With 30 per cent of the project having been completed, and uncertainty still lingering, only public money seems to be wasted and the addition of infrastructure to the city is delayed.

This is not the only project the city is uncertain about. Chennai High Speed Circular Transportation Corridor that was to take off from Adyar and connect with Chennai Bypass has come to a complete halt. A detailed feasibility report was completed and a detailed project report was to have been prepared for the first phase.

Another proposal that has been grounded is the formation of bicycle tracks by the Chennai Corporation.  The Corporation had been considering bicycle tracks in Adyar and Besant Nagar, areas that have a high density of schools and many students who get there by bicycle. Initially, an 8 km stretch of arterial roads in Anna Nagar, which serves 14 schools, was to be covered for a pilot project. Design proposals were prepared and even publicised. Now there is no news about the project.

The question is, why should critical infrastructure projects that are essential to the city stop every time a government changes? The departments and officials who administer the projects in one government completely change face and position when another takes over, and bring out convoluted reasons against implementing or completing them. It is the city and people who bear the brunt and suffer from these whimsical changes and decisions.

In neighbouring Andhra Pradesh and Kerala, despite changes in government, many projects continue. It appears public interest and careful use of common resource are a priority there.  Will Chennai ever learn?

NEW AND OLD LANDMARKS OF OMR…..CHENNAI

NatarajanLeave a comment

SOURCE:::::ARTICLE BY V.SRIRAM  ON MADRAS HISTORY….

Natarajan

New and old landmarks of OMR

August 9, 2012 
Old Mahabalipuram Road (OMR) or Rajiv Gandhi Expressway as it is now known, is not all that old. Several accounts of visits to what was called Seven Pagodas have survived from the 1850s. The only route was via Guindy-Chromepet-Tambaram-Chingleput-Tirukkazhukundram. The last stage involved taking a boat somewhere near Sadras to cross the Buckingham Canal. This was an un-metalled road especially towards the end. The best option was to travel by boat, leaving Madras at nightfall and reaching destination by the morning. The journey was via the Buckingham Canal and boats could be hired at Adyar. Trains were the next best option. The car came last and was to be taken only time was a constraint. Certainly, it made it the fastest to Mamallapuram – it needed only five hours. Till 1960 at least, that was the only route, though the boat journey at the end became unnecessary with a viaduct connecting the road to Mamallapuram.
It would therefore be safe to surmise that OMR as we know of it, is not all that old. It definitely gained popularity as a route to Mamallapuram only after the Kotturpuram bridge was constructed in 1987 and provided a direct link to Taramani and beyond. And it became ‘Old’ only when the newer route, the East Coast Road, was completed in 1998. Though an ancient part of South India, the villages that lined OMR receive very little mention in the works of those who documented Madras and its neighbourhood. One reason was probably that anything south of Adyar river was not within Madras city jurisdiction and came under Chingleput district. It therefore received less attention. But these were undoubtedly ancient villages and testimony to their age is the presence of several temples along this stretch, of which more in a later column. In this note let us take a look at what Jawaharlal Nehru referred to as the temples of modern India – the educational institutions and centres of excellence.
Undoubtedly, the educational and intellectual hub of Chennai is Taramani. This tiny settlement first shot to fame when the third Indian Institute of Technology was set up here with German help in 1959. Around 600 acres was forest land in the Guindy reserve was made over to IIT and nestled in its midst was Taramani. The village was shifted and even now, one entrance to the IIT is called the Taramani Gate. A probable reason for locating IIT here was the presence of other educational institutions in the vicinity such as the Central Leather Research Institute (established 1948), the Central Electronics Engineering Research Institute (1953) and the College of Engineering, Guindy. Soon others were to follow.
But what is often forgotten is the mother of them all – the Central Polytechnic (CPT). Begun as the Madras Trades School by the Department of Industries in 1912, it operated first from rented premises in Broadway. There in 1946, it was named as the CPT and by then, it had seven departments that dealt with Civil, Mechanical, Electrical and Sanitary Engineering and the disciplines of Cinematography and Sound, Printing Technology and Fisheries. The CPT shifted to Taramani in 1957/58 and over time several of its departments became independent units in the same place – the Institutes of Printing and Film Technology being two such. Today the entire area is referred to as the CPT campus. Another name is the CIT campus, for the CPT and all its offspring are Central Institutes of Technology, set up with funds from the Government of India.
Also in the CPT campus is the Roja Muthiah Research Library, founded thanks to a University of Chicago initiative. It commemorates Muthiah Chettiar, a signboard painter of Kottaiyur, Chettinad, who had a passion for collecting printed matter of all kinds. His habit of signing off his artworks with a rose earned him the prefix of Roja. Roja Muthiah’s collection of printed matter in Tamil numbered over a 100,000 at the time of his death in the 1990s. This was prevented from disintegration by several research scholars and the University of Chicago. The collection was shifted to Chennai. The RMRL was formed and initially functioned in Mogappair before shifting to Taramani in the last decade.
Media skills are honed at the Asian College of Journalism. Founded in 1994 by the Indian Express Group, it came under a not-for-profit trust in 2000 and was housed initially at 100, Mount Road, once the home of The Hindu. In the last decade, the ACJ shifted to Taramani. An institution of a different kind is the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT), which was set up under the Ministry of Textiles, Govt. of India in 1986. The Chennai branch was set up in 1995 and made its shift to the Taramani-Velacheri intersection in the last decade. Mathematics has its share of OMR and has a presence at both ends. In Taramani is the Institute of Mathematical Sciences of Matscience as it is popularly known. The brainchild of mathematician Alladi Ramakrishnan inaugurated in Mylapore in 1962 by Nobel laureate S Chandrashekar and was later shifted to Taramani in 1969. It came under the Department of Atomic Energy, Govt. of India in the 1980s. At the Siruseri end is the Chennai Mathematical Institute. Founded in 1989 as part of the SPIC Foundation, it became autonomous in the 1990s. It made its move to Siruseri in 2005.
Thorapakkam, which comes immediately after Velacheri, has its own educational institutions to boast of. This is thanks to the Jain community of Madras, which can trace its links with the city almost from the beginning of time. The modern Jains from Rajasthan came to Madras from the early 1800s. And when they did, they also began contributing to what has been a Jain tradition in this region from Pallava times – the fostering of education. The Dhanraj Baid Jain College begun in 1972 commemorates DB Jain, a businessman-philanthropist who came to Madras in 1903 and stayed on. The Trust that promoted this college also branched into engineering in 1980 with the MNM Jain College, also set in Thorapakkam on a 20-acre campus.
Perhaps it was all this educational and intellectual presence that encouraged IT companies to flock to this area from the 1990s. The most visible symbol of this is Tidel Park, constructed in 2000 as a collaborative exercise by TIDCO and ELCOT. Tidel Park came up on the grounds of the MGR Film City, which was planned as a film shooting location and a tourist attraction in 1994 on 70 acres.
After Taramani, the area was largely paddy fields and open spaces interspersed with water bodies. Major development took place along this route only from the last decade when over 900 acres in Siruseri and Padur was allotted to SIPCOT to develop an IT Park, said to be the largest in Asia. A visitor to the Park would today assume that this is a different world. But what is often forgotten is another national first – the Vikram Sarabhai Instronics Industrial Estate (VSIIE). While it is well-known that the first industrial estate in the country was the one in Guindy, set up in the 1950s, what is not recollected is that as early as 1971, Chennai had the VSIIE which was the only estate devoted to electronics and instrumentation. Begun wit h 29 acres it expanded to over 140 by 1976. It is still a symbol of the region’s focus on industrialisation. Another industrial landmark now undergoing a metamorphosis is SRP Tools. Set up in the 1960s it emerged as a leader in cutting tools before being sold to the Mitsubishi group a few years ago.
Another landmark is the Aavin Dairy at Sholinganallur. This may have begun only in 1995 but it commemorates the fifty plus years of co-operative procurement, processing and marketing of milk in Tamil Nadu. The Aavin facility here processes 3.4 lakhs litres of milk per day.
So much of history and human endeavour in what is relatively a new part of Chennai. But what about the ancient history of the region? More of that in a subsequent post.

Sriram V

The writer is a well known historian of the city