December 31, 2004
Recounting the visit to the affected places
We started at 5:45 in the morning on the journey across the east coast road to visit the affected hamlets. The purpose of the visit was to identify the real needs of the people instead of blindly buying materials that people may have already got. We have collected money and wanted to make sure it was used properly. We planned to meet the people in person and get an understanding of the scenario. In retrospect, even if it meant doing an extra journey, it was a good decision, for we got to get the true picture.
From far, the scenic beaches looked as pretty as ever. Sometimes it makes you wonder if there was a tsunami attack at all.
It is only when you get off the road and walk near the sea shore do you get to see the power of those powerful waves. The water had clearly come a long distance inland. In this picture, you see the water flowing back into the sea.
This picture will give you a better indication of how far the water had come inland. Take a look at the catamaran and how far it has been washed inland by the sea waves. In the background, towards the left, you will see the village that had got devasted by the waves.
Some portions of the shore had high embankments but they had simply been eaten away.
There was a surprising amount of plasic garbage that was being washed ashore. This area is sparesely populated, so these could not have come from this place. These must've been sucked in from towards the city when the waves crashed in and later deposited miles away.
Waves so powerful they knocked off stone walls.
A view of the side wall belonging to the same house.
As we neared the first of the fishing hamlets, we noticed that relief camps have already sprung up. It was the general public that were the first to offer help. They had already pitched in to set up these tents to keep the people from the cold during night. Chennai can get uncomfortably cold with all the dew, if you don't have a roof over your head.
You can still see the fear in the eyes of the villagers. Even if some of the huts were livable, they say that they can never sleep in peace. Most of them preferred to use these relief camps that have been set up away from the sea waters.
As we drove along further down the road, we found used clothing strewn around in many places. Yet another indication of over-supply in the same places. Hence it is very important to understand what people need before supplying it to them. Here's one more lesson to learn. However homeless a person is, he still does not prefer dirty or torn clothes. So if you are contemplating giving your used clothes, please be considerate to give only the good ones and make sure they are washed clean.
Upon a closer inspection of a hamlet is when you the reality stares at your face. Entire sections of huts have simply vanished. This hamlet is called 'Puthu Nemmeli Kuppam'and I have a soft corner for this one. This reminds me of the gaulish village. Offers a fantastic sight from the road with the sea as the backdrop.
I had a detailed talk with Parasuram, a resident of the hamlet. He narrates that he was deep into the sea fishing, along with other fishermen, and they never felt a huge wave coming. So he was extremely surprised when they reached the shore to find their village completely devastated. He was later informed by the womenfolk that there were three waves that stuck off which the third one was the most destructive. Thankfully, the first two waves were not that strong and acted as warning. Most folks had been able to move away, either swim away or latch on to the wooden catamaran that parked inland. He says that if the third wave had stuck first, the entire village would have been dead. Miraculously, there was no casualty in this hamlet.
This was a poignant sight that tugged my heart. I saw this man and his wife there at this place which once was their home. They didn't cry, wail or say a single word. For a long time, the woman just sat there and man just stood there. Neither saying a word to each other. There was sorrow written all over their place. I felt very awkward when I approached them to ask if it was okay to take a picture of them.
This motorboat had crashed into a hut.
It was heartening to see this old man come and distribute food to the people. The villagers said that they never starved because people were constantly coming in to offer food. When I spoke with a guy, I noted a hint of a tear drop in his eye obviously overwhelmed bythe kindness and support he sees from the people.
The government too swung into action. They dropped these sacks of rice and new dresses for men and women. They did this for every single hamlet that we passed by. I was pretty impressed.
Here, govt workers spreading bleaching powder to make sure that there is no water borne disease. They worked with surprising enthusiasm, the type I rarely get to see from government folks.
I didn't like what I saw. This is definitely not a time for politics and I saw this guy paint the colours of a political party, obviously to please the politicians who were expected to visit the place.
During the entire trip, I saw a lot of vans and lorries from various relief organisations with cloth banners like the one you see above, scurrying past. There definitely is some hyperactivity in terms of relief activities which is a heartening sign.
We made a quick trip to the crocodile park to make sure the crocs were fine. Thankfully, nothing happened. I spoke the manager and he told me that had the water flooded in, most of the crocs would've died because they are not used to the salt water. He also told me that they while selecting the place to form the park many years ago, they had specifically chosen a higher ground to set it up. He says that is what saved the park now.
This is what remains of the ramp of Muthukadu Boat Club.
While returning back to the city, we came across this group of friends who had put in their own money to buy food items for villagers. They said that they preferred to serve the people directly instead of giving money to other organisations. Their enthusiasm was infectious.
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December 30, 2004
A bunch of helpful people at Tidel Park
When I finished office and was about to take my cycle to head back home, I noticed a bunch of people packing clothes into bags near the Gym at the Tidel Park. I immediately knew that they were working for the tsunami relief. I was curious to know which company they belonged to and so accosted them. I learnt they are from SCM Microsystem (never heard of that company before), working out of the 5th floor in Tidel.
Seeing them pack dresses, I figured they must've collected old clothes from their colleagues. I was wrong. They corrected me that these were old clothes that AIDindia had collected from all over Chennai. A few truck-loads of them would arrive every evening to Tidel park and these people would help in sorting them and repacking the pants together, shirts together, sarees together etc.
My interest got intrigued. I'm in touch with Sudarshan, a fellow blogger who is a senior person in AID and works out of its US office. So I was curious to know how these people got to work with AID India. Then they told me that one of their ex-colleagues had joined AIDindia and he was instrumental in inspiring them to contribute time for such efforts.
Wow! The point to note here is that a single person, I repeat, a single person was ablet to make a difference by influencing a whole bunch of ex-colleagues. Brilliant, if you ask me.
If you are in Tidel and if you want to chip in, you can join the group at about 6:00 p.m near the Tidel Park Gym.
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Photos from the afternoon beach visit
There was a warning that a tsunami could strike anytime from 2:00 p.m to 6:00 p.m. The police immediately swung into action blocked all roads leading to the beach. Even as I took this snap, the policemen were shouting at me to move away.
People eagerly looking to see if the sea water was indeed rising.
Onlookers started to crowd around to get a glimse of the ocean.
This guy really caught my attention. He held a placard warning people of the dangers of tsunami. He stood there patiently in the hot sun for the entire section of the time I was there.
A closer look at the placard. Here is a rough translation.
"Don't stand here. The tsunami travels at a speed of 800 kms and you can't run away from it at that speed. The sea water can come inland to a distance of 2 to 5 kms. So please don't stand here"
Since I couldn't go near the ocean, I coaxed the servant of a bunglow to let me go to the terrace. After a bit of pleading, I was let in. While walking up, I noticed that the house was completely empty. I was told that the owners have vacated it lock stock and barrel with just the servants to look after it.
This was the first house from the ocean and the terrace gave a spectacular view of the ocean. As I stood there, I could almost imagine a huge wave crashing in. It was very easy to visualise and everytime I get a tingling sensation in my tummy. I saw three ships on the horizon and I wondered how they could bravely venture into the ocean inspite of the tsunami warning.
I had a malaysian journalist for company. He had come armed with a handycam and binoculors. He stayed in an apartment nearby and didn't want to miss the tsunami. He looked like he would stay the entire day waiting for the moment.
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A Vist to the Beach
I made a quick visit to New Beach in Thiruvanmiyur during the lunch break to check out for myself if the sea water was rising, a news item that I heard in news channels. True, there was a tsunami warning but the thrill of being in the thick of action was too much to control. What surprised me at first was the normalcy in life in Valmiki Nagar, which is a posh locality. People moved around as if nothing has happened. The tsunami warning didn't seem to have much effect here.
Access to the beach was blocked by a bunch of policemen. No one was allowed near the beach. So I went to a house which was the closest to the beach. The owners have obviously vacated the place and only the servants were there to take care of it. I talked my way to go to the third floor terrace to get a better view of the sea. The idea being even if the tsunami strikes, I should be relatively safe or atleast I hoped. The sea waves were of normal size and the sea was eerily calm....something that gave an impression of a lull before the storm.
Down below, crowds kept gathering to take a look at the sea. Police were shooing away the crowd. One guy caught my attention. He held a placard which had a hadnwritten warning of the impending tsunami, warning people not to stay near the beach.
I took a lot of snaps but they'll have to wait until I reach home in the evening 'coz I don't have the cam software at my work.
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The Pick-Up-and-Run Bag : Two days back, my wife had packed essential stuff in a bag which we can quickly pick up and run in case of an earthquake. At any other time, I would have scoffed at the idea. But at this time of fresh warnings, I believe it is the smart thing to do. She has packed a single set of dress for each of us, some cash, importat documents and certificates. It's a small bag portable enough for us to pick it up and quickly run. We will also top up petrol in our car and bike.
I'd advise you to do the same if you stay in possible danger areas.
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December 29, 2004
We have collected over Rs.34,000 in donations made at Rupya.com. Ganesh has already transferred Rs.8000 to my ICICI account for us to utilize in relief activities. He will be sending the rest of the money soon.
As the contact person in Chennai, I feel a whole load of responsibility having to make sure that the money reaches the real needy fast. The donors have given money with their heart and its extremely important that we at Chennai do absolute justice to their great effort.
I plan to take a day off from office tomorrow and travel down the East Coast Road to identify the fishing hamlets that are in real need for aid. I realise that the places near the city get aid but the ones that are further away haven't got as much. So my aim is to identify these places and more importnatly spread this information to the many relief and aid agencies.
If you know of places that really need help, please let me know at 98415 97744 or email me at kiruba@kiruba.com. Please also send across your ideas on ways how we can best use the money collected.
If you are interested in joining me in the trip and to give a helping hand, please feel free to call me on my mobile. If my mobile is unreachable, please leave a message with my wife at my home phone at (044) 52133619.
I hear that the access to East Coast Road, where most of the affected hamlets are located is now blocked in view of the threath of new tsunami. I'm taking a trip down to Thiruvanmiyur to analyse the situation. Depending on the situation, I will let you know the exact plan.
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Emergency Warning :
We just had an emergency meeting at office saying that there has been a genuine report of another earthquake or a tsunami happening again. There is a strong possibility of an evacuation planned at Tidel Park, the software technology park, where I work in. We have been told to inform our friends and relatives living in the coastal areas to quickly evacuate to higher places or move further inland.
Please do spread the message. And for those of us in Chennai who live inland, let us offer to house friends or known people who live near the coast. These people need a place to stay and here is a chance to show we care.
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Sify Rowing Team has decided to donate the championship celebration money for the Tsunami victims. After our team won the prestigious Merchants & Bankers Regatta, our top management had okayed for a party to celebrate this win. It was was unanimous decision by all the members to cut out the revelry and give the money to the relief fund. It makes me proud to be part of such a team.
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December 28, 2004
Call for Help : Thanks to the blogging commuity and specfically to Ganesh of Rupya.com for setting up a payment system, we have collected over Rs.10,000 which will be spent on orphaned children. There are many toddlers who have lost their parents. The least we can do is make sure they get food and medical facilities.
If you want to help, please make a donation at Rupya.com. Every rupee, Every dollar, makes a difference. Please read the young boy & the starfish story below to realise the difference you can make.
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A Story That Truly Touched My Heart
You may have heard this story before but I'd still like to tell it again because it make so much sense right now.
One early morning, an old man noticed a young boy at a beach picking up something and dropping it in the ocean. On closer look, he realised that there were thousands of starfish washed ashore on the beach. When the sun would rise, most of these will die on the hot sand. The young boy patiently picked up as many as he could and dropped it into the sea.
The old man approached the boy and said, "There are many thousands of them on the shore. What differece can you make? Go home, boy".
The young boy picked up a starfish and then looked at the old man,"Sir, I may not be able to make a difference to all the thousands. But I sure will make a difference to this starfish". So saying, he calmly walked to the sea and released the starfish into the sea.
It's a powerful story that has touched me. It's the same scenario now. There are thousands of people affected. Even if we get around to helping a single person, we would have made a difference.
If you can spare help, even if it is a single dollar, a single blanket, a single breakfast, please do so. You may think its too miniscule, too little to help. You are wrong. There could be someone who could get benefitted by it.
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Heart-felt Gratitude to the Donors:
Our sincere appreciation for coming out to help in a time of need. Thank You, from our heart.
Payment From Ramana Nyapathi Dec 28,2004 100 $
Payment From Ramesh Pattabiraman Dec. 27, 2004 50$
Payment From lakshmi priya koka Dec. 27, 2004 50$
Payment From Jennifer McMaster Dec. 28, 2004 30$
Payment From Anonymous Dec 28,2004 12$
Payment From Jyothi Yadalam Dec. 27, 2004 4$
Payment From Ashokkumar Dorairaj Dec. 28, 2004 3$
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AID-India is concentrating on relief work in Chennai, Cuddalore & Nagapttinam, the worst hit places. If you live in Chennai and have clothes or any relief materials, please hand them over to AID's chennai office.
AID-India
Old No 132, New No 242, Avvai Shanmugam Road
Gopalapuram, Chennai - 600 086
Ph: 044- 28350403, 28115058
If you live outside of India and are intersted in contributing to the effort, you can make online payment via http://survivors.aidindia.org . For additional information call: 1-888-TALK-2-AID / 650 996 6412 or email: info@aidindia.org
(via Sudarshan )
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Any relief coordinators in Bombay? There are quite a few people who are willing to donate clothes, medicines, utensils but they don't know who to contact to hand them over. Do you know anyone in Bombay who is co-ordinating relief work? We need to find people who can get the materials down to Tamilnadu. If you come across useful information, please let me know at kiruba[@]kiruba.com. Thanks.
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The tubelight in our hall which had gone askew due to the mild tremor. It's surprising that we only noticed this after two days.
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Relief materials collected at my office
Boxes with different labels to collect clothes for men, women, boys, girls, soaps, rice, dal were set up at the atrium in Sify office at Tidel Park. These boxes quickly kept filling up and they had to be transferred to the black bags that you see below. Click on the pic for larger image.
There was excellent response from my colleagues. The black bags you see are nearly 3 feet tall and accomodate quite a number of dresses. Kids' dresses were the most needed but understandably, it was dresses for men that was in abundance. All the dresses collected will be given to Red Cross for distribution.
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FoodWorld is setting up special counters to collect clothes and help materials in all its branches. Please encourage your neighbours to give. (via Sridhar of Neptune solutions)
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www.TsunamiVictims.org : This is the correct url of the site that MK has created. I had earlier made a mistake in the URL. If you know people who are offering help for the affected, please mail their contact details to help.tsunamivictims@gmail.comwho will add it to the site.
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December 27, 2004
Another visual representation
(via insomnia)
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Visual representation of the Tsunami effect.
Notice the impact of the waves as they reach Sri Lanka and Tamilnadu. The waves also picks up strength as they travel further. This also explains how places like Malaysia which are closer to the epicenter has suffered less because of the tsunami.
(Graphics via Rajan from Wikipedia)
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Tsunami Blog : Manish Manke points out to this blog, http://tsunamihelp.blogspot.com, which records coverage, helplines, useful information on the tshunami disaster. It is a colloborative effort of 15 bloggers. A good initiative.
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Please offer your helping hand:
There are lots of people living outside India who are desperate to give a helping hand. It would be criminal not to offer an avenue for such people to pass on their help to the needy people. Every hour delay could mean that we are losing out on helping someone from death.
Ganesh of Rupya.com, who lives in USA, has set up a paypal payment systems. Whatever amount you are comfortable with, please make your donations there. These are help in need.
The money will be spent on medicines and to offer help for orphaned children. Children will be the focus for now, especially the ones who have lost their parents.
There are a bunch of volunteers in Chennai who are ready to help these children. I will coordinate the efforts from Chennai.
Mohanakrishnan (MK) from Dubai, has shown a lot of passion and urgency in helping out to the affected. He has booked a domain name www.tsunamivictims.org to offer an avenue, especially for people outside of India, like himself, to offer help. It has list of ways how you can offer help. A great initiative. If you know someone who is offering help, please pass on their contact information to MK at mk@exclubix.com. It will be a great help.
Akhila Aiyer had called in from Delhi wanting to help out. She was willing to help collect relief materials from her friends and colleagues. But the trouble is logistics. We quite don't know how to transport them from Delhi to Chennai. Do you know of someone who is flying in to Chennai? Her roomie is an airhostess but she is not scheduled to fly in for the next two weeks. Please help spread the word.
If you have a blog, kindly encourage your friends to donate. As a blog community, let's make a difference.
Every donation made will be published on Ganesh's site as well as here. If you want to remain aonymous, please mention so. We want to make sure that your help reaches the needy at the earliest and that all monetary help rendered is made transparent.
In times of distress, we can do one of two things. We can either sit back and watch or stand up and offer help. The choice is yours.
Thanks in advance.
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Help from our office
It's heartening to see the kind of response from corporate companies. One of the first decision that was taken in office today morning was to postpone our annual party. It does not make sense to celebrate at a sea-side resort which is only a few hunderd meters from a grieving fishing hamlet.
Instead we have decided to challenlize all the efforts in collecting essentials for the affected. I had originally planned to collect dresses and hand it over personally to the affected. Instead I will now bring it to office where arrangements have been made to collect them. Boxes categorised as 'men', 'women', 'boys' and 'girls' have been set up. An appeal for rice and dal has also been sent. Red Cross will help in distributing it to the needy.
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The Graph that Shook the World
The Seismograph that recorded the events of the black sunday. More pictures at the BBC photo gallery.
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Live Chat with Tsunami Expert at 5:00 p.m Today : Sify.com has invited Prasanna Kumar, India's leading tsunami expert and a senior scientist
at the National Institute of Oceanography, Goa, for a special chat session.
Kumar holds a doctorate in Physical Oceanography and has done extensive work on seismic activity in the Indian ocean. Get the low-down on terrifying tsunamis from Kumar at 5.00 p.m.IST today.
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December 26, 2004
When the beach became the sea!
Here is how the Marina Beach, the second largest in the world, usually looks.
And this is how the same beach looks, less than an hour after the tidal waves swept through the shore. The entire area with water is actually the beach. Infact, its only half of it. You can imagine how far the sea wave had washed inland.
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If a Tsunami Strikes : Survival Tips
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Tsunami :
When the mild earthquake happened, there was a moment of panic. When we realized that there was no major danger, the moment changed from anxiety to subdued excitement. I heard someone screaming next door to watch Sun News channel. I hurriedly change the channel to find dramatic pictures of Marina beach flooded with sea water. This is the second largest beach in the world and I guess it needed the biggest earthquake in 40 years to create a Tsunami big enough to swamp the entire beach.
The Hindu carried two amazing arial shots of the beach, obviously taken from the top of the light house. Brilliant photographs.
The BBC World News showed a brilliant computer generated rendition of how a Tsunami gets formed. You only need to imagine the kind of massive damage the huge tidal wave, with the height of a two storeyed building, can cause as it comes crashing into the shore.
The beach resort where we recently stayed in, is situated right on the edge of the sea shore and I was worried for people working there. I tried many times yesterday but the line just didn't go through. I finally got to reach the resort manager and learnt that the sea wave had come till the resort rooms. He also told me that the water has receded now and the resort will start functioning from today onwards.
Our big office year-end party is scheduled to be held in Fisherman's Cove on the 29th. It's a massive event where all the associates and family members, nearly 3000 strong, get-together for an evening of fun. There's fierce competition amongst the teams in our company for the intra-company dance and song competitions. Our team has been practicing real hard on the choreography for the last one week. There's been a lot of effort spent on organizing this event. Suddenly, this big event that has been awaited anxiously, seems minuscule in the face of recent incidents.
we've got extra clothes at home which I've decided to give it to people at Pattinapakkam, one of the most affected areas. I'm collecting clothes from my apartment as well. Tomorrow morning at 7:00 a.m, I plan to go to the affected areas and hand over the clothes. If you want to help contribute by giving used clothes, please give me a call at 98415 97744.
If anyone is interested in helping out the affected people near the Neelankarai area, please contact Priya at 25506284. Even if you are not able to help directly, please pass on this information to others who might be willing to give a helping hand.
(via JK)
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December 25, 2004
The Earthquake experience : I woke up to frantic banging on my bedroom door. I come out to find hassled members talk about an earthquake. One look at the glass-window confirmed it. It was rattling enough to make me grab my sleeping daughter and my pregnant wife and make me want to run down the two stories down.
You probably won't believe what I'm saying next. Last night before going to bed, I thought about a possibility of an earthquake happening in Chennai. It was just a fleeting thought but enough to give me that spooky feeling.
Now....don't look at me like that!
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Religious Unity : The first SMS that I got today morning was a message wishing merry christmas from a muslim girl who was wishing a Hindu guy on a Christian festival. I loved the fact that the religious boundaries are merging. It brightened up my day!
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December 23, 2004
The Stork is Revisiting : I'm going to be a Dad again and I can't tell you how kicked up I am. More then me and my wife, it's my daughter who is really excited. She woke up one morning and asked, "Has kuttipappa come out, mummy?" :) To be frank, I share her impatience, as well. Can't wait to have another little tornado at home! :)
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December 21, 2004
Wi-Fi rocks : It was pretty cool to know that my entire office is Wi-Fi ( wireless Internet) enabled. I've been reading about Wi-Fi for a long time now. Yet, it hits you when you take a laptop to the open air atrium, far away from your work desk, and still able to access your network files, fire a print, or just do plain simple browsing. Nothing like seeing a technology with your real eyes what you've read about in magazines. I'm now a firm believer in wireless Net access.
I went to Ritchie Street last week, and noticed the sign of things to come in the very near future. Centrino poweredLaptop prices have come down to sub-Rs.50K mark. I spoke to a few vendors and they tell me that last month saw a 200% increase in laptop sales. Notebooks, like cellphones, will quickly move from a nice-to-have prestige product to a 'must-have' utility product positioning. An Acer vendor tells me that 2005 should see the prices come further down to sub-Rs.40K mark. I don't have to look into the cystal ball to predict that laptops will catchup with desktops in 5 years time. Why get tied down to a desk when you have the freedom of mobility?
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December 20, 2004
10 Things The Time Magazine has learnt about Blogs : We've all read this kind of stuff a few years ago and got bored of it. The Time Magzaine is surely lagging behind. Read the article.
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December 19, 2004
Hunting for a Cycling Helmet.
I've been looking at picking up a cycling helmet ever since I had started cycling to work, but with no luck. I've searched high and low but never got around to finding one in Chennai. The 26 kms journey that I make everday to work and back, carries its own set of risks. Cycling is not the most safest form of transportation in Chennai. Atleast, I don't wanna get blamed for not being careful.
Here's my request.
Preference #1 : If you come across a place in Chennai which sells cycling helmets, I'd love to hear about it. That would be the most convenient for me to pick it up.
Preference #2: Can you point me to an online shop that sells this and more importantly, which does shipping to India. I did scan through Froogle. Though there are lots of online shops, I only came across ones that does shipping within the US. It would be great to find a shop that ships to India.
Preference #3 : This is my last resort. In the eventuality I don't find it here in Chennai or don't find an online shop that ships to India, can I request someone from outside of India help me out in sourcing this one. I'm willing to pay for the product, its shipping and any extra expenditure that you incur, via PayPal. You have my gratitude.
If you have some info that can be of help, kindly write in to me at kiruba[@]kiruba.com. Thanks in advance for your help.
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Reunion Photos
We congregated at Sudham's snug home before we drove to the beach resort.
At the beach resort, we had our tables places right next to the beach surf. Booze flowed and there was almost every variety of chicken snacks you could ever find!
For people who couldn't join us, they called in and we talked over the speaker phone on our mobiles. Ranjit called in from Delhi, Abhi from Calcutta and Aravind from Detroit.
Our college rock band, unplugged. Featuring (from left to right), Vinoth (team manager), Sudham (lead singer), Neeraj (lead guitarist, song writer & singer), Pappu (sound recorder), Dev (drums & backup vocals).
After two drinks!
After, 'I-forghot-how-many-drinkshss'!
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December 17, 2004
The Big College Re-Union : I'm running out to our college re-union and can't wait to meet the guys. I'm meeting some of my friends after eight long years. We had a mini-get together last week and this one is going to be big and wild. We are jammin' up at a sea side beach resort. It's gonna be an overdoze of nostalgia, fun & booze. Can't f@&kin' wait!!
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December 16, 2004
Why IndiaTimes sucks :
I was seriously contemplating on taking part in the Mumbai Marathon. During a chat session with a friend, I was told that the registration was about to close and that if I had any intention of taking part, I better hurry up. I fire up the website and was pleased to find that they accept online registrations. More importantly, the slot for half-marathon was still open. So I quickly fill in the details only to find that they all dissappeared as soon as i pressed the 'submit' button. It just opened up the same a new blank registration form asking me to fill in the details again. I did this three times and it felt like someone was playing a sick joke.
How could a company like Indiatimes not be capable enough to develop a simple registration form? Beats me!
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December 15, 2004
Ever sprayed coffee on your shirt ??! I did or atleast felt I did. The 'Premium'
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December 14, 2004
The Tidel Park Orkut Meet
Tidel Park is undoubtedly the best Software Technology Park in Chennai. It's home to the who's who of IT companies. There's lots of vibrancy in the place...you just need to take one look at the sprawling foodcourt. Yet, I've felt there wasn't much of interaction between professionals from different companies. The Tidel Park Orkut Meet is an attempt to help people to meet and know each other better. Afterall, we are in the same building. That's reason enough!
Yesterday, myself & Sakina of iNautix met to discuss the modus operandi and decided to set the ball rolling. Sakina has been an active ryzer and is great at organising networking events.
If you work in Tidel or know someone who does, please do pass the word around.
Day & Date : Wednesday, 22nd December.
Time : Lunch at 12:30 p.m
Place : Foodcourt. Near the Salad & Sandwich corner.
RSVP : Sakina Adeeb of iNautix or Kiruba of Sify
Phone : 98415 97744 (Kiruba)
Orkut Page : http://www.orkut.com/Community.aspx?cmm=932360 (login using Orkut id)
You work in Tidel but don't have an orkut invite? No sweat. Just shoot a mail to me (kiruba@kiruba.com) and I'll send an invite down your way.
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December 13, 2004
No Motor-vehicles inside Anna University: It was pretty hearting to read in The Hindu that Anna University is encouraging use of cycles and has brought in restriction in use of motor vehicles inside its 150 acre campus. This is the campus where we do our marathon training and am glad that its green campus will get even more cleaner. Way to go!
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College Reunion - The Warm up
8 years is a real long time. Meeting up with friends is a very special occassion. Now add in wives and kids and it becomes super special.
We call this the 'Halcyon Jam-up'. Halcyon is the successful collegiate cultural festival that we were instrumental in starting in our college. This tradition still continues to this day. We thought its hightime we met up to celebrate the friendship and the memories.
I was pretty surprised to see hardly any differece in the guys even after 8 years. It looked like the guys walked in after a two month vacation from college!! It was great meeting up with wives and kids. We cracked a lot of jokes, pulled each others legs. Had good fun.
This is just the warmup. There is a bigger get-together happening this Friday when people come in from Mumbai and Bangalore. It's gonna be a stags-only party and obviously, it's going to a wild-all-nighter!
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December 12, 2004
Currently Reading : The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari by Robin.S.Sharma
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December 10, 2004
Catch me on Tonight's Sun TV News :
Sun TV is doing a program on cyber crime and they wanted my opinion on the crimes committed over the Internet. I gave in my input on how frauds are committed over email, chat and more importantly credit cards in online shopping. I hardly got a minute and hence skimmed over the details.
I presume it must be part of the 'Sirappu Parvai' ( special report) in tonight Sun TV news at 8:00 p.m. For all I know, I may not even make it. I've gotten used to the editors' scissors by now!
When the shoot finished and I walked away, one thing was very clear. I totally suck in front of cameras!
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December 09, 2004
test
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Today is a Salad Day at my daughter's school. Salad day??! Never heard of anything like that before. But it sure sounds interesting. She was asked to bring along fruits, a bowl and some sugar. Last week was a 'color week' where a color was assigned to each day of the week. The students and the teachers were to come dressed in that color. She had fun.
All this reminded me of college where a group of us would organize Denim Day (where the entire college comes in jeans), Formal day (everyone in suits, tie, et al). The best of the lot was Ethnic Day, where everyone came decked in their traditional clothes. Our college was like a mini-India with people coming in from almost all the regions. So you can imagine the variety. The campus was awash with colors and fun! The girls definitely looked a lot prettier! :)
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December 08, 2004
Air Tennis?
At Taj Connemara, a 5-star hotel in Chennai, I saw this guy with a flourescent green racquet that looked like the cheap bats for kids available in Pondy Bazaar pavement shops. He was doing crazy tennis forehand like movement. My interest was piqued. So I walk up to the guy to get a closer look at this insane action. It was then I realised that the 'racquet' is an electic fly killer. As soon as he traps a housefly with the bat, you hear this 'Bbzzzpptt' sound of the fly getting electrocuted.
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December 07, 2004
How Qwikys pissed me off
I invite my friends for a small treat to Qwicky's located inside the plush Lifestyle superstore. (Qwikys is roughly the Indian equivalent of Starbucks). We order funky submarines and milkshakes.
The counter guy requested for payment as I ordered. I whipped out my credit card and handed it to him. He looked up and said that credit cards were not accepted. I had that 'what-the-f@*k?' look on my face. I didn't carry enough cash with me and the fella had already sliced & heated the subs, and whipped the shakes.
To hell with the food. I was a trifle embarrased 'coz I now need to haul my friends to another joint. I was equally agast that a joint in one of the most upmarket superstores in Chennai does not accept plastic.
While we decided to walk out, the guy gave me a pathetic 'what-do-I-do-with-all-this-food?' look and I returned back a 'Shove-it-up-where-the-sun-doesn't-shine' look.
Understandably, I didn't ring the Qwikys trademark thank-you bell as we walked out.
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December 06, 2004
Arse on the seat, heart on the pedal.
After more than two years of disuse, my cycle has been revived back to life and will become my primary mode of transportation to office. My house is in Virugambakam and I've recently shifted my workplace to Tidel Park (Software Technology Park) , in Taramani. A distance of 13 kilometers. One way.
I had been cycling to office for over three years, until I had a change in job which took me closer to my wife's office. This meant, I become her automatic chauffeur. Our offices were close to each other and it made sense to go together. So it was either motorbike or car (mostly motorbike) and I sorely missed my cycling. Besides, this office didn't have a shower room. Now that I'm back to Tidel park after a gap of two years, I didn't waste anytime in getting my MTB back to shape.
For all the rowing victories I've won and the marathon training, I'd owe the cycling a huge credit. It kept me in good shape....anytime better than gymming. Now that I've set my eyes firmly on the upcoming Marathon and the 2005 Rowing Championship, I'm once again turning to my old aide, my cycle.
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Baby Hanuman!
Crowds are flocking to Indian temples to see a Muslim baby with a 'tail' who is believed to be the reincarnation of Hanuman. He has a 4 inch 'tail' caused by genetic mutations during the development of the foetus. The 11-month-old boy has been named Bajrangbali, another name for the monkey-faced God. I'd say that does good for Hindu-Muslim unity.
(via Nirenjan)
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December 05, 2004
Check out Sunday's Indian Express for a big coverage of MP3 players by Savita. Makes for interesting reading. I wasn't aware of so many models available in the market. I get a decent mention (along with my Transcend MP3 player) in the article. We are seeing increasing instances of information written on blogs spilling into mainstream media, which I feel is a good thing to happen.
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December 03, 2004
Starting today, our apartment has started to segregate the garbage into two bins. The red bin for non-organic waste like plastic and the green bin for organic waste like kitchen waste, paper etc. Dec 4th (today) is the date when the Tamilnadu govt has made it mandatory for all the houses to follow this.
My wife is the vice-president of our apartment welfare association (ego boosting fancy title, eh?!) which means I'm automatically given the responsibility of working on this project. I'm starting off with making information pamphlets which I need to distribute to all the houses in my apartment and coax them into following the rule.
I'm impressed with the TN govt for enforcing such rules. The water-harvesting campaign was a very successful one and pretty useful too.
I don't know if this garbage segregation thing is going to be strictly implemented by the public but I'm making sure that our apartment follows it.
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Microsoft launches Blogging service. Now, I guess they will bulldoze their way to gaining marketshare.
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Annual Conference : India's biggest ever conference for technical writers got kicked off today in Chennai. The Indian chapter of STC ( Society for Technical Communicators) has been rated as one of the best in the world and the conference stood true to that ranking. This is the first time its been held in Chennai and as the City Representative of the Chennai chapter, its a matter of big pride. I had been part of the organising committee but been slacking off during the fag end of the preparation. So I landed up early today at Taj Connemara, the venue, to make up for lost time. Will be tied up today and tomorrow there. Tonight is the entertainment night, so looking forward to letting my hair down and shaking a leg.
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December 01, 2004
Cover that Tower, willya ?! ;)
(via Siva)
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