chumma chumma

Indian News and Blogs

2009-08-20T19:18:00.003-04:00

We rolled out few new pages in our site www.nrispot.com. The idea behind was to bring in a variety of news, movie reviews, gossips and blogs all in one page. As a matter of fact we bring in from more than 50 sources and all this is presented without any advertisements or pop ups. At present the English, Hindi, Tamil and Malayalam version are live and the work is on for the other major languages. Do take a look at let me know what you think.

How to find out the best exchange rates when sending money to India

2009-05-17T18:14:00.003-04:00

I have been in the US for 7 years now and would have send money to Indian on numerous occasions, be it for family maintenance or for some other purposes. Never thought too much about it and I have been a regular user of money2india services offered by ICICI bank. Never had any major issues with Money2india, however as years progressed, my dissatisfaction slowly grew and i always felt that the exchange rate was always little less than the market rate, but never gave it a serious thought.

One day it struck me that why don't I just find spend some time on the world wide web and find out who are the other providers and what kind of rates they provide. It was a real eye opener for me that they are at least a handful of providers (5-6 at least) and each of them offer different rates on a daily basis. If you are going to be like me, there is good chance that your bank may take advantage of your laziness. Majority of the users don't have the time to search and compare the rates of all these providers, they just stick with one provider .

Now after doing my research I have found SBI (no kidding, the old age licence raj nationalised monolith) to be the best in terms of rates and service. However the rates fluctuates and on a given day and ICICI or Times Money could be better. To help of my fellow NRI i also created a portal nrispot.com and built in a page, where you can not only find all the providers but also compare their exchanges rates / fees for sending money to India. However I would like to clearly state that please don't rely solely on my for the information, and my sincere advice you to do your own checks on the rates. A couple of minutes on checking the rates could end up as additional money for loved ones

NRISPOT.COM- A NRI directory service focused on Non Resident Indians

2009-05-17T11:42:00.001-04:00

NRISpot is an internet directory or simply a guide to every NRI’s India-centric needs. We built the site to enable NRIs to stay up to date with all the popular and new India-centric services that are available on the web. By India-centric services we mean websites providing information, products and services in and outside India that would be of interest to NRIs.
Today, NRISpot.com includes over 190 services, hand picked based on diligent research and assessment. We work hard to keep them current and remove services that are no longer available or working. NRISpot exists to provide you with the knowledge and access to useful services, that you would not have known otherwise.
Most importantly, NRISpot.com will continue to be a easy-to-use and clutter-free website that can be used by every Indian from across the globe, be it an astronaut in Houston or a construction worker in Kuwait or a diplomat in Stockholm or student in Melbourne.
You can visit NRISpot multiple times a day to check out the one-page view of latest news, exchange rates, stock market indexes. Or You can visit NRISpot few times a week to casually check out new websites in various categories.Or You can visit NRISpot few times a month when you need to know the sites for recipes or for parenting. Or You can visit NRISpot just when you think of something you need to get done in India but don’t know how or where to go. We will be here to serve you, at your convenience.
Happy Browsing!

Tamilnadu elections- My wish

2006-04-09T12:54:00.000-04:00

I am not sure why, but I always like balance of power in politics. If Amma is bad, Kalaingar is worse. If DMK is bad then ADMK is worse. Nowadays it has become a question of which of the evil is the lesser evil. In center DMK is ruling the roost, Given this, I would prefer Amma to be in state, so that the balance of power is maintained. With SUN, KTV, SCV, Suriyan FM, Dinakaran, Tamil Murasu and Kungumam, DMK virtually controls the media in Tamilnadu. If their stronghold on the media continues, then what they say will become news. Either the media arm has to come out separate or atleast the party should be out of power for the next few years both in state and center so that they will be forced to play fair with rest of the competitors.

I might come across as a person against DMK, but that is not the case. In 1989(I was in my 9th) , 96 and 2001 I supported DMK. But this election I would love to see Vijaykanth. Not because I have high hopes on him but just to see a new face than these two. I am not sure if captain can even come close, it will be nice to see him get some good percentage(double digit) of votes, so that he stays motivated in politics till the next general election .

Being so far from homeland, I am not really able to gauge the mood of the public. Media is really worse this time, just by looking at their reporting, you can easily find out whom they are supporting. Any way lets see what happens and who is going to come this time.

Shruthi's Birthday

2005-04-25T11:14:00.000-04:00

Time flies so fast, Shruthi turned one yesterday. We had a small party to celebrate her birthday. Our friends in Akron joined us for the party and Sudhar and Harini had flown in from NJ for the party. Overall we had a fun time for the last three days. It was really a fun and food affair.

Dead weight loss of gifts

2004-11-14T16:15:00.000-05:00

Creating a blog is one of the easiest thing one could ever do. The toughest part is to update and keep blogging on a continuous basis. I really wonder how some people are able to do it with such a consistency. Sudhar and Arun are good example of the this kind. It is just not laziness, I think it is more than that. Might be you need to have a way with words and the interest to update regularly. Hats off to Arun and Sudhar for constantly updating their blogs.

Today I was reading about the dead weight loss of gifts in rediff. It says that the dead loss of gifts during Christmas could be as high as 5 to 17 billion. The whole underlying concept is that people who receive get what they actually don't want. It further goes to say that it is an excellent indicator of inefficiency as it graphically portrays the difference between what people want and what they get. Might be a good enough reason to give cash as gift, hope I remember this next time when I think of a gift.

Shruthi's bon voyage

2004-10-04T22:15:00.000-04:00

At many times I feel a prisoner of the situation in the US. Today is one such occasion. I have never felt this way before. Time has come by for Shruthi to go and stay with her Patti and Thatha in Hong Kong. For the next few months she will be away from us. For the past six months, we always had someone at home. People were visiting us all the time. But from Monday it is going to be the just the two of us and to make matters worse, winter is stepping in. I am sure the winter is going to amplify the feeling of being alone. Hopefully my course work and job search will keep me busy. I don’t know how Lakshmi will manage. Hopefully Sun TV (Metti Oli, Anaamdam and Kolangal) and household work will keep her occupied. I wish we could have kept Shruthi with us but for US and its climate.

Few days’ back we had been to Pittsburgh perumal kovil. After having the darshan, we spent the day sightseeing few places in Pittsburgh. We stopped at Udupi for dinner. In the table next to ours, two guys were having their dinner. We were not able to see them but I was able to hear them talk. I could not control my laughter when I heard this, I guess one was having a vadai and I guess he preferred to have it dipped/soaked in sambahr. So the other guy asks the guy having vadai. “Do you like like that” and I immediately knew it was desi’s. Who else can use a Like Like in a single sentence.

Vaiko - The dark horse

2004-09-16T11:24:00.000-04:00

Its surprising to see a politician like Vaiko, whatever may be his true intensions. His decision to walk for 42 days and 1050 Kilo meters, be in jail for 18 months without applying for bail and his decision to be out of the central ministry, all have helped to raise his stocks among the public and made him a dark horse. I can hear you saying, after all he is a politician, but just ask yourself has any other contemporary Indian politician gone through this ordeal or made such bold decisions. Before even receiving a arrest warrant, we have people getting admitted into hospitals and parties (Read PMK and DMK) getting plum ministerial berths for their kith and kin. In such a surrounding its refreshing to see a politician like Vaiko. I have heard him speak in the parliament and during the AIADMK tirunelveli conference. I should say that he is well learned and well spoken and as a matter of fact impressed me a lot. I guess among the present crop of politicians, he is a welcome change.

Power of the Stained glass

2004-09-14T11:21:00.000-04:00

Today I was reading a post on Arun Vaidyanathan’s blog. It was talking about senseless Brahmin bashing. I was wondering why the ones who are bashing are doing so. Are there some actual reasons behind this entire Brahmin bashing or people just do it for the heck of it?
Thinking about this made me realize the power of the stained glass. We all wear one and as a matter of fact we all see the world through the stained glass and yet don’t realize that we are wearing one. Everyone’s stained glass is unique and different from the other. The stained glass is like a glass ceiling on a cathedral, with many shades and colors in it. Each shade and color represents one's own value system, brought up, education, culture, beliefs, personal experiences, role models and outlook towards life. Most of the stains (colors/shades) form in the early part of life and stay forever.

Okay coming to the topic of Brahmin bashing and Stained glass, what’s the connection. At times I think there is some deep-rooted reason in Brahmin bashing. As a matter of fact I don’t do, but whenever some one does I don’t find fault with them due to my stained glass. I am not a Brahmin, but most of my close friends are Brahmins and I feel good about every one of them. But this incident, which happened some 20-22 years ago, left a permanent stain on my glass. At that time I was studying in third standard in Bharthiya Vidya Bhavan, Coimbatore. Sankaracharya was visiting the city/school. The school authorities in BVB said he would come to the school and that he would be staying in a rich man's house near by for some yagam and interested people can visit the rich man's house and attend the yagam. My dad was a bank manager and I told my dad about this and he took us all. We met Sankaracharya and took his blessings. Food preparations were going on and the aroma of the food was making me feel excited. I wanted to have food there, but an announcement came in the mike and I still can remember every word of it. It said all Brahmins can stay for food and everyone else can take the prasadam and leave. I was so young, but even after 20 years I can remember the effect it had on me. It made me feel inferior for no reason that I was aware of.

Real Funny

2004-09-13T09:17:00.000-04:00

Just click the link to read the jokes...you will really enjoy them

Poverty & Opulence

2004-09-10T22:11:00.000-04:00

I recently had a chance to interact with an American family, who had recently visited India (Bangalore). The guy is a top level executive with an American company. He has been selected by the company to head the Indian operations. As part of the familiarization trip, the family had visited India, and they stayed in Bangalore for a week. They had just returned and I had a chance to interact with them. When I asked them about their first impressions on India this is what they said ‘Poverty & Opulence’.

They stayed at the Leela Palace and the couple in unison said, Leela Palace was the best luxury hotel they had ever stayed in. At the same time they agreed that it was a totally different world when they stepped out of the hotel/Office. The traffic, dust, crowd, noise and poverty on the roads were totally in contrast to what they experienced indoors. They were a little overawed by the contrasts in society. I guess we Indians are used to it and hence it doesn’t affect us so much. But now thinking more of it, I feet ashamed at the thought of eating a $20 meal ( I have done it more than once…what a shame) when I know for a fact that there are people in the same city who cant even afford to have one square meal a day.

We in general talked about India and I was boasting about the success of arranged marriages and the low rate of divorces, but the American couple dented my pride by highlighting the dowry system and the plight of daughter-in-laws. In fact, he pointed out the high number of fire accidents as a by product of dowry system. So not once but twice I was on the back foot. In the end, it was a whole new experience to look at India from an American perspective. I guess as a country we have a long way to go. If we all decide to give something back to the country, then some day it is very much possible.

Long time.....Since I blogged

2004-07-30T19:15:00.000-04:00

I know.....Its been a long time, but with school work and office work i find it so difficult to write something meaningful. If you happened to visit here...do take a peek at the pictures......That's the only area where I keep posting regularly.....

Beckham and the hindi Tatoo

2004-06-23T12:21:00.000-04:00

Whats this.....does any one knows the story behind it....I guess it says victoria..

Desi Economy: Capitalism Vs Socialism

2004-06-20T20:48:00.000-04:00

What form of government and economic policy should a government take? Nowadays it has become a trillion dollar question? It’s even more important for countries like India and China that have a huge population of 1 billion.To feed our one billion population what kind of an approach should we take. Should profit and shareholders wealth maximization be the only goals of Indian Corporates? Should the government play into the hands of the capital markets? Should the government increase the foreign direct investment cap in all the key sectors in the name of globalization and liberalization? What do we need, 15000 ATM’s or 45000 clerical banking jobs? Fully automated production lines or 1000 plus manufacturing jobs? Should we take the approach of capitalism or communism or socialism? I know it’s a tough question, but the more I see Corporate America, I starting doubting capitalism.

For years the developed world has taken the route of capitalism. They have prospered in it to a certain extent. To start with, the sharing was equal and everyone seemed to enjoy a good life. But after 200 years of capitalism, the wealth sharing has been polarized to such an extent, where 1% of America owns 33% of its wealth. Today in America you won't find average Americans on the left or on the right. You'll find them at Wal-Mart shopping for deals. That’s capitalism for us.

Today capitalism’s single minded goal is to increase the wealth of its shareholders. To increase the wealth of its shareholders companies pursue a number of strategies like automation, downsizing, re-engineering BPO, ERP etc. It certainly results in improved efficiency and value creation for the customers and shareholders but the important question we need to ask ourselves here is: What is the overall cost an economy pays for such improved efficiencies? In his book straight from the gut, GE ex CEO Jack Welch justifies himself by saying ‘We dint fire the people, we fired the positions’ however they may call it, the net result is a job loss. A family loses its livelihood because the company can perform the task in a much efficient way by employing lesser resources and increase its profitability. My question is can India afford to improve efficiency at this cost or should it go back to the socialist form of government where social responsibilities are given its due respect. I certainly don’t have an answer, but I am really concerned about the way the previous Indian government danced to the tunes of capital market in the last 5 years. Hope the new government amends the mistakes of the old regime. I would be happy to see a economic policy which can ensure growth at the grass root levels.

The latest addition to the house of VPL's

2004-06-08T21:31:00.000-04:00

Whoever said surprises and happiness comes in cute little packages were right....Today we got a new cute little surprise in the form of Nimeshika. My brother Venkat and sister in law Alamu had their second baby today. Nimeshika was born today at 7.45 am. Now we have close to half a dozen kids in our family. Nimeshika weighs 6 pounds and 11 ounces. Both mom and baby are doing fine and we wish them well. Vishnu now has a cute little sister to give him company. (Keep going down the page to see the new born baby)

Neice and Newphew

2004-06-08T21:18:00.000-04:00

visnim

My brother's daughter - Nimeshika

2004-06-08T20:46:00.000-04:00

Nimeshika 2

My daughter - Shruthi

2004-06-06T21:11:00.000-04:00

Sleeping shruthi

Shruthi's day out

2004-06-06T20:34:00.000-04:00

Today we took Shruthi out for the first time. Shruthi's first stop was the local Shiva Vishnu temple. The priest made an archanai in her name and placed her close to the pillayar for blessings. Shruthi opened her eyes just in time to have a glimpse of pillayar. After our stop at the temple, we made one more stop. Nobody gets any brownie points for guessing the second place right. Yes we took Shruthi to - Wal-Mart the place where America shops (I am not responsible if you read it as Desi’s). I read somewhere that 96% of the Americans visited Wal-Mart at least once in 2003. Guess Shruthi has made the right stops (Indian temple and Wal-Mart) towards becoming a DESI.

My (lack of) language skills

2004-06-05T10:31:00.000-04:00

This December I would complete my second MBA from the University of Akron. Ten years back if anyone would have told me that I would pursue a masters degree, everyone, including me would have ridiculed the thought itself. Today after 19 years of education if I am worried about one thing, it’s my language skills, be it English or Tamil (my mother tongue). I can’t write without spelling and grammar mistakes. Our in-house proof reader (Lakshmi) pokes at my grammar whenever she gets a chance. While I was in India, whenever I sent an email, I would get a reply which is basically a corrected version of my email. If not for today’s word processors features, I would think twice before writing anything in English. Tamil, I just cannot write.

I still remember my eleventh standard tamil teacher reading my answer paper to the class on how not to write tamil (however he gave me a pass grade saying the content was correct and the ONLY issue was # of spelling mistakes). I studied in 12 different schools before completing my 12th standard and certainly it dint help my language skills. The main reason for the frequent change in schools was my dismal performance and my father’s transferable bank job. In terms of medium, standard and board of schools, I have studied in all type of schools ranging from tamil, english, hindi medium schools to state, central, private, Anglo Indian to a Ooty boarding school to a Tiruchi Tapovanam to a Madras corporation school to a private city convent, I have seen it all. Due to my own lack of performance in school and frequent change in schools, I really lost out on my language skills. To sum it up, I learned the importance of ‘Illamaiyil Kal’ in the hard way (study when you are young).

English, the occupational language is not really bothering me as much as tamil. I get lot of opportunities to speak, read and write in English and these opportunities help me refine and develop my English language skills. But Tamil, I am all lost, I don’t know where to start, but I know I have to start. Hopefully in the coming days (years) I will try blogging in Tamil.

My late found love for english movies

2004-06-04T20:45:00.000-04:00

Today is the release of Harry Potter - Prisoner of Azkaban and I am going to see it. I don’t know how it all started but now I like to watch English movies more than Indian movies. As a matter of fact I have got addicted to GOOD English movies. Before coming to the US, all my life I should have seen a little less than 50 movies. Believe it or not I did not see even movies like Jurassic Park and Lord of the Rings. Even when I flew into the US they played two movies (Catch me if you can and Harry Potter the chamber of secrets) and I preferred to sleep rather than watching them.

Today after one year in the US, I have seen more than 250 movies and my appetite for good English movies is still growing big. The single most reason for me to start enjoying English movies is the closed caption option in the TV (my brother (venkatachalam) was the one who introduced me to the concept of closed captions, Captions help you to follow the dialogues more closely). Initially I was so dependent on the captions feature, but after 250 movies, now I can live without it and still understand the movie fully. One more important reason for me to like English movies is the way they take it. Every movie is handled like a business project and has a sound script.

I could go on...but I guess its getting late for the show......Potter will not wait for me ...definitely not on the first day of the release.

2004-06-04T17:09:00.000-04:00

shruthi kutty

2004-05-27T18:19:00.000-04:00

I dint want it...but lakshmi insisted that i post this photo....i need not tell you who took this picture.....

2004-05-27T18:17:00.000-04:00

Mother and the Baby

The Theory of Broken Window and Reverse Mentoring

2004-05-27T17:01:00.000-04:00

Reverse Mentoring

Jack Welch in his book talks about reverse mentoring. Its a paradigm shift from the traditional mentoring system I was used to. When I was a management trainee with Food world I had a mentor to guide me. The mentor was from the senior management, much older than me. The stereotype you come across about mentoring is that 'Company seniors perform the role of mentors to company juniors'. But Jack in his book talks about a role reversal. He says during the 90's when the computer bug hit the World corporates, GE decided to use the reverse mentoring concept. Computers, internet and email pretty much belonged to the younger generation and was a new technology mastered by the Gen X. Given this, GE top management decided to have younger people as mentors when it came to computers. Say a guy like Jack would have a much younger computer mentor and spend two hours per week with his mentor learning it. (A person in the 50's would have a person in the 20's as a mentor). The reverse mentoring not only helped GE's senior management to understand the technology but also to understand the Gen X better.

Theory of Broken Window
New York is know for its notorious crime rates. Before Rudolph's term as mayor it used to be even worse. Rudolph's `Broken Window Theory' inspired the New York Police department to crack down on the small stuff in order to keep out the big stuff. It worked keeping on top of broken windows, graffiti, and other small infractions reduced the serious crime level. The theory is based on the assumption that one broken window, left unrepaired for any substantial length of time instills in the inhabitants of the building a sense of abandonment---a sense that the powers don't care about the building. So another window gets broken. People start littering. Graffiti appears. Serious structural damage begins. In a relatively short space of time, the building becomes damaged beyond the owner's desire to fix it and the sense of abandonment becomes reality and small crimes makes way for bigger ones. The broken window theory along with increased manpower, surveillance and introduction of the new MIS system helped Rudolph in bringing down the crime rate. The MIS system which he developed was selected as the best management tool of the year for governmental agencies by Harvard .

Here we stay

2004-05-26T22:42:00.000-04:00

Our Townhouse...a two bedroom apartment in a small nice community.....the car closer to the door is ours.....a small civic.....

Books on tapes

2004-05-26T22:01:00.000-04:00

I never knew such a thing as books on tapes till I read about it in Sudhar's blog(Sudhar is a friend of mine for more than a decade..You could visit him at www.sudhar.com) and I have to thank him for it.

In America whether you like it or not you end up spending atleast 30-60 minutes in the car everyday. Earlier I used to while away this time by just listening to some music but now most of the time I listen to some book, mostly management and self improvement. I really enjoying doing this and it helps me achieve my personal target of reading atleast two new books a month.

The last two books I listened to are Jack Welch's Straight from the gut and Leadership by Rudolph Giuliani. The books were a treat to listen. If I were to pick up one thing from each of these books, I would like to pick the broken window theory of Giuliani and the Mentoring theory of Welch. I know its not fair to just mention them and not explain, but I guess this could be the a reason for you to lay your hands (Ears) on these books.

Shruthi Photos

2004-05-26T20:20:00.000-04:00

Finally after a lot of research we bought a Sony digital camera. This is the first picture we took.

Babygirl

2004-05-19T22:52:00.000-04:00

Thats our new born...shruthi ...

pillayar suli

2004-05-19T22:24:00.000-04:00

Hi all

Starting today we should be bloging. We in the sense, me, my wife and our baby. My baby is just three weeks old, and I guess she should take a little longer to blog!...

If you have absolutely no other work, then I would suggest you check our blogs.

Tata

Ganesh and Naga