My Personal Blog - Sarada Ramani

I had written about the activities that are undertaken by our company under CISF (Computers International Social Fund). As part of the yearly activity, we will be organizing the “Blood Donation Camp” on 27th December 2008 . This is Eighth year in succession , the camp is being organized and all our staff members are proud to be part of this noble effort. In fact, we started this years earlier and used to have it on 1st January - which used to give a great feeling for all of us to start the New Year with having done a noble deed, but practical reasons have forced to do it towards the end of year. Anyway the timing doesn't matter, it is thinking of giving back to Society which matters, isn't. Lions Blood Bank has been part of this drive, by organizing their doctors and assistants to come over to our office and be part of this in all these years. The dedication of their staff members is seen to be believed. The camp will be conducted at our Ganga Office premises from 9...

It has been a long time since I could write my blog. The reason " I was travelling"...... Yes I had a hectic trip 5 cities 5 days with everyday air travel, hotel check in followed by next day business meeting, check out and then air travel contd... This was a very different and difficult trip, where the climate was extreme and the business climate was also different with all the companies going on budgetary cuts and so many people being let go. The sad part was, it wasnt about the individuals, but about the necessity of the situation that made the companies to take this extreme steps. Here I have to talk about the American business environment - everybody understands that when you are issued the pink slip in these circumstances, it is not about You, but about the situation. So the next company where you seek an employment doesnt look down upon. Also when things get better, these same people can also come back to the company with no ill feelings. However, in India, ...

What's in a name. If you have little as part of your name, but in reality you turn out to be a Very Great person in life - the naming is a paradox isn't . I am going talk about Ms Virginia Littlejohn , the champion for women entrepreneurship - not only in her native land - the land of opportunities USA, but also globally. She now spends most of her time, in the most happening places or should I say countries China and India where she is currently engaged in launching the WE Connect program as part of the global supplier diversity program. Virginia Littlejohn is CEO and Co-Founder of Quantum Leaps, Inc., which shares women entrepreneurial best practices, and facilitates their access to markets. She is also Chairman of TradeBuilders , Inc., which provides virtual trade missions and online conferencing. Her primary focus for several decades has been advocacy on behalf of women entrepreneurs. Let me try to list down what all positions she had held since 1970 In the late 1...

Today was a different kind of day for me totally. I am going to write about my flat, Deccan Enclave. We have 3 blocks, A, B & C. Each block has 16 houses with 2 wings and each wing with 8 house share a lift, with one flat each on either side of the lift. So both the wings are separate from one another totally, though within being a single block. Please bear with me with the explanation regarding the layout. This concerns about the A block. On the Eastern side, from the morning there has been music, laughter and veda ghosam coming out and we could understand that some new owner is performing " Grahapravesam" (home warming). The western side has a different story to tell. A death had happened yesterday. A 45 year old married woman had died suddenly on Saturday. She has been with her aged parents and getting some treatment (nothing life threatening). Her husband is in New Jersey and at this moment will be doing a pain filled travel trying to reach the side of his dea...

I am reproducing from one of the mails I have received and since it is from a good friend, I tried what it says in the email and found it to be true. This is very strange!!!!! HOW SMART IS YOUR RIGHT FOOT? I guess there are some things that the brain cannot handle. HOW SMART IS YOUR RIGHT FOOT? You have to try this please, it takes 2 seconds. It is from an orthopedic surgeon............ This will boggle your mind and you will keep you trying over and over again to see if you can outsmart your foot, but, you can't. It's preprogrammed in your brain! 1. Without anyone watching you (they will think you are GOOFY......) and while sitting at your desk in front of your computer, lift your right foot off the floor and make clockwise circles. 2. Now, while doing this, draw the number '6' in the air with your right hand. Your foot will change direction. I told you so!!! And there's nothing you can do about it! You and I both know how stupid it is, but before the day is done...

A lot of good and great things are happening with our company, which I would like to share with you all. CI.COM, one of the group companies of CI, has become the Gold Certified Development Partner of Sage. As part of the above exercise, one of the flagship product of ours, Mobile SalesPerson got the Lionbridge Certification Internally, all my Test Engineers are ' ISTC certified Engineers For more details, please go through the above items in my professional blog http://ciglobal.blogspot.com/ Would love to have your comments.

Here is my next post in my Professional Blog . This time the topic is "Ajax". Would welcome the readers comments and write ups about this further more. http://ciglobal.blogspot.com/ Happy reading

Here is the invite for the november month meeting being organized by ITSME Associaiton ITSME Association is pleased to invite you to participate, interact and network with the JETRO officials from Bangalore for an interactive session on Tuesday the 11th November 2008 at Hotel Savera , The Lounge, Dr Radhakrishnan Salai, Chennai. 5.30 - 6.00: Networking and High Tea 6.00 - 6.05: Welcome Address - President, ITSME Association 6.05 - 7.00: Business Opportunities with Japan – Presentation by Mr Kazumasa Kuboki, Director General, JETRO, Bangalore 7.00 7.15: Q & A session 7.15: Vote of Thanks We hope the session will help the members to discover the advantages of doing business in Japan; learn about successful companies doing business with Japan and understand Japan's individual regions and markets. All are welcome

When I started this blog, it was more a expression of myself and this continues till date. However, I also have a professional side, and many of my readers are from the professional background. Hence, I felt that it is time, I started one which is dealing with my Profession. I intend writing about various topics on Software apart from some major things that happen in my company. I now have 3 posts and would request you to give me your comments about this blog so that I can modify my writings. http://ciglobal.blogspot.com/ Thanks in advance for your help

The Indian Stock Market is falling............... So how is the common man in the street. I was very curious to know this. Of course, I didnt go out to different areas and see how the crowd is etc... But I just happened to visit one particular Consumer item selling shops - The ever increasing Mobile Market Segment - The Mobile Phones Shops (or rather I was forced to go, because my daughter's mobile phone, an expensive one, which is just less than one year old went off because it was also drenched in rain and warranty doesnt cover the eventuality arising out of malfunction due to wetness, and so needed to find a replacement). Went to 2 retail shops to check out, each of which was just 300 sqft shops. Both of them were getting a steady stream of visitors and at least 95% of the visitors were leaving the stores with their purchases. In the second shop, where we ultimately purchased her new phone, the Manager ( a very young person of just say 24-25 years old) was ...

What a wonderful trip it was. Dont ask me how much business I have brought back or what are the connections I have had. That is a different story altogether. But what I brought back home was 19 good friends - a close knit group, sailing in thick and thin together, enjoying life, enjoying what work we do and having fun all along the way. The first day in London, the entire delegation was hosted a evening party at none other place than London Stock Exchange . We had a great presentation done to us which was telling us how LSE listing for the Indian companies will be good and what is the benefit for the Indian companies. I was telling few of my friends, "What a distance India has come" Within about 61 years, from the time, when we had to fight our battles to have freedom in our own soil, we are now wooed to be part of the economic heart beat of London, the London Stock Exchange. My sincere appreciations to every Indian who has made this day possible by their sheer ...

I am right now in Dublin as part of Nasscom delegation to Ireland and UK. Got in yesterday and now ready for beginning the first day of the delegation. We will be leaving by 7.30 from this hotel and after a full day's engagement, will be leaving for Scotland tonight. The best thing about these countries is the comfort feeling you get even though it is your first time in that country. People are friendly and invariably all the airports have tourist information counter which is manned by very good and friendly people. So when I went in to ask the way to get to the hotel from the airport, they told me to take a public bus, as the bus stop was just outside the hotel. It was a great experience to travel and it was very comfortable and driver was helpful in telling me when I need to alight. In the evening 8 of us got out and went to the city center and finished our dinner over a good and entertaining dinner at the Irish pub. Altogether a good first day. But before closing I ha...

I dont know what is this particular aspect about the Professionals in the Quality Arena. Most of them, I find, are so much into their profession that they breath, live, speak only Quality . One more aspect is that they just dont stop with only talking about Quality, but live for Evangelizing Quality and take upon themselves to go out and reach all the stakeholders in the society. Recently I had the privilege of meeting one such person - The passionate Quality Guru Srinivasan Desikan. While continuing his career with HP as Senior Systems Architect, he is also the Adjunct professor at several colleges/universities/institutions to promote Software Testing as a subject. I went in for Certification of all the QA resources in my company and thus came to know Srinivasan through this process. What a simple man for all his achievements. Not only does he practice, he has also coauthored the book Software Testing - Principles and Practices, which is one of the best sellers and is also be...

What if India had not split into India & Pakistan during the independence from British. This was the question I had after I saw Gandhi today in the TV today on his birthday. Will we be having this kind of bomb blasts and all the other things that are being talked about with lot of communal favour. I don't know, Some of the best things would have been In Cricket we would have been the most formidable side in the world. Our defence budget would not be so huge and we wouldn't have lost a lot of military resources in our border wars. There will not be a Kashmir unrest Due to the above fact, we would have a great tourism going on We will have a great cooperation with the Middle East The negatives would have been A lot more politics in terms of player selection A different war plan with our neighbours More communal clashes too in terms of proving who is superior Would love to hear from you readers on this topic

I am very emotional at this particular moment, after having seen the movie Taare Zameen Par - which literally means " the Stars in the Land ". This movie is all about children with dyslexia and how even the parents aren't in a position to understand them. My niece works in a school for such children and she used to share how these children are very normal and are always able to outperform the normal children, with some initial help in overcoming their learning shortcoming. This movie is a brilliant portrayal of such a thing. Every aspect about this film is so superb and fine - whether it is casting, or acting or direction, or the speed of the story play. No wonder it has won the top national awards. Both Aamir Khan who takes the hand as a teacher to understand the student's problem and tries to help him cope up and bring out the best in him, & Darsheel Safary who plays the 8 year old boy are fantastic. Also Walt Disney Company has bought the video righ...

Here are the details of the October month program from the ITSME Association - The interactive session on “ Risk Mitigation in a Volatile Global economy”. Date: October 3, 2008 at 5.30 pm Venue : Hotel Savera, Chennai Program Agenda 5.30 - 6.00 Networking and High Tea 6.00 - 6.10 Welcome address – Mr Sankaran Raghunathan President ITSME Association 6.10 - 6.40 Trends in FE Market – Mr. Arun Chengalaveetil - Asst. Vice President Head Trade and Foreign Exchange, ABN Amro, Tamil Nadu . 6.40 - 7.10 A perspective on The Global Economic Situation – Mr Gautam Rao , Managing Director, Business Risk & Hedge Management Strategies Pvt Ltd 7.10 - 7.30 Q & A 7.30 7.35 Vote of Thanks We would definitely encourage you to make the best use of this event. This event comes with an attractive gate ...

The recent crashes of very big firms which were looking so solid just few days ago should be a wake up call for all of us to just time off and do a introspection, whatever industry you are in and what ever post you hold. But why? Nothing happens suddenly, it is just the frog in the water being boiled syndrome, where till the last minute the frog doesn't realise that it is in hot water since it is in its comfort zone, it lives happily and when it is too late only, it realizes that its life is coming to an end. Same way, most of us are getting into a comfort zone and and never bother to understand the dangerous time we are in and it becomes too late for many of us. Take for eg all the layoff that's is happening. How many of them would have saved money for the rainy day, I believe it will be very few. While people in IT industry get a good salary, way beyond what many of their peers get when they are in other industries, these people spend all their money or should I sa...

On Sunday I saw the TV Program by Vishu called the ‘ Makkal Arangam (meaning where people gather together to discuss various things). He had earlier successfully launched the Aratai arangam (it means the place where people gather to gossip, discuss, etc). What I like about his reality show are as follows: 1. His concept made lot of people to come out and speak with courage conviction and brings to limelight very ordinary people with good oratory skills in unexpected part of the country/world. 2. The best part of the show is ‘ his public show of emotion’. He proved to the world that getting emotional is not a weakness but a strength. 3. Showing the needy and thereby enabling philanthropists to support such needy people is one other best things that happens on the show. 4. Many of the common man sufferings have come to lime light 5. He also showcases the achievement of ordinary people. 6. There is a public awareness campaign about some topic or other – this time it was the follow up...

After a long time I have come to my favourite topic - Entrepreneurship . So this time around you are going to meet a very very successful Entrepreneur. What a great personality. Like the title says - He is one of the most silent man with no airs being exhibited, but his achievements are great. For me success is not a measure of numbers, but it is much more than getting up even when you have gone down. So not only by numbers, but also raising like Phoenix makes this person a very Great person. I am talking about none other than Mohan Subramaniam of Kumaran Software . His company is one of those companies which are poised for great growth in the coming years. But for all this, you cannot find more simple a person than him. I really have to thank the ITSME forum for bringing me close to him. Mohan's vision is to transform Kumaran into a 10,000 employee Innovative Solution Providing Software Development Company creating value for its employees and customers. Starting out as a Se...

Great Lakes Human Resource Conclave, 2008 Great Lakes Institute of Management takes pleasure to inform about organizing the Great Lakes Human Resource Conclave on Tuesday, the 2nd of September 2008 at Hotel Le Meridien, Chennai. PROGRAMME 0900 – 1000 Hrs Registration 1000 – 1120 Hrs Inaugural Session 1000 – 1020 Hrs Welcome Address Dr. Bala V. Balachandran 1020 – 1050 Hrs Address by the Chief Guest Mr. Prem Chand Gupta 1050 – 1120 Hrs Address by the Chief Guest Dr. T. V. Rao 1120 – 1135 Hrs Tea / Coffee Break 1135 – 1200 Hrs Address by Guest of Honor Mr. Pranab Baruah - Tackling talent acquisition challenges in spiraling inflationary times. 1205 – 1405 Hrs Session 1 Theme: Integration of Corporate cultures and People Management post-merger 1205 – 1230 Hrs Session Chair Address Mr. Chandra Sekaran - Integration of Corporate cultures and People Management post-merger 1230 – 1250 Hrs Keynote Address Dr. Chandrasekhar Sripada - A consulting perspective on managing workplace diversity po...

Government Museum, Chennai is a multi-purpose State Government Museum located in Egmore , which is the heart of the city, spreading to an area of 16.25 acres of land. Six independent buildings in this Museum campus has 46 galleries. I have reproduced down below the history of the museum itself as it has an interesting past - what it being a place where the elite of the city met, to being a zoo, to an aquarium, then a library and finally the great grand museum. History of the museum The proposal for a museum in Madras was mooted by the Madras Literary Society in 1846 AD and Sir Henry Pottinger , the then Governor, obtained the sanction of the Court of Directors of the East India Company in London. In January 1851 AD, Dr. Edward Balfour, Medical Officer of the Governor's Body guard was appointed as the First Officer in charge of the Government Museum. The notification in the Fort St. George Gazetteer dated 29 th Aprtil 1851 AD contained the first announcement regarding the ope...

ITSME Association is pleased to invite you to participate, interact and network with the Inbound Delegation of Sri Lankan IT/ITES companies for an interactive session on August 25, 2008 at 10 am – 1 pm at STPI, Chennai. The Board Of Investment of Sri Lanka (BOI), ICTA (the govt's IT promotion agency) and ITSME association are jointly organizing this Delegation. BOI & ICTA will be represented by Senior Government officials and the individual Sri Lankan IT/ITES companies represented by their decision-makers. They are specifically looking forward to interacting with our IT/ITES industry to explore opportunities/JV partnerships. Please click on this URL for the profiles of the Delegate Companies. http://www.itsmesindia.com/ites/Sri_Lankan_ITES_Delegation.pdf We hope that this interaction will prove to be productive in building potential synergistic business engagements. We are looking forward to your whole-hearted participation and cooperation in making this Delegation a successf...

SWIM - Successful Women in Management - a great initiative from Great lakes Institute of Management. It is all about empowering women and showing the students and the whole world what is it be Woman in a situation of having to manage self and manage others and even the company and take all the people to great Heights. It is the 4 th year of the program start and each year it gets bigger and better. Here is the program schedule and all are welcome Theme Women as Trailblazers: Dreaming, Exploring & Discovering New Horizons Chief Guest Ms. Anu Aga (Former Chairperson of Thermax ) Guests of Honor Mr. T.N. Seshan , Former Chief Election Commissioner Padmasri Sudha Raghunathan , Professional Carnatic Vocalist Ms. Hemu Ramaiah , Founder of Landmark Panel Discussion Educated, Intelligent, Energetic and just in her 40's – Can she still pursue her career dreams? Venue: Hotel Green Park, Vadapalani , Chennai 600026 Date: 12 th August 2008 Time: 9:30 Hrs to 17:00 Hrs Al...

Most of you would have read about the bomb blast in 2 Indian cities on subsequent days - previous day at Bangalore and the next day at Ahmedabad. Of all the images that were displayed, only one stuck to my mind. It was the picture of a fruit vendor couple lying dead in front of their fruit cart. What have these people to do with anything that the terrorists give out as a reason for doing this heinous act. It is such innocent people who are affected and for all others life goes on for ever. Why this cowardly act. Which religion or God asks or gives you a sanction to kill innocents. Or rather what do you achieve by killing people like these. don't you know what kind of a shattered life you leave behind for such victims family. Now these family members can start retaliating. and if so where is the end. Why, Why Why... Then. Can somebody give me the answers. I want the people who planted the bomb to go and see the victims family and understand what they have let loose. Wi...

The eagle has the longest life-span of it’s' species. It can live up to 70 years But to reach this age, the eagle must make a hard decision. In its' 40's Its' long and flexible talons can no longer grab prey Which serves as food. Its' long and sharp beak becomes bent. Its' old-aged and heavy wings, due to their thick feathers, become stuck to its' chest and make it difficult to fly Then, the eagle is left with only two options: Die or go through a painful process of change which lasts 150 days. If it exercises the 2nd Option, this is what it should undergo The process requires that the eagle fly to a mountain top and sit on its' nest There the eagle knocks its' beak against a rock until it comes off. After plucking it out, the eagle will wait for a new beak to grow back and then it will pluck out its' talons When its' new talons grow back, the eagle starts plucking its' old-aged feathers And after five months, the eagle takes its' fa...

After a week long business trip, was trying to catch up with a lot of things at the same time on Sunday. To alleviate the pressure, here and there went to the drawing room to watch the TV. Something was interesting, most of the time was channel surfing. I was mainly watching the news channel in the morning and what a day it was. Truly, I have great regards for Dr Manmohan Singh as the Prime Minister and Sonia Gandhi as a lady who having been thrust into a difficult role, has been able to keep her place with finesse. But trying to win the Trust vote on Tuesday, the kind of deliberations each of these political parties are doing, my God - isn't it Bribery of some sort. We talk of corruption and the penalties, but we see no action. and when openly a elected Federal government is doing this, how dirty it is. My God, if the Nuclear deal is good for the country or bad for the country, let every party deliberate on it and vote for or against on its own. Why should a party bargain for some...

Our Association and STPI Chennai have come together to Organize a unique two days workshop on “ Catalyzing Growth ", on 25th & 26th July-08, at STPI New facility centre , Taramani, Chennai-113. The program is aimed at the CEO and Directors of the Organization only. Though a high value program, both our Association and STPI have worked towards have a subsidized cost of this workshop. STPI and ITSME Association are excited to kick-off this unique program customized to the leadership needs of ITSME segment. There are going to be session on the following : Leveraging your business Models New Growth Strategies and Collaboration Branding and Growth Pricing and Marketing - The Entrepreneurial Way Business Innovation for Growth Trend Next You would agree with me that the above are the major areas where we, as head of our organizations, would love to have some mentoring and also discussions on what the other companies' best practices are. I,for one, wouldn't like to ...

During our last networking dinner all the EC members were presenting 8 Key Mandates on which each one of the EC members will be working towards their are of responsibility. Some of the members volunteered to be part of the Mandate Execution team. To refresh I am listing below the 8 key mandates 1. Collective voice representing SMEs in IT Policy making. 2. Sharing Best Practices. 3. Human Resources augmentation among SMEs. 4. Technology/Industry training - Focus Groups. 5. Facilitating foreign delegations both Inbound and outbound, exhibitions thereby providing an effective platform for networking. 6. Potential joint Business Development platform – gaining access to geographies. 7. Improved Economies of Scale - leveraging on the collective size of the association for better bargains on purchases of products and services. 8. Show case Lab. We are pleased to announce that each of these Mandates are being handled by the EC members ind...

A movie title which will raise strong passions - whether it is negative or positive depends on which side you are in. Though it is titled as a comedy - it has a lot more emotions into it. the topic itself itself evokes strong emotions, if you have just lost your job. This movie is taken from the perspective of a American Call center Sales Person, who suddenly finds that his entire team is let go. To retain his job, he has to travel all the way to India and train those very people who have taken away his and his friends job. On this serious note, this story begins. But then it becomes how Todd (who is always called as Toad) played by John Hamilton comes over to India as a American who sees things only in a American way and later understands the locals and gets the best from the people. As a Indian, who has made her living as a outsourcing company from India, for me this movie was a must see. While I could appreciate the emotions behind the whole exercise when the outsourcing happens, th...

One of things that always remain unanswered within me is about the public accountability in our country. We see so many repairs being done to the newly laid road making it once again a rough and tough ride. Who is responsible for bringing it back to a good shape. I see the debris lying around uncleared or even the stones and sand being dumped on the corners of the road. These gets all over the place because the vehicles are forced to ride over them. Isn't a public wastage of the material. How will they account for it. Same is the case with the encroachments. Everyday we pass by some of the places and slowly see the encroachments being done on the roadside. What starts as a small time vendor selling either a tender coconut or a small tea shop, then gathers momentum as days goes by. From one small make shift dispensing utility, slowly a row of pucca shops gets built eating into the public spaces. Then one day the Corporation wakes up and brings a bull dozer and razes...

All are cordially invited to a Special Networking Event to felicitate Ms. R Rajalakshmi on her tranfer to STPI Bangalore & welcome Mr C V D Ramprasad, Director, STPI,Chennai on Saturday June 28, 2008 at Savera Hotel, Cheanni, between 3.00 - 6.00 pm

Our company, Computers International comes an SMB Organization, is engaged in providing software services to our clients worldwide. We have 125+ full time employees in the company. Nowadays, the consciousness of every one of the educated masses is to contribute back to the society at least a little of what they have got from life. None of my staff members are an exemption to this great philosophy of life. Not only they perform their individual social responsibilities, but also join together to collectively discharge the corporate social responsibilities. All the members raise up to any occasion, whether it is a monthly contribution to the Computers International Social Fund or for the special occasion as disaster relief, etc. CISF vision is : To help contribute to enabling the underprivileged to take care of their education, health care requirements as a foundation for an equitable and humane society. The current focus areas are 1. Educational 2.Health Care 3. Social reh...

Seeing a poor family - don't feed them but teach them to fish. Of course, I should have written don't just feed them, these families that I am going to talk about, have income generators as their head of family, but only thing is that their income is not even sufficient to take of their family. When such is the situation, how can they think of educating their children so that at least their children will be out of the ' poverty line'. Sowbhagya (means life filled with all good things) educational trust is doing a Yeomen service to these kind of people in their residential area. Sowbhaya trust which celebrated its 16 th annual day recently had invited me to their function as a chief guest and I had the honor and privilege of distributing educational aid to these children. It was such a sight to see and behold. From the way the trust works under the Founding Trustee, Jayalakshmi Rajagopal , it goes about in with a great strategy that at the end of the day the children...

I was very surprised when I read through the OneWorld South Asia Magazine , which posts articles about women and all those issues/achievements aimed at the Woman population . In my earlier article, I was cribbing about the TV Serial , and look what a transformation has happened because the right kind of serial was telecast, which was seen by right kind of people and right kind of action was taken. My Salutations for the Women of Chhattisgarh, one of the Northern states in India for this wonderful achievement and showing the Real Power of Women. Hats off to you all my Sisters. I am reproducing the article verbatim from the Magazine Rural television clubs promote healthy living Swapna Majumdar 29 May 2008 Inspired by a national television programme, women in Chhattisgarh villages in central India went on to form Kalyani clubs to drive awareness on health-related issues. Six years after their inception, the declining cases of diseases and improved maternal and child health s...