My Personal Blog - Sarada Ramani

In the recent times, I enjoyed these following advertisements: The incredible India ads being done by our Tourism ministry is scintillating.  That too the portrayal of the North  east regions are so good and it also lets us know what we have missed seeing those beauties just because they are under our noses.    What a lovely portrayal of the rich colour and tradition and culture of those regions.   I am sure that I want to go to these place asap. The second one I enjoyed was the recent ads by idea cellular - where Abishek Bacchan in reply to the other person saying " No idea" says that's is the reason for their problems and so " Get Idea" - very creative ad indeed. Kudos to both the agencies for bring our nice ads.

   

My hearty congratulations to NDTV, Aircell and Amitabh bacchan for coming together to create a Fund raiser yesterday for the SAVE THE TIGER campaign .  The total collection as at the end of 11.00 pm yesterday was Rs. 4,48,60,002 .  While the public contributed half of it, the rest came from this gentleman  Mr Hemadra Kothari .  he had promised that upto a ceiling of Rs. 2..50 crores, he would give the same amount that was collected from the general public.  What a wonderful gesture. Amitabh Bacchan lend his hand in terms of placing  his Cartier watch for auction, which went for Rs. 7.00 + lakhs, Good work by all the great people, which shows how united we stand, we can do wonders.  Thank you NDTV, Aircell, Amitabh, Mr Hemdra Kothari and all the unknown faces who have come forward to donate liberally. What is this Project Tiger all about Some excepts from the Project Tigr website : Project Tiger: Project Tiger, launched in 1973-7...

It is very rarely that we come across people in Public, who exhibit a clear stand of Standing up for their principles.  More than his batting credentials, this one act of Sachin declining the ad revenue that he would have got for endorsing a private liquor brand, will be something that would make youngsters to look up to HIM.  He has shown to his fan following is that Principles and  personal integrity is much higher than money.   This is what Subrato talks about in his book The Professional" May  God give more and more to Sachin, for this best thing that he has done.

Thanks to Chandrakumar, who sends a lot of interesting articles on Health tips, I found it be very interesting and wanted to share it in my blog.  

This is a post about another Age defying personality.  Very much known to people in his circle, but unknown elsewhere, I wanted to write about him because of his abundance of energy and the very dedicated service orientation that we have felt in him.  Shri Sunderasa Gurukal is from Kumbakonam , a temple town in South India.  Aged more than 80+, the kind of activities he does is amazing.  He runs a finishing school for the Priests and helps these people to conduct all the Yagnas properly.   He manages the temple of Kasi Vishwanathar in his street.  Apart from this is the most wonderful thing he does, he runs a Magazine called Thirukayelai.   The cost of this wonderful 36 page booklet is just Rs. 8.  Probably the postage costs are more.  The kind of information it contains is very exhaustive.  It is not just the printing of this booklet every month but how he collects the subscribers is pretty interesting. Let me na...

So many things land up in my inbox.  I dont know how this landed up, but it was very interesting to read through.  There are two news items - one is about the HIV cases coming down and another is about Bill & Melinda foundation supporting the prevention of HIV cases by donating a huge amount to a bio tech company Here you go: New item 1: New HIV cases down by half in 10 years By Sanchita Sharma, Hindustan Times, New Delhi, 24 November 2010 INDIA'S DONE WELL BECAUSE HIGH-PREVA- LENCE STATES HAVE CUT DOWN NEW INFECTIONS DRAMATICALLY New HIV infection that causes AIDS has halved in India over the past decade, reported the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) Global Report released on Tuesday. The UNAIDS report uses newly-generated data that factors in the change in methodology that led India to slashing its HIV estimates from 5.7 million in 2005 to 2.5 million in 2006. “With 2.6 million new infections worldwide in 2009, the report records t...

Here is the invite for the Cloud Computing Workshop organized by ITSME Association on 7th December 2010 Tuesday Today the two most widely used industry buzz word are Social Media and Cloud computing. Our Association having understood the need of the hour, had organized the Seminar on how to use Social media for our benefit, we now have pleasure in announcing the One day Workshop on Cloud Computing – starting with the basics of Cloud computing to understand different platforms available for development to hands on demo of building a business application for the cloud, we will end the day with talking to people who have already done it PROGRAMME DETAILS 0900 - 0930 Registration 0930 - 1030 Cloud Computing - The basics Mr.Dorai Thodla, President, Imorph Technologies 1030 - 1115 Detailed analysis of various Platforms Mr.Prasanna, Director Product Engg Orangescape Technologies 1115 - 1130 TEA BREAK 1130 - 1245 Building a Cloud Application on GAE -Hands on Mr.Shrikrishna Shrin, F...

I just didnt want to write this week at all, as having started with a very positive write up, whatever was unfolding in the political arena was making me sick and was draining out the positive spirit.  But the comment by Uma about how as ordinary people tend to slog and slog with just hope, made me to finally write this one.  When a building collapses or a cinema hall catches fire or a small time employee takes a bribe, immediately, we see the headlines that the owner or the employee is arrested.  Of course, after the initial news item, I dont know whether they are convicted or let loose or their case doesn't see the light of the day - that is another matter.  Here we see politicians indulging in creating wealth.( the amount that is talked about is so much mind blowing) So what happens when it comes to light, the concerned person resigns, it becomes the news for one week analyzing what happened, etc and then the next story catches the public eye and this become...

Last week I was in Bangalore attending the NASSCOM Product Conclave.  What a climate it was -  filled with hope and positiveness - so many people coming into Entrepreneurship (of course, many were youngsters).  While there were quite a lot of B2B, B2C applications, there were also some new things that are being created too.  The whole 2 days was filled with a a sense of great feeling of having arrived and also wanting to Succeed. Following these 2 days of energy upliftment, Saturday once again was another occasion, which lifted up the spirit of wanting to Go forward with all Hope & Positiveness.  This was brought out by the 2 young achievers Meera Krishnan & Raj shankar , Founders of Ichiban Consultants , releasing their maiden book " Entrepreneurship: A life of commas, Not full Stops!" - being focused to their goal. The 3rd one was reading an article in " Aval Vikatan " - a publication by Vikatan group for the women - Determination thy name is V...

It is a defining moment for Myanmar when Suu Kyi was released on Saturday evening for the first time since 2003 being in jail and later under house arrest for the last 15 years since 1989.  What a determined Lady this person is.  The Woman of this Century definitely .  Especially having to overcome the personal problem of not being able to be with her Cancer ridden husband during his last moments.  The Government refused the visa for the husband and she was warned that she cannot enter the country, if she were to leave to be with her husband.  This woman, chose to be in Myanmar, placing the nation's interest over her personal need.   A through and through Patriot indeed.  Myanmar is really blessed to have this lady as her daughter. May she live long and see that proper democracy is restored in Myanmar.   For me Myanmar always invokes a sense of patriotism, as I know that there were a lot of Indians who got killed during the fight against th...

While you get a value out of a life changing program, you will also be give to a Noble Cause.  What a way to do Self Help.  Attend the Born to Win program by Only success , you will also be part of the efforts of the Fund raiser for our Rotary Club of Chennai Thiruvanmiyur.  Here are the details in the link: http://onlysuccess.net/immortal/ Please help yourselves and help us to serve the society In service to the society A humble Rotarian

 A sales figure of 92 crores  in a day !!!!  Good strategy and implemntation done to avoid loss of customers  - WOW is what everybody will say when they read the headlines and how I wish it was my organization sales that was being talked about like this. But wait a minute, this sales is not something that I am proud to be writing about, but most concerned.  It is the Government sales during Diwali - Not the Handicrafts, not the textiles or Crackers or Food grains.  It is the sales done by TASMAC, the chain that sells liquor.  And the TV Channel touts it as an achievement by the Government.  Where are we heading.   Should my government earn by this method.  I would rather pay higher state tax, but not this way please.  How many households had to sacrifice their diwali bonus towards something some imporatant than this sales..  What misery it would be to see your beloved consuming this much of increased quantity and make the...

Yes this person is definitely flying high  on the clouds - but his feet are firmly on the ground.  I am talking about none other than Suresh Sambandam, CEO of Orangescape which is offering Platform as a Service for the companies which want to go to the cloud.  Every time, I meet him or talk to him, I am amassed at the simplicity of this person while what he has achieved in life is of Himalayan proposition. His is a story worth talking about how Determination & hardwork can lift you High in life.   A person who admits that he wasnt even a college graduate, but was forced to get into Real Estate business along with his father when he was young, has made his company get featured amongst the likes of Amazon, google, Microsoft etc when it comes to Cloud offering.  What a way to go. I thought I was one of those few people for whom technology was daunting - but he also confesses that he was also afraid of technology initially, but got interested while he was lea...

I liked the Open letter written by Mr Som Mittal, President of Nasscom in yesterdays Economic Times addressed to the visiting President of US, Mr Barack Obama. I am reproducing the entire write up which got published in Economic Times of 4th November 2010. Dear Mr President, For years now, America has stood for and exported to the world, all the technologies and free-market axioms that created this increasingly flat, global economic playing field. You have a domestic constituency to serve, but you also have inherited a larger role of global leadership. America’s success is important for the world economy including India. Your vis It to India indicates the need for enhancing strategic partnership between the two economies. It is necessary for political leadership in our two countries to develop a long-term strategic vision and nurture it. There could not be reasons more compelling for the two nations to work towards a strategic partnership based on the commercial rela...

This is one of the best things of USA.  The metro travel system goes like this: Amtrak is the basic train system which runs throughout America like our Railways Each major city or metro has its own metro train system Then there is a metrolink which connects to the distant suburbs from the city There is also the buses system which serves the cities linking the suburbs to the rail system For eg to go to San Diego from Los Angeles  You can take the Surfliner - The Amtrak service  which runs between Union Station, LA & San Diego.   This service is available throughout the day and it takes about 2 1/2 hours to reach San Diego.  In case you want to go to say a place in between then there is the Metrolink which runs from Union Station to say Oceanside (which is  approx midway between San Diego & LA) you have the the metro link and from Oceanside to San Diego you have a coaster.    The best thing is the integrated travel systems th...

This is all about how each individual has to  contribute to the Customer Experience for any company.   I travelled back to India from US starting on Wednesday by Lufthansa which has 2 flights to be taken to reach Chennai via Frankfurt The first half  There was a delay in departure of the aircraft  - guess what was the reason - the delay in arrival of the crew - Not it wasn't their fault - they were caught up in a traffic jam in NJ turnpike due to an accident.  So to make it quicker to reach the airport, the shuttle driver took another route and believe me -there was another accident in that route too - So for a ride which just takes half an hour - it took them two and half hours to reach the airport.  Despite all the delays the crew was so cheerful and was serving all the passengers with SMILE creating a feeling of being taken care of.  The German gentleman who was attending to me,...

There were 3 news item which catch ed my attention and which I wanted to highlight in my blog The first was about Commonwealth Games and continuing gold medal tally that India is gaining.  What  a way to Go showing the world what we are despite all our execution weakness, politics, corruption, etc. http://www.hindu.com/2010/10/13/stories/2010101358870100.htm The second was  India getting into the UN Security Council.  This is true arrival and the number of votes in favour of India getting this status - speaks about the popularity of our beloved India - 187 out of 192. http://www.hindu.com/2010/10/13/stories/2010101359360100.htm The third was Hindu highlighting the religious harmany in its front page of how our Indian citizens are united at all levels with religion helping us to unite http://www.hindu.com/2010/10/13/stories/2010101362370900.htm This is my country, My India.  Hail my motherland

This blog is about the 33 miners trapped in the mines in Chile and their successfully passing 62 days inside the mines and slowly coming out one by one. What a tremendous effort was made by the Chile government to make sure that they get the expertise of professionals from various countries to enable them to get the miners out.  Watching the moment in CNBC was as if I watching the Neil Armstrong keeping his first foot on the Surface of Moon.  It took about 16 mts for the miner the first man rescued, a healthy-looking Florencio Avalos aged  31, stepped out of a torpedo-shaped capsule that lifted him over 2,000 feet to the surface. I understand that last miner out would be 54-year-old Luis Urzua. He was the shift chief when an explosion caused the mine collapse on Aug. 5 - and is credited with keeping his men in line amid the darkness and despair. Urzua kept his colleagues alive until food could be sent down by doling out to each miner just a spoonful of tuna ev...

So with lot of negatives about the Commonwealth Games - with questions about whether it will take place or not, now we all rejoice the way India is doing well in the commonwealth Games with 29 gold and gets the second position ahead of England with is 26 Gold.  Here is the tally at the end of 8th day. AUS 61 39 37 137 IND 29 22 22 73 ENG 26 45 33 104 CAN 22 12 25 59 RSA 11 11 9 31 lets enjoy

What a personality he is ..  At his age, at his position - how can he be so simple, humble and so hospitable.  I am talking about the great Dr Bala Balachandran .   There can never be such a noble soul at all.  We were in Chicago on Friday to meet up with a client in the morning and my husband wanted to meet Dr Bala to get himself charged and motivated to tackle things head on.  So Ramani wrote to Dr Bala on Wednesday saying that he would like to meet up with him.  Pat came the reply immediately asking him about the whereabouts of our meeting.  Once Ramani wrote back, Dr Bala wrote back, it will take you around 3.00 PM to reach my place after your client meeting and is my house is just 30 mts from the airport.  So you can come over to my house and we can get together over a cup of coffee.  So Ramani calls up Dr Bala's residence after the meeting is over to find out how to reach and believe me his wife picks up the call and tell him to ...

First itself, let me admit that I dont know this movie name or the name of the actors in this movie, but I wanted to write about this movie because it was a question  of "when is the time to let go?"  that got posted throughout this movie.  Sitting in a hotel room on a Saturday with no appointments and with severe tooth ache, it was left to do channel surfing for me to pass the day.  So thats how I started watching this movie which turned out to very emotional for me The setting is a family consisting of 3 children - the second child being a cancer patient.  The 3rd girl is a perfect match donor for her elder daughter and has already undergone a lot of surgeries for the sake of her sister.  The mother is a fierce parent always fighting for her daughter's survival even at the cost of the other family members.   So the younger daughter who is just 11 year old goes to court saying that She has a say whether she can donate her kidneys ...

So, a cancelled dinner appointment at the last minute and the desire to see my motherinlaw on screen, made us to go to the local movie theatre  at Toronto to watch Enthiran, the new blockbuster from Rajini - Shankar stable. Before I go to actual review of the movie, I just want to narrate the perfectionist streak of Shankar - which I had the fortune to see.  We were in the sets of Rajini, as my sister in law is doing small roles in movie and she had taken permission from the producer to bring over my mother in law and my husband to see Rajinikanth in the sets.  When we entered, it was the making of the betrothal scene in the movie.  Shankar, though such a famous man, was so humble and he took the blessings of my mother in law by touching her feet.  What a sight it was. For me it was unbelievable as I never expected that a very famous man would touch a feet of unknown elderly person in his workplace.  I was amassed at that itself.  ...

This the about the new item in The globe and Mail newspaper in its Monday October 4th edition from Toronto.   While waiting in the lobby for our client meeting, I happened to browse through the new paper and this item on the 4th page made me sit up and read it with more vigour. This is about Dr M S Swaminathan   - who the paper says is that is due for a Nobel Prize for his work towards the improving the Indian agriculture.   He en route to Montreal to receive another Honorary doctorate ( already has 60 honorary doctorates from around the world) from the University of Alberta, his first Canadian honour.  In  his interview he talks about using cellphones and uptodate genetic strategy to make the small and marginal farmers in the developing country to become more productive using technology as an enabler. Hats off to Dr Swaminathan, who had done yeomen services to our country by introducing short term rice varieties, which has helped India in its Goal ...

The whole world is talking about Nobel Prize for Medicine for Father of Test tube baby Dr Robert Edwards given to him when he is 85 and who is too ill to even comment "quoting Hindu".  I dont know why it took so many years for the Nobel Prize committee to award this man this recognition for the yeomen service he rendered to the humanity. In Indian society, where there were second marriages on accord of No child bearing ability, this is one which helped many a women enjoy the Motherhood and joy of creating a new life and delivering a tiny tiny creature into the world which is a has come from her own flesh and blood.  That particular moment when you hold the new born in your hand, that is such a defining moment.  Forget about the pains you had to undergo and also the later day pains and problems in bringing up the children parenthood is a different pleasure in life.  My only regret is why wait for so long to award this man, when the same noble committee could award P...

This is the link to a good blog from my friend, Umashree , a prolific writer, poet, a multi faceted personality in a nut shell. http://umasreeraghunath.blogspot.com/2010/09/ayodhya-verdict-babri-masjid-vs.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+UmasreeRaghunath+%28Umasree+Raghunath%29

I got married into a very conservative family which hails from one of the villages on the banks of Cauvery.  Our family had good land holdings which they were cultivating on their own + giving it for lease to people.  Over the years, I have seen that somehow or other, we have been only loosing our money and it is not that much profitable.  Our family has been growing Sugarcane, banana and Paddy.  Each one had its own story about profitability.  Even today India weather spins the fortune wheel so your can have a fortune or deep loss.  The cost of cultivation has been going up, but the remuneration for the land owners is not that every attractive in this traditional method though nowadays I see a lot of machinery being used in cutting, thrashing, etc in the village sides. So anything that brings a profit for the farmers always used to be hearting for me, so when I got this link, I wanted to share it with my readers so that the word can spread as much a...

In today's Hindu, there in the center page are 2 particles one next to the other about Pakistan.  The first one is about an constructive activity and the next one is about the destructive activity.  What a contrast. The constructive activity is all about an Pakistan Solider  Mr Muhammad Yousuf Jamil, a Lance Naik in Pakistani Army planting 20,101 saplings in 24 hours to enter into  Guinness World Record.  What a news it is especially an Army solider doing this is more heartening. the other news items is " CIA intensifies drone strikes within Pakistan". So we see good and bad together at the same page side by side. Happy reading

ITSME  association invites you to a breakfast meeting for “ Utilizing the power of Social Media" on October 6th at 8.30 am at Hotel Savera . The target audience for this program will be CxO and all those involved in the sales & Marketing functions in your company. About the Program : That social media has caught on with a large segment of today's marketplace. A 2010 Nielsen study in the U.S. found that it now occupies roughly 25% of online activities--and that's nearly double from just a year ago. So it's fair to say that this is an activity that's already being embraced by your existing customers as well as people with whom you'd like to do business. Your challenge, therefore, is to find ways to make social media part of your client-attraction system. Learn from the Business leader who has successfully utilizing this forum for building up his business – Mr Dorai Thodla, CEO, iMorph Inc – a Serial Entrepreneur with about 40 years of experience in t...

This post is all about me....  No dont get me wrong....  It is not about me personally, but about a woman next door  going on to become a Role model for many a people in terms of Entrepreneurship.   Hindu has featured a article about this in their Sunday supplement Down Town and here is the link: http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-downtown/article796019.ece Happy reading.

This is a belated post, but wanted to write the good thing about India and the spirit of Nationality that is in everyone.  while we had been honest and exposed the way things were moving around commonwealth games getting criticized that we dont have the Indianess in ourselves, see what has happened. Many a corporate house has come forward - Sahara Group, GMR group and ITC and others in the hospitality sector - putting men, machine and their Nationality out so that things are getting better for the athletes to land up in New Delhi. My hearty thanks to all these people to Make India Stand up with Pride Sarada

While we are nearing the hosting of the Commonwealth Games, I am really saddened and ashamed at the kind of scandals and shoddy work that is being brought to limelight with each passing day. My India is a growing Super power capable of great things and has taken a very great stride in terms of its infrastructure building throughout this nation. Despite all these, to get these kind of news items and is really demeaning for every Indian. Mistakes happen everywhere and if we find that there has been problems lets acknowledge it and make it up such that the visiting participants and these people go back to their country with having experienced the best of India, the India, I am very very proud of it for its culture, for its people, for its capability and expertise. This event has been so much in the news for all wrong reason in the recent past - whether it was the unearthing of a the committee having paid 150,000 pounds Sterling to a unknown company in London, the leaking roofs or the co...

These are some of the abstract from the wikipedia  and also the official site about the commonwealth games.   The 2010 Commonwealth Games, the 19th Commonwealth Games,  is  scheduled to be held in Delhi between 3 October and 14 October 2010.   The games will be the largest multi-sport event conducted to date in Delhi and India generally, which has previously hosted the Asian Games in 1951 and 1982. The opening ceremony is scheduled to take place at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Delhi. It will also be the first time the Commonwealth Games will be held in India and the second time the event has been held in Asia (after 1998 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia).   India won the bid to host the event against Ontario, Canada. by a margin of 46 votes to 22, confirming India's first successful bid for the Games, with the bid motto of  New Frontiers and Friendships. India has promised that it would provide US$100,000 to each participating...

This time I am pasting the invite from the eWIT (empowering Women in IT) regarding the upcoming program on the Women that we want to be part of the IT landscape from the other than metros and rural areas. Greetings! It gives us great pleasure to inform that Empowering Women in IT (eWIT) and Computer Society of India (CSI) are jointly conducting a one day event. We are happy to extend you an invitation! Date: Friday, 24th September 2010 Time: 9:30 am – 5:00 pm Venue: Muthaian Auditorium, Anna University , Chennai Theme : Role of Stakeholders in Increasing the Share and Sustainability of Women from Tier-2, Tier-3 and Rural Areas in IT/ITES Industry This is a FREE event. The seats are limited so we request you to please confirm your participation on or before 22 nd September by replying to this mail. For More Information / Confirmation  email: admin@ewit.co.in Thank you, Sincerely, Vijayalakshmi Rao President – eWIT Director - Scope eknowledge Cen...

Here I am quoting the leading Newspaper Hindu on its article which talks about an accident http://www.hindu.com/2010/09/16/stories/2010091657830100.htm So what is that's different here.  Accidents are caused by all - so why should the paper in its headline itself say that a woman driver caused an accident.  Aren't there 22year olds from the other gender cause accidents.   this is what I was talking about when I wrote about the perceptions about Woman.