My Personal Blog - Sarada Ramani

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 that are in place the trains stations have buses wh

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, was so apologetic about me not able to get a vegetarian breakfast as I had slept through and just w

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 every 48 hours. He said th

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 take the train and be at the station where sh

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 or not, which is crucial for her sisters

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 particular scene just comes in the movie for abo

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 of self sufficiency to Global Expo

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 President