Revamped SETC is neat

The Thiruvalluvar buses in 80s & 90s enjoyed a special status among people of Tamilnadu. These long journey buses were famous for their big convenient seats, long buses and importantly tokenized reservation system. They lost their status when the maintenance became poor and local omni buses were fast and reliable than Thiruvalluvar.
People travelling from cities now a days use the omni private bus services. Many do not know that the good old Thiruvalluvar transportation is back with a new avatar "SETC". Especially in the last year, they had come up with Ultra Deluxe buses (hi-tech air buses). They have very decent push back seats, with seats arranged in pairs. The engines of these buses are good, as judged from the way it overtakes other buses and the speed pickup. As the buses are new, they are neat and clean. No 'Standing' is admitted in these buses.
Most of all, the cost of the ticket is at least Rs.100 lesser than the leading private omni bus service.
Thanks to the Govt transportation department for revamping a vital service. Wishing a gud luck to grow. Hopefully the services are done properly and the buses ply at good conditions through out. Lets watch and see.
For details on booking centres chk out http://tnstc.in/information.html
Online reservation is yet to come

Make-up ur mind

I have seen versions people say in movies "Im in a bad state of mind and sweetest fruits tastes bitter, ice feels hotter".
I have not realised it till I faced such state of mind and the mental mood.
In such bad states, u feel even ur favourite songs, hateful; eating ur favourite dishes becomes a burden; and u dont like to watch ur favourite actors and comedians; the best jokes u enjoyed looks like a piece of waste; because of all these, u would like to spend a solitary life.
To come out of this, the only solution is "Makeup ur mind". Think of the jobs u have in ur life, think of responsiblities that u need to uphold, think of urselves and others... make up ur mind.
Digress ur mind away from the activity that made u in such a state of mind... Life would look simpler.. U would start doing things normal and easy..
Not to mention, "Saying is easy.. Doing is not that easy" :)

Develop Yourself. Share the Development. There u see... India developed !

Happy B'day India !


In the freedom fighting days, people died for the country, not caring about their home and children. I am now calling for the reverse. Care for urself, care for ur home, and automatically u begin to care for ur country, because the patriotic spirit is always in our blood. It is obsolete or a old idea to induce patriotism in ourselves.

In order to see a developed nation, First develop yourself , morally, potentially, in ur field of work. Try to show off to the world ur cultural heritage and national pride, where ever u can, on the way of ur achievements. Current leaders like Abdul Kalam, business giants like NR Narayanamurthy are now represented as Icons of modern India. They had certainly contributed to the national development. Did they have national development as the only goal, when they were in struggling years? No; National development might not be in their mind at all. They were into self development. They raised their individuality, potentiality, their family, then the company, and hence the nation now. Once u have become a developed You, try to share with the nation. Sharing the success can be done in a number of ways like paying proper taxes, helping others to succeed, helping organizations to fight against poverty, and other social illness.

Develop yourselves, Share the development with fellow citizens, And U see a developed India !

"Do or Die" days are gone. Now "Do and Die".

Jai Hind !

Dhakshin Chitra

Had been to ECR(East Coast Road), the entertainment corridor of Chennai. It is filled with lot of beach resorts, open air theatres, pubs, theme parks, malls and not to forget lovely beaches. Amidst all these is situated "Dhakshin Chitra". My friend told very good about this non profitable organization and then he took me there.

"DakshinaChitra is a center for the living traditions of art, folk performing arts, craft and architecture of India with an emphasis on the traditions of South India" says http://www.dakshinachitra.net/index.htm.

Initially we were hesitant to enter, thinking that we may waste our time seeing things like in museum. When I stepped in, my opinion changed. They had depicted the cultures and life styles of people who lived in classic times. I say classic because they dont depict very old times, but a classic times with out modernity. They show how people lived in various states of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra pradesh. The campus is divided and dedicated for each of these states. First we entered Tamil Nadu. They have streets and houses as in the villages, showing the different cultures. We went in to the streets of Karaikudi streets, farming villages of Thanjavur, and other places. Each houses are replicas of the classic houses. Some are bought directly and transported here. Details of the culture and the details of the rooms and amenities of the houses are described. We saw a weavers house, a potter house. You can also see people working there (mocking). We saw a potter making pots. After he was done, he received aplause from the foreign crowd present. Other activities include "Kili Josiyam", "Pallanguli playing", "Pamabaram playing", etc., Kerala style houses were also present with authentic finishings. Similarly we also saw the houses and cultures of Karnataka & AP.
I would strongly suggest you to visit this place if u go to ECR. This is refreshing, as it takes you away from monotonous city life. The atmosphere inside is calm, green and clean. We also slept there under a tree for some time ;-)

Note: No advertisements to any company intended. Just reflecting the personal experiences

Movie Theatre freshened up

I had been to Chennai last week end. Chennai has improved a lot, with new infrastructures coming in, various malls & entertainment and most of all, the traffic moves, always:).
Happened to go to Satyam theatre with friend. Impressed with the facilities provided there. We went straight to the check out counter with fuel card provided by them. Through this, u can book the movie online, even with the snacks u want. You need not wait in the queues.
Since Shivaji was running house full, we went for Pirates of Caribbean. No big plus comments abt the movie as such, but sure abt the ambiance of theatre. The seats were royally huge with leather seats, and push back. The sound system was as usual as in old Satyam, very good effect. There were lot of LCD screens posted on the walls inside the theatres. Before the movie started, these screens entertained with ads and trailers and making of movies. The restrooms were neat with jazzy floors & walls. They had even LCDs all over the walls ;-).
As we booked snacks online, the snacks & soda were served to our seat, which was a another service-add. Though the movie we saw was not so good, we were with a good feeling while coming out of the theatre.
Most important part of all: For two people including their snacks, it costed just Rs250. You cant imagine comparing the prices with other leading cinema complexes in other cities. Thanks to the rule from government that, price of tickets should not exceed Rs120 in Chennai.

Note: No advertising to any company intended. Just sharing the personal experiences.

Organizer: Have one at ur google home

There are lot of Google gadgets that are very cool. This one is very handy, in organizing the day to day tasks and planning the tasks. I was trying different free-wares, that would be useful for day to day planning. This one was best among them so far. This is called "To-Do List+". It is simple. You can add this gadget in your google customized home page.
Daily, in the morning, when you go to office, you can login to Google. You can think of the tasks of the day and Just add them on to the To-do lists. As the day progress, u can keep on adding the new tasks. You can even set priorities and dates for the tasks. As and when you complete the tasks, you can close the tasks. This is very handy on-the-fly organizer.
At Office, you may think of doing some personal works at home, on the same day or the next day. You may forget it when you go home. Using this "To Do plus" tool, you can add the tasks to be done at home. At home, you can login to see the tasks that you saved in the morning. This way, you wont miss anything. And most of all this is very simple, fast and handy.
Happy Organizing and accomplishing!

To Boston, with Buddy

Going to a new place is nice, that too with one of the closest buddy is a blast. This time of the US trip, I was not interested in visiting new places. I decided to see my college buddy, Thirukkumaran. We spent a weekend in Rhode Islands and Boston. The richest guys in NY used this location as a place to spend their summer times. The houses are so expensive, built with stuff imported from foreign countries, similar to Karaikudi Chettiyar veedu. Most of the architecture were from French. These huge palaces are now opened to public now. Then on the Boston, went to Whale Watching on the Atlantic. More than the new places, we discussed lot of old memories and repeated comedy scenes from Vadivelu movies. The visit was indeed very rejuvenating, as I was recovering from a personal mishap recently.

Daily retrospect

In bachelor's life, mostly, we don’t spend time alone, as we are always in a circle of friends. I realized that, one must spend some time alone, may be a 30 minutes daily for retrospection. A 30 minutes seems to be very easy, but is not. Most of the time at office we are with colleagues. At home u are always surrounded by friends, room-mates or some one in phone.
A retrospect in that 30 minutes would keep one always accountable for himself. Personally I feel these retrospect would help individuals to identify his strengths and to help work out his vision in practice. One can plan things that are needed for long run as well as to accomplish short term goals like “doing tomorrows work”.

Spring Times

It is my second spring time in US of A and on my fourth trip to this country. I started writing this blog now.
I have wondered why flower shows up first in a tree, even before leaves.
Is it because that the tree has spent a long period in suffering cold? or Is it because it gave a cold face to the viewers all the time & now it wants to show up with its smiling face? or Is it because it is selfish & wants to be productive as fast it can?
I wish all the good times to come, starting with this spring time.