Children are our teachers

Morning walk in Chennai Park is a pleasure of its own kind. In the recent years, everyone is very health conscious. At 5:45 or 6 AM, the park is full of people walking or jogging in the trail. On one side, you see quite a few people doing yoga everyday. On the other side kids will be doing parallel bars and slides etc. My dad, I, Kishan and Sriram go for a walk most mornings. Today, Sriram and I were walking together in the circular trail and Kishan and my Dad were walking on the other side of the circle. To motivate Sriram, I told him to look back and feel good that we are walking ahead of them. He did and felt good, but temporarily! He then told, if Kishan or Thatha look back, we will be behind them!! What a profound thought. Just last week, I was wondering about Infrastructure issues, population growth, weather etc and how India can be made as a great place. Being away from India for 20+ years, my mind was comparing India to US on every aspect. Just yesterday India surprised everyone with its $10 Billion relief to European crisis. My mind was confused.

This comment by Sriram gave me an insight - it depends on where we see from. From one aspect, it may look like India is behind. On other aspects India is ahead. So, every country has its charm and glory. Enjoy wherever you are and CELEBRATE LIFE. 

Chennai Positioning System (CPS~GPS)

When I was packing by bags to leave for India, I got a mail from Honda Factory asking whether I will be interested to update the maps in my Honda Odyssey GPS for a low fee of $150.00. I thought of looking into this when I return from India and kept the letter aside. While I was in the plane, I was thinking how GPS will work in India with new flyovers popping up everyday and one way system changing almost on a daily basis. Yesterday when I was stepping out of our apartment in chennai, I saw two high end cars parked at our apartment parking. BMW and Benz are seen now much more than before. They have good GPS in dashboard which can help long distance travelers.

However can they keep up with the drastic changes happening in Chennai City?. Not at all. That is why we have Chennai Positioning System (CPS). You can get uptodate information in this. You can get daily updates on new flyovers, new oneways, construction, strike and bandh information, which political party is closing which street, which minister will cross which road at what time that will delay your trip etc. CPS can also inform you to an extent the cardinal number of house if you describe approximate age or profession of a person whom you are trying to meet. CPS - Our Auto drivers.  They know every corner of chennai. You go to a place and enquire the local auto driver about a specific house you are trying to reach. You will get shortest and clear direction with some tips as well. If the driver is there long enough, they will even tell you whether the person is in town or not. No map updates needed, no need to worry. What a fool proof system. THE C(G)PS. . !!

Standing Very tall

He is not that tall a man. I would say, he is like my height. Looks ordinary and simple. Gives an impression of a person who works in a company or bank. Or is he?

30 valuable years of his life - his prime youth has been spent, days and nights, in picking up babies left in the road side, in the garbage containers and left unattended. He picks them like picking and plucking roses and brings them to a place and provides them food, shelter and education.

Several of them, got into mainstream jobs, some even as engineers. Many girls got married and went on to lead a normal life. 400 of such children and more than 1500 of mentally ill men and women - his portfolio of service. Yes he is a banker - Bank where he is adding daily Punyams / good will through his service. He is none other than Mr. Vidyaakar of Udavum Karangal - Standing very Tall by his service.

Today, I had an opportunity to go for a benefit concert by Ms. Jayaraj and Mrs. Jayashree, thanks to our long time friends Raj and Latha. The veena duos Jayaraj and Jayashree accompanied by Dr. Miami Ramakrishan in Mridagam gave a fabulous 90 minute concert to all the children and adults of Udavum Karangal and entertained them in carnatic music. What a way to make music spread to the main stream!!

EKG - Ego Killing Graphics

Hotel Town Bus

Entrepreneurs come in various shapes and sizes. Here is a restaurant started by son of an old town bus driver.
The name of the restaurant is "Hotel town bus"-located in Arcot Road, Chennai. Instead of standing aside and wondering what his father can do driving town bus in chennai and earning meager income, the son plunged himself wholeheartedly and started this hotel in honor of his father's hard work and requested Poet Vali to inaugurate the same.

Like EKG for heart this EKG - Ego Killing Graphics keeps my ego under check when I ever think great of myself for little or none that I had accomplished.

Just for curious minds - today's value of commerical real estate alone of this size in Arcot Road goes for as high as 15 Cs (INR 15 crores) which is equivalent to US $ 3M!!