Erode Musings

Had been to a city that was hotter than Chennai. It looks like the sun reserves some special radiation effect for Erode. Chennai, atleast has sea breeze easing the stuffiness around...The trees in Erode (not many) seemed to have joined non-cooperation movement..not a single branch swayed. (Hmm..kodi asaindhadhum kaatru vandhadha?..kaatru vandhadum kodi asaindhadha?)

Kaveri flows like water from a leaky hosepipe. I could visibly see red dye- water flowing into the already depleted waterbed. So much for action against water pollution. Crossed over & went to Pallipalayam. Pallipalayam is famous for garments & chicken. Picked up sizable number of dresses and left the chicken as it is.

Erode by itself doesn't seem to have any tourist attraction. If you have dravidian leanings, you might want to visit Periyar memorial house. If you are god-fearing, u have got some good choices - Mariamman temples, Murugan temples...etc., If you can travel for few Kms, you can visit Bavani sagar dam, Vellode bird sanctuary.

The people of this area have imbibed great level of politeness. Even the auto men say 'sari anna' ..'nandri'. Felt very bad about my own tamil.

Almost every road had Pazhamudhir Nilayams - Fruit Juices Shop. Did our bit too - water melon juice was heavenly..with the sun blasting away like the Aussie team.

Something that made my jaw drop: Price Quote for a single muzham (feet?) of mullai - a variety of jasmine flower was Rs. 30. ammadi!!!

Erode - Periyar Memorial House

100 marks to Information and Publicity department for its maintenance of Thanthai Periyar Memorial house in Erode. The grand old man of Tamilnadu, has sure been born & brought up in a very wealthy household. Anna had also lived there for few years when he was working as editor.The govt has taken pains to retain the charm of the old building (more than 100 years). The Photographs, description boards, his personal belongings have all been neatly arranged. Another surprising factor: there was a very welcoming government official who explained the myriad facets of periyar's life.

Interesting Trivia: Periyar has travelled 8,20,000 miles for attending 10,700 social awakening programmes. Had all his speeches been documented in a tape recorder it would be running for 2 years, 5 months and 11 days continuously.

Toyota races ahead of GM

Business Week has an interesting interview with Yuki Funo, chairman & CEO of Toyota Motor Sales USA. Toyota surpassed General Motors in worldwide sales globally in the first quarter.

You would think that GM and Ford execs, given the fact they all grew up here, should have a better idea of how to design and package a family sedan and minivan, yet these are two product segments where you and Honda (HMC) have done especially well against the Big Three.

[Yuki Funo] Increasingly, we're doing the development of our vehicles in the States. The Camry chief engineer is a Japanese man. Why the heck does he develop the most favorite car in the U.S.? That Camry car doesn't sell in the Japan. It's a failure. Why? He applies himself to understanding what the customer wants. He visits here and learns things. If we talk about the level playing field, what is it? He had to overcome such a big handicap being Japanese to create a car that's the top seller in America. It's very difficult to talk about what the level playing field is.

Bigamy - Online check

Will it happen in India..or rather can it happen in India?

China plans online marriage list to tackle bigamy

Reporting from Prateeksha, Jalsa

Beat Reporters for Ash & Abhishek wedding: This would definitely qualify for the most unwanted job on earth. Endless footage of a door (beautifully decorated ..though), Security Personal, glamourous backs of VIPs, Sweet Dhabas,...and what not. Poor reporters had to look throughly interested in the proceedings, mumble inane things and end it with a smile.."Live from Prateeksha"..

Outcome: Prateeksha & Jalsa have become national monuments..sigh.

Photo courtesy : NDTV

Textile Clusters & MBA

The Union Textiles Ministry is in the process of establishing textile clusters and common facility centres in strategic locations across Tamil Nadu. A total of 20 clusters had been planned in the country and of them three would be in Tamil Nadu. The clusters would come up in Tiruchirappalli, Kurinjipadi in Cuddalore district and Tiruvannamalai.

The above seemed like mundane news. But, the pleasant surprise came in later

In Tiruchirappalli district, Bharathidasan Institute of Management (BIM) has been identified as a partner in this programme. According to S Sundar, in-charge, Centre for Contemporary Management Research of BIM, the students of the institute were visiting textiles and handloom societies in the district to evaluate the performance levels. BIM would come out with the recommendations for the right type of machineries and technologies to be involved under this programme and these recommendations would help in creation of creation of common facility centres.

As a pilot initiative, textiles consortia had already been formed at Manamedu in the district, where heritage textile practices of producing cotton sarees etc had been taking place for several decades.

Way to Go!!

Total Recall - Advertising

Happened to watch - Total Recall - Advertising on Times Now channel.

Some of the Ads that were featured
The Fevicol Ad that made Piyush Pandey - Dum Laghake aisa - featuring the elephants & the now famous - Rajkumar Hirani
Luna Ad - once again Rajkumar Hirani
Hamara Bajaj - the different cultures
Kamasutra - Pooja Bedi - truely path breaking
Lehar Pepsi - Remo, Juhi & the Kid rocked - Are you ready for the magic??
And the all time fav - social ads
Ek Chidiya Anek Chidiya .. & the ever so popular Mile Sur Mera Tumara. (Good Old..DD)

They also had a small segment on child stars - Cant believe, Shahid Kapoor & Ayesha Takia are the original Complan Boy & Girl and Aftab .. the Farex Baby.

Hmm..quite nostalgic.

Cycling, Hercules, Elliots Beach

Had been to Elliots Beach, Besant Nagar on sunday morning to participate in the - Hercules Pedal for Health event. ET Madras Plus, in association with Hercules, Indian Terrain and Fitness One conducted this event. Hercules, provided cycles for all participants. I took to the cycle after soooo many years. Hmmm.. It was good fun to pedal thro the scenic streets of besant nagar. The event was organised in a professional manner with pilot vehicles, flag guards at all vantage points, etc., But the reception desk at the beach couldnt handle the crowd..If you have freebies round the corner, the crowd just swells in. The morning walkers at the beach coolly collected the t-shirts, caps, energy snacks pack and walked away. You have to agree..there is no inequality in that..the nearby kuppam people too had a field day.

After a refreshing 20 min cycling stint, thought of hitting the waters. Man...What a scene! The beach looked like a Mega Garbage Dumping yard. The filth was repelling enough ..even for a true blooded chennaiite like me. Yuck..Dont even think of going near the waters!!

Impending US Recession - IT impact

Forrester Research - US IT Spending Update: Q1 2007

"Did the feared slowdown in the US economy and the US tech sector actually hit in the second half of 2006? While the data is conflicting, we believe that is the case. True, US GDP data for Q4 2006 continued to show moderate 6% growth in tech investment. However, there was clear evidence of a slowdown in the US economy to 2.5% growth in real terms, and the Q4 2006 data for US revenues of 40 large IT vendors showed a dramatic slowdown in growth. We believe that the vendor data is giving a more accurate measure of tech purchases.

The result? It now looks like our projected tech slowdown actually happened in late 2006 and will carry into the first quarter of 2007. Therefore, the outlook for the rest of 2007 is one of moderate improvement.

Storage hardware and software, infrastructure management software, application servers and business process management (BPM) software, and applications will be the hottest areas of purchase. Servers, communication equipment, operating systems, application development software, and IT consulting services will lag the most. "

Foot in Mouth

Infosys Chief Narayana Murthy is on the wrong side of the fence again..

TOI says "When the media had questioned Murthy about why Infosys had chosen the instrumental version instead of singing the anthem, some reports quoted him saying, "We had arranged for five people to sing the anthem. But then we cancelled it as we have foreigners on board here. They should not be embarrassed while we sing the anthem."

Murthy said on Tuesday, "I apologise to those who may have been hurt by my comments on the instrumental version of the anthem played during President Kalam's visit."

Sivaji Lyrics - athiradee macchan

Recently at a function, AVM Saravanan had said that Valee was the most expensive tamil lyric writer in filmdom. He had charged TWO LAKHS to write one song in the movie - Sivaji - the costliest ever.

I was eagarly waiting to know, what was there in the song for two lakhs.
Utter disappointment after hearing the song :-((

AR Rahman has sure given a rocking number with good beats & rhythm. But even after hearing the song for two days, I was not able to decipher the lyrics.

Well, take a look at the attachment (thanks vikki for fwding the CD cover). Crappy Lines. I'm not looking for any kavidhai here, but some sensible lyrics please.

The song could have been very well in Latin. It made no difference.

--------------------------------
Athiradee kaaran macchan macchan macchan di
avanku ellam uccham uccham uccham than di

Rathi...Thee thee thee jaga jyothi jyothi jyothi
tha..la..pathy vaedi jhathi jhathi jhathi
Adi..billa ranga baasha than evan pistal paesum baesha than

Rathi.. thee ..sutta dhakal dhakal damal dumeel
paanja.. saanja.. kaanja.. menja.. thonja ..maanja..ja jaa..ja jaa---

Dil Dhik Dil thendral nenjil
Thithikindra Andril Kunjil
jill jal jill ginger pennil
jhill endru oru gin dhaan kannil
tha.. tha ..thotu konjam
thodha sittu sikudhe ..sokkudhe
oru shock yeram padi showkka..
thota onnu rendu pota ponnu thulludhe thulludhe
vaedi vaetu poda- vizhum flata
-----
Gun Gun en stengun Roger Moor pole - Dhisyum
munnal pen undu ..endhan pinnaal kan undu
fun fun un love fun ..Eddy Murphy pole..naughty
nee endhan
maan than
naan than
don than
---
Man..Man superman than midnight-le siperman than
NRI undhan eye than ..Jamesbond pola seiyum spy than
cuba pola oru theva ponnu nikudhe.. mukkudhe
endhan tension-um yerum rhombha fast-a
castro pola indha mastro sondham kollava..killava
indha first nighte enna wastea

bun bun nee
sweet bun.. butter jam pole
Naan than undhan maele than
naan otikolla than vaa

1 2 3 4 5 mutham thandale thaen than
en anbe my fair lady- nee than

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Chidaral - Thirucharanmalai hillock

Today's RLT (Road Less Travelled) in Hindu, captures the beautiful historical Thirucharanmalai hillock. Chitharal/Chidaral is 55km from Kanyakumari, 36km from Nagercoil

As you go around the wall of rock art, another flight of steps takes you to the imposing ruins of a temple perched right on top of the hill. Most of the deities in the central shrine are believed to be those of the Jain Thirthankaras, namely Parsvanatha and Mahavira.

Was surprised to see a Wiki on these Chitharal Jain Monuments

It is famous for the hillock which has a cave containing rock-cut sculptures of Thirthankaras and attendant deities carved inside and outside dating back to the 9th century A.D. Jain influence in this region was due to the Jain King Mahendra Verman-I (610-640 AD).

But, the RLT, on the face of it seems to be generously inspired from this Hub article