Dakshina Chitra - Heritage Unplugged

Dakshina Chitra - Situated in the outskirts of Chennai, Tamil Nadu is one place where you can bring back memories of the past especially in my case, My Childhood. You can call this place an entire town/village in the 70's or 80's and will indeed take you back in time. The Rich Heritage of India is shown here in Dakshina Chitra (DC) and not only did it impress me a lot in the Architecture of the old India but also the living traditions of Art. I was told by one of the guides at DC that some of the houses were made into pieces from the respective states where they were taken and then restored here in Chennai. DC focuses mostly on the South Indian Folk performing arts, crafts and the rich heritage and architecture. Having been here in Chennai for almost 7 years it was really unfortunate that i have not had a chance to visit DC, who opened its gates in 1996. Infact i wasnt aware of such a thing, maybe it was the lack of publicity or else would have gone there long back. Thanks to a close friend of mine who

shared her experience going there and i was so tempted to go there that when i got a chance i flew down there. Pictures will say for itself as any photo taken inside happens to come out well and in short i can call it a Photographers paradise. Lots of "Click" opportunities and the uniqueness of each houses inside make you feel like you have travelled to a lot of

places even though you are stuck inside the 10 acre land facing the Bay of Bengal. There were exhibits from the 4 South Indian States viz Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh and all of them put together had around 12 houses each one different from another which was mind blowing. My Formula/Suggestion to all reading this here in Chennai, Please go and visit this place, atleast that way you know how our ancestors lived!! :P

Video Link - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7A5GJhA6BrA

Photography –My 1st love

Since I have posted some about Formula1 earlier I thought its high time I do something about my 1^st love Photography. I know a lot of people who loves photography, most of them tell they just love it but when asked about the photographs they have taken the only thing they have to talk about is the Birthday parties or the Trips they have gone to. In the olden days (Not very long ago) we used to have something called as “Films” or “Rolls” which on an average would have only 36 pics which can be taken in one roll, Time has indeed played its part with the improvement in the technology over the last few years and Digital cameras have taken over along with the Introduction of Camera’s with mobile phones. When you take a snap now all the receipients of the camera flash would come running to the camera asking for the picture to be shown and have a retake if one of them dint look good. I recently went through a marriage album where not a single pic where people were actually posing for the snap were seen, all thought since it being Digital you can have it deleted and then retaken. I really miss the old camera’s because of this sole reason.

My interest for Photography started at a very young age, at around the age of 6 when my dad who used to be a not so professional but knew the basics of Photography taught me how the frame has to be when a Photo is taken. Initially I never knew what the four corners of the frame which can be seen inside the see through of the normal camera was for, He taught me that the subject has to always be at the centre of the four corners and that if there were any scenery behind that has to be captured as well. I grew in an era where Digital Camera’s or Mobile camera’s were not even in the market and because of that clicking snaps became a

very rare affair. It was indeed at 12^th when I got a hand at a Digital camera that I started clicking pictures which were mostly natural Photography and was a complete No-No to any subject. Mobile photography became very common during this time and I captured all the images I could with my 1.3mp camera. Did not have a high end camera during that time that is when I started borrowing Digital cameras from friends and go about clicking anything that comes to my sight. The sole objective then for any tour/trip would only be photography and my friends were always happy with the fact that they can get some snaps of them clicked by a Professional (:P) So much of talking high about myself but seriously who wouldn’t like their snaps to be clicked, and it is the creation of God which many have failed to remember and this can be done only when you capture it in a different and attractive way. India has one of the most beautiful places on earth and one of them I was fortunate to visit was Manali in Himachal Pradesh which has got so many valleys, mountains, snow and what not. This was a one hell of an experience I had with Photography as each frame was better than the other and was confused on what to click. This was the time my lil machine the Nokia N95-8Gb arrived and then it was full on Photography as you need not have to carry your camera with you as this little machine would give a decent clarity to the images you click. So far 8000 clicks with this little one and he is still going strong. In all so far I have around 24000 files with a *.jpg file name which have been clicked by me. I need to get that to a bigger number which I am working on right now. I have however restrained myself in taking pictures of people as they tend to take advantage of me and I feel there is no point in taking their pictures, one reason being they remain as a thrash in my Laptop or a Hard disk and the posers of that pic does not bother collecting it me considering their excitement while clicking. There are lots of pics where I am not there as most of them don’t offer to click back one of mine when I have clicked theirs, this is something to be learnt from the foriegners. I happened to meet this English couple when I was in Bahrain, when they asked me to take a snap of them, after I did I was asked to stand and get a snap of myself clicked. I was surprised as this would never happen here.

I havent thought of taking Photography to the next level as I know there are lots of stuffs which needs to be learnt if you want to get there and I am happy carrying this as my Passion and Hobby!!

The Social Network - A Review

To begin with, my regular readers here will be surprised at a Movie review in my Blog which by the way is a First, there are many reasons to this and out of which one being the involvement of Business/Entrepreneurship in this movie titled “The Social Network” .Never knew the hardships faced by Mark Zuckerberg, to many who is aware of is the CEO/Founder of Facebook, the world’s largest Social Networking site. “The Social Network” is one of the best films I’ve seen this year apart from “Inception” due to its power of writing and Direction. Facebook has become a part of life for many and its evident at the fact that they have a strong customer base of 550 Million subscribers which no other social networking website has. “The Social Network” is a pretty interesting experiment in making a movie about current events especially when the original characters are alive. Zuckerberg, Eduardo Savarin who is the Co-Founder of Facebook and Winklevoss brothers are all real people, and the events depicted in the film are all, within reason, real events that actually happened over the last 7 years.

Any Multi Billion Dollar business comes along with a lot of fighting and conflicts with regards to its founding and the same thing happened in Facebook where the Winklevoss brothers filed a case against Mark for having stole their ideas which were perfectly depicted in the movie. The movie revolves around the case hearing of the Lawsuits filed and the story is shown as each incident is told in the hearing. David Fincher, the Director of the movie along with the Scriptwriter has made the movie look very simple inspite of all the technical terms they use in the movie which a non-techy person like me would have been wondering “What the hell are these guys talking about??” Inspite of not having any Graphical/Visual tricks which most movies are using as their USP, the Director has indeed put the movie together in such a way that the movie doesn’t go slow or lag to make yourself bored.

I really liked the character played by Jesse Eisenberg who as Mark Zuckerberg really felt inside me that probably he is the real Mark, The way the dialogues were delivered were really great and thoughtful by the director as being the kind of geek he is, he had to speak everything very fast with lots of technical terms which were done perfectly. Surprise package in the movie was the appearance of Pop singer Justin Timberlake who plays the role of Sean Parker which I’m sure people who follow him would have gone crazy watching him in the big screen. Given that Facebook is what it is today I believe this has come at the right time for them to reach their next big number which is 1 Billion subscribers which is 1/7^th of the world population. Man!! That indeed is a great number which Mark and his team will die to reach!!

The movie is indeed an inspiration to many who follow Shiv Kera’s statement “Successful People don’t do different things, they do things Differently”. The movie clearly shows this as when there were websites like MySpace and Friendster, Mark went onto to see what they had never envisioned, Mark wanted to explore various other ways of attracting the crowd and Facebook has indeed successfully done it. Another interesting point to be noted is the un-willingness of Mark to make business profits out of it in the initial stage of its growth inspite of various sources of funds they were getting by way of advertisements. Eduardo Savarin, who is named as the Company’s CFO in the beginning brings in Advertisors and it was Mark who thought the subscribers would start unsubscribing to the site when they see the advertisements. The thought process really worked for Mark with his correct decision and it is only during the recent past that they have started using the marketing aspect for its growth. The Company "Facebook" is now worth $25 Billion!!

The Social Network has indeed shown the most infuential invention of this generation and will be remembered for many years to come and anyone looking for a Entrepreneurial venture in the future, this is where you can get your inspiration from.

My Formula/Rating is a 4.5/5 (Only because havent seen anyone giving a 5/5 or else it’s a perfect 5)

Obama’s Visit Brings Hope??

We all know what happened over the last few days, the News Channels were all covering the visit of the US President Barack Obama and the First Lady Michelle Obama. So much of drama existed before the President step his foot, with the 2 city’s who were waiting to welcome him were getting ready for his visit. Cleaning and painting the pavements and the roads where he was supposed to visit and all that.

I was seriously shocked at the kind of security and protection given to the President, starting from the fighter Jets accompanying the Air Force 1 through the entire voyage, the Choppers and the Bullet Proof vehicles and the 100’s of soldiers deployed for their Presidents visit. Such is the might of the leader of the World’s most powerful nation. No other leader in the world would have such facilities and protection however simple the person is. The US Govt had spend a whopping $200 million (Rs 900 crore approx) per day on Obama's visit to the country some of which included the security preparations and the entire booking of Hotel Maurya Sheraton in Delhi.I was just thinking to myself as to why not stay in that 5 star facilty machine The “Air Force One”.

I was fortunate enough to see the then President of India, APJ Abdul Kalam a few years back and was just comparing the same with that of the US President. Dr Kalam was just a few metres away who was accompanied by only a few security vehicles.

Now, Keeping aside the security I was surprised at the kind of simplicity Obama showcased in that interaction with the students of St. Xaviers and security wasn’t that a big one, but insiders revealed that out of the 300 students who were let inside the hall, each one was looked upon by militiary personnel on top of the building which was covered with Black curtains. Now this is something the media did not know or might thought it wasn’t necessary to show it to the world. The interaction went on well in the very typical Obama way wherein the questions which were very sensitive were answered smartly unlike George Bush who did not look at the impacts it would have in future.

Barack did his homework before coming into India by getting to know whatever is happening in India and increased his General Knowledge when it came to the Indian History and Culture which was evident from the Historic Speech he gave in the Parliament. He started the speech with a “Namaste”and many Indians who happened to hear his eloquent speech live were spellbound and it captured the hearts of the Indian population especially the young one’s where he stressed on the importance of the Indian Youth.

He was quoted as saying “You (young Indians) are future leaders, future educators, entrepreneurs and future electors. More than half of all Indians are under 30 years old. It is a great statistic. Every single child holds promise of greatness.” This is something every young Indian is not aware of ie like around 60 crores are under 30 years old which is a staggering figure as compared to any other country in the world. What we youngsters have to take into mind here is the never ending competition which will exist for the many years to come with India becoming a Developed Nation.

Obama’s other statement which I was very impressed was “How do you want to make the world a better place? This is your century to shape. There are powerful examples before you.” We are the people who will be leading the nation in the years to come and its our responsibility to make sure that whatever we do we do it for the sustenance of the country and the world. Obama’s on their visit to a High school in Mumbai were amazed at the students stressing on the importance of Global Warming and they were not only concerned about India, but the World as a whole

The $10 Billion deal is a gift to the Indians from the US President and it comes at a time when India is almost there at the next step to reach the ‘Developed Nation’ title. This can be used as a foundation for that great phase for India. A promise to the permenant seat at the UN Security Council is made but who knows if it will become a reality. India after that will be a country looked upon by many nations.

I don’t know if the promised made will be implemented but then Obama has indeed won the hearts of Millions of Indians!!

My formula: Don’t wait for US to give away the benefits, instead go by the respective countries Economic Policies which will built the strenght by itself like how our neighbouring country China did!!

Lets hope for the best and see to it that the promises by US are made!!

Why Work Abroad??

Last monday while i was passing through the Gemini Flyover, Chennai, which has the US Consulate right adjacent to it, I happened to see the number of youngsters ie in the late 20's standing under the hot sun in a long queue to get inside the consulate for the interview process. I was sure this group of people arent going for a vacation nor are they going for studies. I had this feeling inside me as to why are they going abroad when there are lots of opportunities here in this vast country, India. It is indeed their loss that the kind of opportunities available here are many for the next few years which no other country see it coming.Yes, I do agree at the Dollar's you can earn when you get there, but you tend to spend majority of the amount there and you end up saving nothing because of the high cost of living, which comes to the conclusion that you have to sacrify staying away from your family and relatives and you get to earn nothing as a premium for that sacrifice.

Two years back when the economic slowdown/meltdown as it was called, India was one of those countries which did not have much impact and this is because of the strong work force here in India and the nominal pay check the employees receive as compared to an average of 10 times remuneration for a person working abroad. India was one of those countries which

helped the other countries in fighting the Global Financial crisis. After the global cut down of jobs worldwide during that period there was a necessity by the International Labour Organisation of around 90 million jobs which was required for the recovery and it was India which contributed around 35 million jobs that very year. This shows how capable India is when it came to giving those extra jobs in such a situation globally. A not so technical example will explain why India was not affected with the Economic Meltdown, One being the exremely thoughtful economic policies and the other one being the pay checks received here in India as compared to the other places.For eg; A software engineer earns on an average of $1000 a month whereas abroad he would get on an average of $ 6000 a month. So, if you fire a person abroad its equal to firing 6 people here, that is something any lame man knows but we tend to just dis-regard it. Interestingly that very person earning $6000 would end

up not saving anything because of the cost of living. (I just heard from a friend of mine about a full Grill Chicken which costs here Rs 300 and costs around Rs 12000 in Japan :P Funny example but this is the truth). I have put my thoughts here and have decided to have the whole of my career here and not end up somewhere else, atleast as a young citizen the country needs me!! :P

Think about it guys, give it a thought!!

Joint Venture - A "Hands on Experience"

We all know what a Joint Venture a.k.a “Association d'entreprises” is, we have been hearing this now and then and it was indeed my luck as I was involved in a Joint Venture deal last week. Started my internships just 2 weeks back in a firm known as CPC Diagnostics Pvt Ltd ( www.cpcdiagnostics.in ) who are the pioneers in the supply of Diagnostic Products and services where they import the Instruments from Europe and the US and then supply to the Laboratories here in India. There was this discussion on having the Re-agents (which has to be used with the Instruments for its running) to have it imported in bulk and then have those packed into small bottles. The challenge of this being the import of the re agents in large containers which is riskier and dangerous as this are being transported by sea. The first task given to me was the identification of the ‘Make or Buy’ impacts ie the advantages and dis-advantages of having the packaging done here. After the analysis was done a Projected cost had to be calculated which showed that a cost decrease of 40% was possible when the ‘Make’ Option was implemented. A Balance sheet and a Profit/Loss A/c for the next 3 years had to be prepared which showed that the Break even would reach at the end of the 2^nd year which is a pretty good one when this industry is taken into consideration. The project was approved and an agreement between Awareness Technology, USA and CPC was signed. Any joint agreement should benefit both the parties and the way in which Awareness was benefited was the increase in the demand of the products which CPC will import and maintain a standard quantity which will be ordered for the next few years. My hands in this agreement were on the preparations of the documents for the JV which included the Joint Venture Agreement, Schedules such as MOA and AOA and all the relevant licenses and legal documents which as a 1^st time hands on experience gave a sense of excitement and an understanding of how an entire JV is done. Even though this is not as big a deal as the Vedanta’s or the Tata’s, as a beginner it really did give me the confidence and hope that any JV’s which could be done in the later stage of my life, I would handle it easily. I would like to thank the firm (CPC Diagnostics) for giving me a chance to prove my potential and giving the confidence which I believe no one else would give taking a pretty big deal into consideration.

Philanthropy in India!!

Warrant Buffet, Bill Gates…These two have indeed brought out a revolution and have shown their generosity by way of sharing their huge fortunes. Of the top 10 billionaires in the world, there are 3 Indians in the list and have we ever wondered why Indians are not in the news for sharing their wealth? Is it Greed for more and become richer? We have always been criticizing the Ambani’s or the Mittal’s or the Tata’s but the fact is that they are also sharing their fortune but not as big as what the Western countries have been doing. A recent article which I came across in Times Life, supplement of Times of India it clearly gave out the reasons for the non-performing of Indian Billionaires in the Philanthropy market. As per the article, “In the West, People don’t leave behind much to the family or children” as this is not the case in India as wealth is transferred to the next generation and they make it a point to accumulate as much wealth as possible during their lifetime. During my interation with Mr V.Balasubramanian, Senior Assistant Editor at Economic Times I found that there were other reasons behind this According to him, it’s the trust which Indian’s don’t have within themselves, Financial stable personnel are not sure of where the money they give for charity is going to, they fear its going the wrong hands. “Philanthropy through one’s own wealth is far interior as compared to what the rich give in the West, Indians are tight fisted”. Corporates have started their own CSR initiatives by giving money to the deserved by going down to the pyramid instead of going through other sources/agencies. Interesting to know that there are firms who have a strict policy of setting aside atleast 5% of their profits for Charity before it goes as distribution by way of dividends. If India’s richest 100 shared their wealth the way Buffet or Gates did, almost $250 Billion can be generated and this is 1/4^th of India’s current GDP. Imagine this happens, almost all the people constituting the BPL category will come above the poverty line and would indeed project India as a developed nation. This can be considered as a shortcut to success but this wouldn’t happen without the help from the Big Shots. When there are acquisitions happening and most of them happening from India especially the Vedanta’s, Tata’s, Mittals my question to them is why not acquire a majority of the population who are below the poverty line??

Recently 40 US Billionaires were asked by both Gates and Buffet to share their wealth and they agreed to give away half their wealth. Ratan Tata or Narayana Murthy in my opinion should follow the foot steps and urge other billionaires in bringing out this practice. In India the biggest act of Philanthropy is creating jobs and that’s what most of the Indian Corporates have been practicing but more needs to be done with respect to this considering the population rise in a country like India.